Zimbra Open Source Collaboration Suite

Presented by Rich Harms

Intro

Zimbra is more than just a simple mail server. It is a full collaboration suite.
Web browser client and offline client are extremely similar.
Supports IMAP and POP3 clients. Outlook, Thunderbird and the like.
Shared Calendars, document spaces and such not only within the company but with external users as well.
Powerful built-in search features.* Wiki-like document features.
Spamassassin and virus scanning built in.
Built on several other Open Source projects.
Zimlets scripting language for administrative and feature add-ons.
ZMProv utility for scripting admin tasks.
Import utility for pulling in Exchange data (licensed).

CentOS 5.2 virtual machine for the demo.
Download the OSE edition as a tgz file.
Run the included installer shell script which walks you through the install.
- Install script is text-based, and starts out with some questions.
- After the interview, it unpacks the RPMs, installs them and configures itself.
- After it unpacks and installs, there are a few more questions, then completes the install.
- At this point, you should have a basic running configuration.

Accessible via https://{siteurl}:7071/zimbraAdmin
Domains are pretty easy to set up, just a few steps configures all the services on the back end.
User setups are pretty easy. Password is not required, but you can’t log in with a null password!
Resources have their own management section.
Class of Service controls what features that client sees and can access.
Built-in IM server which uses the Jabber protocol.
Full control over what themes are available on the webmail interface.
Domains can be configured to be hosted on a specific server (clustering features).
Can also use the Zimbra server for LDAP authentication on your network to provide authentication for users on workstations.

Lots of Zimlets, or plug-ins to add features. Some which are available are Bugzilla integration, Asterisk integration, WebEx integration, etc.
Good statistics gathering and reporting interface.
Some basic Exchange integration is built in to the Open Source version. The more advanced features require licensing, though.
Rich search features for building custom searches for Admin accounts, locked out accounts, inactives, etc.
Client can pull e-mail from multiple servers such as Gmail, Yahoo, mail-enabled PBX, etc.
Works with smartphones such as the Iphone (via IMAPS).
Two-month “try before you buy” license is available for the non-OS version.

Web interface sometimes truncates HTML messages.
Most, but not all PCI requirements can be met within the configuration. Logging login failures is a bit wonky, so hard to bring into compliance.
User training can be tricky. Recommend leaving all unnecessary features disabled and only enable them as needed.
Non-core Zimlets require manual updating. No package management system for them.
Large mailboxes (10+ GB) can cause issues requiring more server-side RAM.
Be sure to install cron on your server! Zimbra will happily re-import logs, which it expects to be rotated by cron.
Backup management is missing from the OS version, but present in the licensed version.
Missing the Assigned Tasks feature Outlook/Exchange users are used to.
Exchange import wizard did not import recurring calendar appointments.