How To Install Zimbra 8.6 on Ubuntu 14.04 Part 1

This part will explain about preparation install Zimbra on Ubuntu (Ubuntu 14.04 server especially). If you want to use CentOS 6 as Zimbra server, please refer into this guidance : How To Install Zimbra on CentOS 6. Or if you want to use CentOS 7 as Zimbra server, please refer into this guidance : How To Install Zimbra on CentOS 7

For easy understanding, this is my information system

Domain     : imanudin.net
Hostname   : mail
IP Address : 192.168.1.21
Gateway    : 192.168.1.11

# Configure Network

First, we must configure network on Ubuntu. Assuming name of your network interface is eth0

vim.tiny /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.21
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.11
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.21
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.11
dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8
dns-search imanudin.net

Note :

The first dns-nameservers should refer into local IP of itself (ip of Zimbra). The second and third dns server could be configured to other dns server such as Google DNS.

Restart network service and setup for automatic boot

ifdown eth0 && ifup eth0

# Configure /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf and hostname

Open file /etc/hosts and configure as follows

127.0.0.1     localhost
192.168.1.21  mail.imanudin.net mail

Open file /etc/resolv.conf and make sure configured as follows (same as configuration of network at above)

search imanudin.net
nameserver 192.168.1.21
nameserver 192.168.1.11
nameserver 8.8.8.8

Do the following command as root to change hostname to the name mail.imanudin.net

hostnamectl set-hostname mail.imanudin.net

# Disable service sendmail or postfix (if any)

Do the following command as root

service sendmail stop
service postfix stop
update-rc.d sendmail disable
update-rc.d postfix disable

# Update repo and install packages dependencies required by Zimbra

apt-get update -y
apt-get install -y bind9 bind9utils netcat-openbsd sudo libidn11 libpcre3 libgmp10 libexpat1 libstdc++6 libperl5.18 libaio1 resolvconf unzip pax sysstat sqlite3

# Configure local DNS Server

Zimbra require lookup to MX records on domain that used. For that purpose, we can configure dns server on the same machine with Zimbra mail server

Open file /etc/bind/named.conf.local and create a zone at the bottom of file named.conf.local as follows

zone "imanudin.net" IN {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.imanudin.net";
};

Create database for a new zone who has been created in folder /etc/bind

touch /etc/bind/db.imanudin.net
chgrp bind /etc/bind/db.imanudin.net
vim.tiny /etc/bind/db.imanudin.net

fill as follows

$TTL 1D
@       IN SOA  ns1.imanudin.net. root.imanudin.net. (
                                        0       ; serial
                                        1D      ; refresh
                                        1H      ; retry
                                        1W      ; expire
                                        3H )    ; minimum
@       IN      NS      ns1.imanudin.net.
@       IN      MX      0 mail.imanudin.net.
ns1     IN      A       192.168.1.21
mail    IN      A       192.168.1.21

# Restart Service & Check results configuration of DNS Server

service bind9 restart
update-rc.d bind9 enable
nslookup mail.imanudin.net
dig imanudin.net mx

If results from above command like follows, your dns configuration has been success

[root@mail opt]# nslookup mail.imanudin.net
Server:         192.168.1.21
Address:        192.168.1.21#53
Name: mail.imanudin.net
Address: 192.168.1.21

Preparation for install Zimbra has been finished. Now we can install zimbra and will explained on part 2 😀

Good luck and hopefully useful 😀