Recently I had the chance to implement a Zimbra Collaboration server in its Open Source version and I decided to write, describe and explain in various articles (to avoid making articles too long) what process I followed, the prerequisites to install Zimbra Collaboration 8.6, the installation and configuration and after that how to migrate emails from one server to Zimbra using ImapSync and how I migrated the contacts and calendars. I will also make one article about the most useful and important commands and functions used via command prompt to configure and administrate a Zimbra server.
Being this the first article of the series, I want to start talking about what Zimbra is.
Zimbra Collaboration 8.6
Zimbra is a collaboration suite with features such as email server, file server, and calendar and contact administration. Zimbra permits its users to access all of its features through one single web interface, it is compatible with proprietary clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail and provides native support for two way synchronization for mobile devices.
Zimbra does come in to variants: Zimbra Collaboration Network Edition and Zimbra Collaboration Open Source Edition. The main differences are that the Network Edition requires a paid license, and includes some extra features compared to the Open Source Edition such as native support for ActiveSync and EWS, backups and restoration while the Open Source Edition is free, works perfectly and the missing extra features can be added in different ways. To see all differences between the different versions, you can click here.
My opinion at this moment
Mi personal opinion about Zimbra is that it is a stable and robust platform, that works flawlessly no matter what device is being used. It is easy and intuitive to use, and since I implemented it, it hasn´t caused any major issues. It is true that the Open Source version has some disadvantages, as for example that it does not allow to delegate administrative tasks (such as user creation) to other users unless they are made Super Administrators, or that it doesn´t natively support ActiveSync or EWS. These features are build into the Network Edition, but there are third party extensions that allow to add them.
So there you have it. This is Zimbra, and in the coming articles I´ll explain the prerequisites, how to install and configure it and some useful things more.