Upgrading from OSS on Suse10.0 to Network Edition

[Dirk]

So, I've been using Zimbra for some time now and it's going great, but we are seriously looking into upgrading the the full Network Edition product.

I just decided to go ahead and download the 60 day eval and install it on my smaller home installation so I could practice in advance of deploying it at work when I noticed a problem.

Both my home/development system and the work/production system run on Open Suse 10.0, both are at Zimbra 4.5.1. The problem is that I only see versions of the NE for SLES9 and RHEL4, I'm not interested in ubuntu as it's early days there.

So, how on earth would I go about upgrading to NE?

Can I backup the current install, format the server with a supported OS, install zimbra NE, restore backup of OSS on the NE to get the data back and then reinstall the NE? Sounds like the only way, but feels like a cludge.

Also, given that funds for the IT dept are always tight, and that NE has a cost to it, why do I have to run it on an OS that also has a cost? SLES and RHEL aint free, right?

If the OSS version runs on such a range of distributions, why is the NE so limited?

I'd really appreciate some feedback on this one, I've mailed the zimbra sales team about pricing but had no response yet, but if the upgrade to NE is best part of impossible, that wont matter!

Also, any chance of Zimbra giving very limited versions of NE to existing customers? By this I mean that if we upgrade the 50 user version in work to NE and pay for it, it would be handy to get a second license that supports like three accounts only so I could put it on my home server, this allows me to become more proficient with the product, just as I do with the OSS. Hey, it's an idea.

[phoenix]

There is a version of Zimbra for openSuSE 10 - you can use that if it's just for a test system. I would recommend you don't use it in production as the support for openSuSE will cease when the SLES 10 version of Zimbra is released.

As for the upgrade, it's just a case of running it over the OSS version. You have to run it on RHEL or SLES because Zimbra don't provide operating system support, that should be provided by the o/s vendor.

[Dirk]

When I click the link to apply for a 60day trial verstion of the Network edition, the final box on the form is for operating system, and it does not list Suse. The 'submit' button is labeled something like 'send me my download link' which I assume will be operating system specific. So if I cannot select suse, how do I download it?

Being able to install the network edition onto our existing Suse10.0/4.5.1OSS installation will greatly simplify moving the whole thing onto a new platform, as the existing one can be upgraded in one go and the real backup options provided in NE can be used to restore onto a new server running something like RHEL.

I appreciate the response Phoenix, but unfortunatly it does not seem to answer any of my questions. You say the upgrade is a simple matter of installing it over the existing OSS install, but then say it must be ran on a different platform, and now I'm more confused than when I started.

[gmsmith]

Originally Posted by Dirk

When I click the link to apply for a 60day trial verstion of the Network edition, the final box on the form is for operating system, and it does not list Suse. The 'submit' button is labeled something like 'send me my download link' which I assume will be operating system specific. So if I cannot select suse, how do I download it?

Being able to install the network edition onto our existing Suse10.0/4.5.1OSS installation will greatly simplify moving the whole thing onto a new platform, as the existing one can be upgraded in one go and the real backup options provided in NE can be used to restore onto a new server running something like RHEL.

I appreciate the response Phoenix, but unfortunatly it does not seem to answer any of my questions. You say the upgrade is a simple matter of installing it over the existing OSS install, but then say it must be ran on a different platform, and now I'm more confused than when I started.

The openSuse 10 version can be downloaded here, but I think phoenix was mentioning that support for openSUSE in the Network Edition will be halted when the SLES10 support is announced.

So you can upgrade your openSUSE version with the link above, but plan to migrate to a continually supported OS moving forward. My personal favorite is RHEL, but to each their own.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Dirk

I appreciate the response Phoenix, but unfortunatly it does not seem to answer any of my questions. You say the upgrade is a simple matter of installing it over the existing OSS install, but then say it must be ran on a different platform, and now I'm more confused than when I started.

There are a couple of routes you could take. First, you can run the upgrade on the OSS system and it will upgrade the OSS version to the NE version - that was just a statement on how to upgrade OSS to NE. You could upgrade your current system to NE then backup-up everything with the NE backup and restore it to a new machine - that would be my choice. The alternative would be to move your OSS version to the new hardware and upgrade on that.

The move to new hardware and/or back-up/restore of a system has been covered in the forums and wiki a couple of times. You will need to move to a new supported o/s though.

[Dirk]

Ah, right there's the elusive suse10 NE Ok, so that looks like the right way to go then, upgrade to NE, use the NE backup to get a solid backup of the system then rebuild the OS to a supported one and reinstall and restore.

Sounds like a fun hour!

I'd better get started looking into licensing costs for RHEL or SLES then. Thanks for the responses guys. With luck I can get management to sign off on the os charges as well as the NE charges.

[phoenix]

A couple of points to consider. When you do the restore from you shiny new NE backup, it must be to the same release level of Zimbra as the initial backup. I'd also suggest taking a clone of your system so you can restore quickly just-in-case, you have any problems you shouldn't but.....