Zimbra
Here are some common questions about Zimbra.
Zimbra offers two different Technical Support levels:
- Standard Support - Business-Hours support only, not intended for high-visibility production platforms
- Premier Support - In addition to Standard Business Hours support, includes 24 × 7 support for Severity-1 issues
For more details about Zimbra Support please see:
See Compare Zimbra Editions, or download the PDF.
Zimbra Editions Feature List (PDF) Zimbra Collaboration Suite Data Sheet (PDF) Compare the Zimbra Community (free & open source) and Zimbra Network Editions
Zimbra provides a full range of technical documentation, see Zimbra Documentation.
Packt Publishing have also published this book, "Zimbra: Implement, Administer and Manage".
Guides and other documentation for Zimbra is available at https://www.zimbra.com/product/documentation/
Yes!
Zimbra is available as a free 60 day trial which can be installed on your own server. Trial editions are available in VMWare Appliance or a installation. During your trial, you have the added benefit of support from both Agileware and the Zimbra team. A perfect no-risk option if you want to evaluate, load-test or even start migrating users in your organisation. The trial provides Zimbra Professional Edition.
Please contact us to receive a Zimbra 60 day trial license key.
Yes, see Zimbra's Customer Success Stories.
Check out the videos on Zimbra Demonstrations.
Yes, the latest documentation is available here, Zimbra Collaboration Suite Data Sheet (PDF)
No, this is not possible. Software packages, configuration and data storage is updated when an upgrade is performed and this cannot be reverted.
Not natively since Zimbra requires a Linux or *nix based operating system. However, you can run Zimbra just fine within a Virtual Machine on top of a Windows server host.
Yes, when you purchase Zimbra a new license key will be emailed to you. Just install the new license key and you are right to go! No software re-installation required, data remains intact.
No, the upgrade process requires downtime for the Zimbra server.
Yes you can use the server for other functions. Zimbra installs all the necessary software required to function and so there will be Port conflicts between such common applications as LDAP, web and email services if they are already on the server. The solution in this case is to have the services run on either unique ports or bind to different IP addresses.
No, all you need is a modern Web Browser.
No, the Zimbra webmail client will automatically prompt users to reload their Zimbra webmail after an upgrade.
No. As Zimbra is software which runs on your hardware the size per mailbox depends entirely on what hard drive space is available. You can, through the Zimbra web administration console, assign a quota per mailbox but this is entirely dependent on your business requirements and is not part of Zimbra licensing.
Zimbra backups are performed LIVE, the server remains operational and accessible, this is a unique feature of Zimbra Network Edition. The Zimbra full backup process places the account’s mailbox in maintenance mode to temporarily block mail delivery and user access to that mailbox. and Returns that account’s mailbox to active mode and moves on to the next one. For more details see the Zimbra Administration Guide.
Windows, Mac, Linux. Pretty much any OS that has an upto date Web Browser, IMAP or POP3 email client or can interface with MS Exchange. See Desktop compatibility for more details.
This is just a matter of right-clicking on the contacts folder and sharing it.
Zimbra performs a “hot” backup (no downtime). By default, two full backups are performed each week. With daily incremental backup (about 10% size). Backups are retained for 2 weeks. As a guide, reserve x2.5 total mailstore size for backup storage (plan for growth!). Both users and administrators can restore mailboxes from backups easily. It is a simple point'n click action. Backups can be restored to point in time, to a new mailbox or restore to the active mailbox.
Order fulfilment is 3 to 5 business days. You will be emailed a Zimbra license key directly from Zimbra. You then install the license key on your Zimbra server using the Zimbra Web Administration Panel.
This is highly dependent on the number of mailboxes and Zimbra servers in your organisation as well as any customisation that may have been performed. For a single Zimbra server in an organisation for 25 to 900 mailboxes the upgrade process takes 30 to 45 minutes.
As a guide, reserve x2.5 total mailstore size for backup storage (plan for growth!).
Zimbra upgrades are released every 2 to 3 months and include bug fixes as well as new features. Patches are released for critical security issues, as required. The release schedule for Zimbra is available in the Zimbra Product Management Portal and provides details of all bugs, features and the corresponding release schedule.
Daily. Two full backups are performed weekly and an incremental backup is performed every day.
Sure! See this page, Zimbra Single Server Installation.
Zimbra has a lot of security features and out of the box, running on a properly configured Linux server with secure passwords Zimbra is very secure. Read this page for more details, Zimbra security.
Information on how to import Microsoft Outlook PST files into Zimbra are listed below.
- Read up on the Upgrade and Migration Resources section
- User Migration
- Zimbra Outlook PST Import Wizard Tips
Yes, visit the Zimbra website for details on their official Zimbra Administration training courses.
See the following guides from Zimbra:
Features of the Zimbra server will be disabled such as backups, mailbox search, mobile integration and Microsoft Outlook Connector (if Professional Edition).
You need to renew your license.
Reach out to our team for assistance.
Try Zimbra desktop - it's free! The free Zimbra Desktop client allows you to meld the online and offline worlds – storing and synching your email, calendar, contacts, files and documents in the cloud, yet having them locally accessible when on the road. Zimbra Desktop aggregates information across accounts (Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) and social networks (Facebook, Digg, X, etc.) to help make communicating & sharing information easier than ever.
Benefits to system administrators Benefits to end users Enterprise-class Zimbra security features
Zimbra Mobile is the component of Zimbra that provides the mobile phone synchronisation using the Microsoft ActiveSync, Apple iSync protocol and Blackberry. Zimbra Mobile is included with Zimbra Standard or Professional Edition, at no additional cost.
- Schedule downtime for the Zimbra server.
- Perform a complete backup of the Zimbra server data.
- Download the latest Zimbra upgrade.
- Install the upgrade over the existing installation.
- Check results.
The actual Zimbra upgrade process itself can take 30 to 45 minutes or more depending on the size of the installation, number of servers, complexity etc.
Check here for a complete list of supported operating systems for Zimbra.
New features, bug fixes, integrated software upgrades, and security fixes. For critical security fixes a patch is released sooner.
If you want to enable this option for ALL users in your domain, then this is done in the Zimbra Administration GUI by updating the relevant Class of Service configuration. If you want to enable this option for an individual account by changing their mailbox preferences.
Backups are stored in /opt/zimbra/backup. This directory should be included in a off-site or off-server backup regime.
See the Zimbra roadmap for upcoming features.
Also try the Zimbra BugZilla page which contains details on bug reports.
Zimbra product management portal - find out about new features and upcoming releases
Zimbra Bugzilla - submit bugs or feature requests for Zimbra and track progress
Zimbra Community Forums - active and supportive Zimbra community
Zimbra Wiki - topics contributed from the Zimbra community
Follow the links to download from the Zimbra website.
No, there is no extra cost to deploy additional Zimbra servers. You can have as many Zimbra servers as you require. Licensing is based on the total number of mailboxes in your organisation.
Licensing
For questions regarding Licensing Zimbra.
Yes, you can purchase mixed licenses of any combination. The minimum purchase units is 25 mailboxes for each type of license.
Yes, you can purchase a Zimbra license subscription for 1, 2 or 3 years. You can also purchase a perpetual license for Zimbra which is significantly cheaper should you plan on using Zimbra for 2+ years.
The Zimbra Perpetual license is a nontransferable right to use the license for the number of mailboxes in the agreement. At the end of the 1st year from the date of issuance of the Zimbra license key and provided that support is still generally available, customer can pay a maintenance fee to continue to receive support, upgrades and updates or can continue to use the then current version for the number of license mailboxes in perpetuity for no additional fees.
If you need additional Zimbra mailbox licenses then you just submit an order for the number of additional licenses required in units of 25 mailboxes. The minimum order quantity is 25 mailboxes. Agilemail will process the order and then you will be issued with an updated Zimbra license. This new license includes existing plus the additional licenses. Fees are not prorated, instead any difference in fees are discounted against the next license renewal.
Zimbra is licensed either on an yearly subscription (1, 2 or 3 years options available) or a perpetual license with annual support. The cost for renewing the yearly subscription is the same as the initial subscription cost. There is no renewal for a perpetual license, instead you can choose to renew the annual support to continue to access Zimbra support and newer versions of Zimbra software.
25 mailboxes minimum for all other Zimbra Editions.
Zimbra Professional Edition includes support for Microsoft Outlook.
Zimbra Standard Edition or Zimbra Professional Edition provide Windows Mobile phone integration.
On-premises
Common questions regarding Zimbra hosted on-premises.
Refer to the System Requirements on the Zimbra Documentation page, https://www.zimbra.com/product/documentation/
Yes, you can have as many Zimbra servers as you require. There is no additional cost for deploying multiple Zimbra servers. To install multiple Zimbra servers, please see the Zimbra multi-server installation guide.
Hosting
General hosting questions.
Yes, you can run multiple domain names on your Zimbra server and this does not cost more. Zimbra is licensed on a per mailbox basis. So you can have multiple domains delivering email to the same mailbox and the mailbox can have multiple email addresses which email is sent from.
For example: fred@example1.com fred@example2.com fred@example3.com fred@example4.com fred@example5.com sam@example5.com bob@example5.com.
Can be configured to ALL deliver to Fred's mailbox Fred can then send from any of the fred@example[1 .. 5].com or bob@ or sam@ domains.