PPC64LE support

[kandarpam]

Hello There,

We were trying to build the Zimbra for PPC64LE architecture (on CentOs8).

With minor changes I am able to build (using https://github.com/Zimbra/zm-build) it and could generate the package (zcs-8.7.6_GA_1713.RHEL8_64.20200706143726.tgz).

Made some changes in the installation script to work.
I observed error while installing the generated package on CentOs8 with PPC64Le docker container.

Please find the following in attachments:
Installation logs -> InstallLog.txt.
Errors observed while downloading the packages from repo -> RepoLogs.txt

From the logs, I could say that, it is trying to install the x86_64 package on the container and failed to do that.

Does Zimbra have support for PPC64LE ?
If so, can anyone provide the repo details for the same?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Kandarpa

[kandarpam]

Any updates on this are very much appreciated.

Regards,
Kandarpa

[barrydegraaff]

PPC is not a supported architecture, you can find the supported archs on the download page at zimbra.com. But they are all 64bit x86

[kandarpam]

Thanks for the response.

We understand that ppc64le is not currently a supported architecture, as there are IBM Power (ppc64le) users interested in Zimbra, we would be interested in contributing changes to enable the ppc64le support.
To that end we have been looking at understanding what would be the effort and this is where we are currently.

Following is the current status:

1. With some minor changes, we were able to build the zm-build and generate the FOSS build for the ZCS for Power (PPC64LE).
2. We started building third-party packages which are available at “https://github.com/Zimbra/packages” on Power.
3. As these packages have inter dependency and needed a rpm repository for building some of the packages, We followed below way:
   1. Created a directory, made it as local repository using “createrepo” and added an entry into “/etc/yum.repos.d/”.
   2. After building each package, added the rpm into the local repository, so that the package, rpm will be available for the next dependent package.
4. By making some minor code & configuration changes, we were able to build all the third-party packages on Power architecture.
5. Currently we are checking the installation of the generated packages.

So, for the most part it looks like things will mostly work as is on Power if the rpm repositories are setup correctly.

Please let us know your thoughts on this and if there are any specific challenges you want us to look at from this perspective.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Kandarpa

[kandarpam]

Hi There,

By making some changes, we were able to install and configure the ZCS on ppc64le architecture.

Please let us know your thoughts on supporting ppc for ZCS.

Regards,
Kandarpa

[jeastman]

Hi kandarpam,

I have seen a pull request (https://github.com/Zimbra/zm-build/pull/156) associated with ppc64le support which has been hanging around for some time. I believe this is currently held up with our Product team.

I imagine that ppc64le is not a platform which would be "officially" supported, as there is not a large demand for the platform and the team is not equipped to validate it from a quality perspective. That fact aside, there are other "un-official" platforms supported by the build and the proposed changes should have no effect on the "official" builds.

I will raise the issue with the Zimbra Product team to see if I can get someone to look at your request.

Regards,

[bankislami]

Hi There,

This is BankIslami we have deployed Zimbra in our Organization for the last 10 years, we are the first to make this deployment in our region. It would be great if this support is provided for PPC64LE. It would help our cause in a huge manner.

Regards,

BankIslami