Zimbra

Exchange ActiveSync for Zimbra Open Source Edition

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If you want to obtain Exchange ActiveSync ability on your Zimbra Open Source Edition, you can integrate Zimbra and Z-push + Zimbra Backend. With it, you can synchronize email, contacts, and calendars between Zimbra and your mobile device.

This article only for Zimbra that installing Single Server. If you have Zimbra with multi-server installation, I recommend you to install Z-push + Zimbra Backend on a separate server.

This guidance has been tested on Zimbra 8.8.12 – 8.8.15

# Install dependencies

For CentOS 7

yum install epel-release -y
yum install git php-cli php-soap php-process php-mbstring -y

For Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04

apt update -y
apt install git php-cli php-soap php-cgi php-mbstring php-curl -y

Clone repo

git clone https://github.com/imanudin11/zcs-zpush.git
cd zcs-zpush/

Create folder for log

mkdir /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push
chmod 755 /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push
chown zimbra:zimbra /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push

Save z-push folder on /opt/

cp -rvf z-push /opt/

Note : I use Asia/Jakarta as my Timezone. Please open /opt/z-push/config.php and adjust/change Asia/Jakarta to your Timezone

Create symlink

ln -sf /opt/z-push /opt/zimbra/jetty/webapps/

Save php script on /usr/bin

cp php-cgi-fix.sh /usr/bin/php-cgi-fix.sh
chmod +x /usr/bin/php-cgi-fix.sh

Change publicHostname domain on your Zimbra into localhost

su - zimbra -c 'zmprov md yourzimbradomain.tld zimbraPublicServiceHostname localhost zimbraPublicServiceProtocol https'

Note : If you have more than 1 domain, and that domain want to use Exchange ActiveSync, you should run above command for each domains

# Backup and replace jetty.xml.in

For Zimbra 8.8.6

cp /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in.backup
cp jetty.xml.in-for-zcs-886 /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in
chown zimbra.zimbra /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in

For Zimbra 8.8.7

cp /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in.backup
cp jetty.xml.in-for-zcs-887 /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in
chown zimbra.zimbra /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in

For Zimbra 8.8.8 – Zimbra 8.8.12

cp /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in.backup
cp jetty.xml.in-for-zcs-888-8812 /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in
chown zimbra.zimbra /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in

For Zimbra 8.8.15

cp /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in.backup
cp jetty.xml.in-for-zcs-8815 /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in
chown zimbra.zimbra /opt/zimbra/jetty/etc/jetty.xml.in

# Add zpush.ini into php

For CentOS 7

cp zpush.ini /etc/php.d/zpush.ini

For Ubuntu 16.04

cp zpush.ini /etc/php/7.0/cgi/conf.d/10-zpush.ini

For Ubuntu 18.04

cp zpush.ini /etc/php/7.2/cgi/conf.d/10-zpush.ini

Restart Zimbra Mailbox

su - zimbra -c 'zmmailboxdctl restart'

For testing, please access https://ip-of-zimbra/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync from your browser. Log in with your Zimbra account. If it works, you can see the output as below. Or you can configure your mail apps on mobile devices and ensure choose exchange/activesync

56 comments

  2. Hi Ahmad, your tutorials are great! Thank you. I’ve tried to get this work, but something is not right, the schedules and the e-mails not pushing to the phones. I’m using Ubuntu 18.04.03 with the latest Zimbra build.

    Reply

    1. Hi Tamas,
      Please make sure your mobile phone :
      – Enable sync
      – Please choose Automatic (Push) on Sync frequency. This configuration is there on your Mail client apps

      Reply

  3. I tried, but it does not work in Centos 7 and the latest version of zimbra

    HTTP ERROR 404

    Problem accessing /service/extension/zimbrasync. Reason:

    Not Found

    Reply

  4. Dear,
    We are using single server, 8.8.15P3 on Centos 7.7 with 4 vCPU and 8GB RAM. Server will serve about 200-300 accounts. Do you think we can have z-push on this spec?
    Many thanks and best regards,
    Minh.

    Reply

  6. Hello,

    Seems something wrong.

    I get :

    . * * Consult LICENSE file for details ************************************************/ ob_start(null, 1048576); // ignore user abortions because this can lead to weird errors – see ZP-239 ignore_user_abort(true); require_once ‘vendor/autoload.php’; if (!defined(‘ZPUSH_CONFIG’)) define(‘ZPUSH_CONFIG’, ‘config.php’); include_once(ZPUSH_CONFIG); // Attempt to set maximum execution time ini_set(‘max_execution_time’, SCRIPT_TIMEOUT); set_time_limit(SCRIPT_TIMEOUT); try { // check config & initialize the basics ZPush::CheckConfig(); Request::Initialize(); ZLog::Initialize(); ZLog::Write(LOGLEVEL_DEBUG,”——– Start”); ZLog::Write(LOGLEVEL_DEBUG, sprintf(“cmd=’%s’ devType=’%s’ devId=’%s’ getUser=’%s’ from=’%s’ version=’%s’ method=’%s'”, Request::GetCommand(), Request::GetDeviceType(), Request::GetDeviceID(), Request::GetGETUser(), Request::GetRemoteAddr(), @constant(‘ZPUSH_VERSION’), Request::GetMethod() )); // always request the authorization header if (! R………………..

    Reply

      1. Hello Iman,
        I noticed that your z-push source version is 2.3.4, while there’s now v2.5.1 final available.
        I’m going to experiment the “source” way (i.e. procedure outlined on your article) replacing your z-push subdir with the updated source from here https://stash.z-hub.io/projects/ZP/repos/z-push/browse/src?at=refs%2Ftags%2F2.5.1 (plus, of course, the Zimbra backend v68).
        May I fork your GitHub repo for this activity?
        Additionally, I believe that it isn’t strictly necessary to set zimbraPublicServiceHostname to “localhost”, you should instead whitelist the server’s public IP address within the Zimbra’s DoSFilter configuration section, as explained here https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/DoSFilter
        Does this sound correct to you?

        Reply

        1. Hello Ferdinando,
          Sure. You can fork my GitHub repo and it’s open. zimbraPublicServiceHostname refers to the localhost because I define localhost on ZIMBRA_URL config. So, the log is clean and not appear warning about ZIMBRA_URL

          Reply

          1. Yes, I noticed that, reviewing the various configurations files.
            I was only concerned (as a Zimbra newbie) about possible negative interactions with other Zimbra services of setting “public hostname” to localhost.

  8. Hello Iman,

    This solution for Exchange Active-Sync for Zimra open source is great help. However, one problem with setting the Hostname as “localhost” (zimbraPublicServiceHostname localhost) is that one of the Admin Zimlet (com_zimbra_viewmail) stopped working. It uses the Hostname to open the mailbox for a user and now it is unable to do so.
    Can you help solve this problem?

    Reply

  9. Hi there thank you for the guide, as for the zpush version it seems that it’s on 2.3.4 the current version is 2.5 is there a possibility to upgrade it?

    Reply

  10. Thank you for the reply, as for the localhost i ran the command but how to revert it back? and whitelist ?

    su – zimbra -c ‘zmprov md mail.domain.com zimbraPublicServiceHostname localhost zimbraPublicServiceProtocol https’

    Thank you

    Reply

  11. Hi Iman,

    Your guide works fine and ActiveSync was set up correctly.

    I’m on version 8.8.15, but ActiveSync breaks when proxy port is changed from 443.

    I want to change proxy port to 9444 then use a reverse proxy to serve clients on port 443.

    Can you please help out.

    Thanks,
    Darren

    Reply

    1. Hi Darren Ramen,
      In this article, ActiveSync listen on Jetty. It’s mean ActiveSync active on mailbox services. If you have reverse proxy, you can try pointing to port 8080 or 8443 where service mailbox listen

      Reply

  12. Hi Iman,

    Thanks for the instructions for setting up Activesync for Zimbra! Iphone mail/calender apps work line a charm.

    Do you know if Outlook App for iPhone is supported? The only error I get is “Can not sign in”. I’m using Patch 8.8.15_P8 on Ubuntu 18.04.4 64b.

    Reply

  13. Hi Iman,

    Thank you for this nice post.
    I configured and it worked well in my environment. However, it seems the internal GAL is not syncing with PC Outlook. At the same time, email contact is syncing properly in mobile default app and webmail.
    Could you please help me on this?

    Reply

  14. Morning Iman,

    The best informative guide I have seen out there. Great work.
    Just a quick question, I noticed z-push showing zimbra IP for all the devices connected via activesysnc rather than the actual IP. This makes it tricky to implement Fail2Ban etc.
    In z-push “config.php” I have included define(‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’, ‘HTTP_X_REAL_IP’) or define(‘USE_X_FORWARDED_FOR_HEADER’, true); however I have not been able to get real IP of the devices.
    Do you have any trick up your sleeve how to fix this?
    Thanks Mate.

    Reply

    1. Hi Chris,
      Please run the following command zmprov mcf +zimbraMailTrustedIP 127.0.0.1 +zimbraMailTrustedIP {IP of nginx-1}
      zmmailboxdctl restart

      Reply

      1. Hi Iman,
        Tried that but still showing the local IP address of zimbra server and not real IP address of the device.

        Reply

      3. Thank you for the highest quality article.

        What parameter should I use in config.php to have the real ip?
        I tried in some ways and I couldn’t.
        Thank you

        Reply

  15. Can you help me resolve this?

    I am getting this error

    Problem accessing /z-push/index.php. Reason:

    Failed to exec CGI

    I am running this on CentOS 8 and Zimbra 9 OSS

    Reply

  17. Hi Ahmad, i tried to install Z-Push on my 8.8.15 Machine but i can’t get it work 🙁
    When i try to login all i get is:

    Z-Push – Open Source ActiveSync
    Version 2.3.4
    AuthenticationRequiredException
    Access denied. Please send authorisation information

    z-push.log:

    [FATAL] [unknown] Exception: (AuthenticationRequiredException) – Access denied. Please send authorisation information
    Zimbra->Logon(): END Logon – Proxy Error { connected = false }
    25/08/2020 22:58:10 [30946] [ INFO] […] AuthenticationRequiredException: Access denied. Proxy unable to initiate a session on user mailbox server – code: 0 – file: /opt/z-push/backend/zimbra/zimbra.php:1208

    I hope you have an idea. I use Ubuntu 18.04 with php 7.4

    Reply

  18. Hi Iman,

    Your guide works just fine with ActiveSync (Outlook mobile and Windows client) so far using Zimbra OSE 8.8.15 on Ubuntu 18.04

    Trying make autodiscover to work but my mail.zimbradomain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml getting:

    Problem accessing /z-push/index.php. Reason:

    Failed to exec CGI

    Any hints?

    Reply

  19. Hi! I installed z-push according to your instructions, please tell me how to set the limit for sending attachments. Emails with 20MB attachments remain in outgoing folder Outlook

    Reply

      1. Hi Iman, thanks for reply. I set zimbraMtaMaxMessageSize to 40960 and change php.ini (/etc/php.ini and /opt/zimbra/conf/php.ini) parameters upload_max_filesize and post_max_size to 40M. After that I run zmcontrol restart but I cannot sent 18Mb attachment from outlook, message stay at outgoing folder

        Reply

      1. I got it working finally.
        But I found that GAL and Calendars do not appear in Outlook 2016. If I understood correctly only shared contacts and calendars (folders) will work. Is it true?

        Thank you for help!

        Reply

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