Zimbra Collaboration Suite is one of the best mail solution in the open source category. Because you don't have to install individual MTA's, web mail like squirrel mail or roundcube etc ... ZCS is simply a suite which installs every thing you need for a complete mail solution.

Today we'll see how to install ZCS 8 on a CentOS 6.4. Before we get started make sure you have below things ready.

System Requirements :
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 64 -bit CPU
  • 5 GB free space for /opt (15 GB is better ) 
  • Machine installed with CentOS 64-bit
  • DNS server with MX record
  • Download the ZCS package  from website
  • Disable firewall and Selinux
  • Stop postfix and disable at startup too.
Now check the internet connectivity since we need to install few packages from repositories. Below three are the packages required by zimbra, if any other is missing you'll come to know by error message and can install .

[root@zimbra ~]# yum install perl nc sysstat -y

Check below files and setup network settings

[root@zimbra ~]# vi /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
192.168.85.8   zimbra.gil.com     zimbra
[root@zimbra ~]# vi /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=zimbra.gil.com

[root@zimbra ~]# vi /etc/resolve.conf
nameserver 192.168.85.2

Before starting installation check the dns and MX record, becuse it's very important.
[root@zimbra ~]# host -t MX gil.com
zimbra.gil.com mail is handled by 10 zimbra.gil.com.

Now we have proper DNS  and

Untar the ZCS package

[root@zimbra ~]# tar -xvf
zcs-8.0.3_GA_5664.RHEL6_64.20130305090204.tgz

Note : One thing i noticed during the installation was, zimbra showing mail id as user@zimbra.gil.com instead of user@gil.com , so what i do is temporarily remove the dns server ip, so that it wont resolve the server ip and asks us to enter domain name, then we can simply enter our domin name as gil.com. so that we  can get rid of this kind of issues.

Now start the installation.

Untar the ZCS package

[root@zimbra ~]#cd zcs-8.0.3_GA_5664.RHEL6_64.2010305090204
[root@zimbra  ~]# ./install.sh --platform-override

When you find DNS can't resolve error simply type your domain name.

Hit enter for default options


Hit 'Y' for install


Select ' 3 '


here you have to set zimbra admin password and hit enter, it takes few minutes to complete the installtion, simply relax and wait.

After installation set the DNS ip back to normal.

below are the urls.

Admin Console:     https://<FQDN>:7071/zimbraAdmin  
Web mail:              https://<FQDN>/

That's it.
gil...