Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders:
- Conference calls are every Tuesday and open to all using either the FreeConferenceCall.com VoIP app or via a dial-in number: https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance
- Each week’s call agenda can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUU ... Ww2fY/edit
- Constructive feedback on these call summaries is always welcome.
New Theme For The Zimbra Classic UI
Cine shared that with the release of Zextras 3.1.5 yesterday, they also released a new theme that can be deployed for either Zimbra 8.6.x and later, including 9.0, which is intended to modernize the default Classic UI included with Zimbra. It is available for download from: https://www.zextras.com/zextras-theme-zimbra-interface/ . While different than then Modern UI included with Zimbra 9, this offers a means to update the Classic UI included with both Zimbra Open Source Edition and Network Edition to a more modern look and feel. Mark S. asked if Cine anticipated Zextras would continue to release updates for this new theme, as needed. Cine said that it is planned to be packaged in to future Zextra releases automatically.
New Address Book Service
Cine said that included in the Zextras 3.1.5 release is a new address book service that can be accessed via LDAP in Outlook. This allows for users to access the Zimbra GAL (global address list) or other administrator defined address books from within Outlook. Details can be found at: https://docs.zextras.com/zextras-suite- ... sbook.html . This is considered a beta feature and Cine explained that to set it up in Outlook, it requires referencing a specific Zimbra mailbox server’s host name, if using a multi-server install of Zimbra, rather than the Zimbra proxy server (Nginx), as would normally be done for setting up a MAPI/IMAP/POP Zimbra email account in Outlook. Randy L. asked if someone setup a load balancer in front of their Zimbra cluster, could users point Outlook to the load balancer, instead of a specific mailbox server, and the address book feature would be able to redirect users to the server where their mailbox is stored, much like Nginx does for MAPI/IMAP/POP clients? Cine said he thinks this would work, but he was not sure as this use case had not been tested.
New Zextras Team Video Server
Cine said that a new Video Server is now available, which serves as a WebRTC aggregator for sound/video feeds, so that Zimbra Connect call participants will need to only have one aggregated inbound stream and one aggregated outbound stream, rather than separate streams to each call participant, thereby improving overall call performance. The Video Server also allows administrators to set limits for video/audio bandwidth used on Zimbra Connect calls. The Video Server is available in beta and more details can be found at: https://docs.zextras.com/zextras-suite- ... erver.html . While in beta, only one Video Server is currently allowed, but once it leaves beta, multiple video servers can be setup within a Zimbra install. Randy L. asked if this is foundation on which the upcoming “webinar mode” for Zimbra Connect is being built, which allows for scheduled calls, similar to Zoom, WebEx, etc. Cine said it is not the foundation, but certainly is a requirement for this upcoming feature. Randy L. asked if this eliminates the need for STUN/TURN server that was previously required for many Zimbra Connect deployments, and Cine confirmed that it does indeed remove the STUN/TURN server requirement, but said that the only use case where a TURN server is still required, when using a Video Server, is if a user’s network does not allow for UDP traffic. Mark S. asked if there is an option to restrict the range of network ports that UDP uses on the Video Server. Cine said that administrators can specify a range of high numbered UDP ports for the Video Server to use. He also explained that the Zimbra mailbox server, where Zimbra Connect is installed, connects to the Video Server over a single web socket on TCP port 8188. Mark S. commented that it would be helpful to have a document showing a list of all network ports required by the new Team Video server and Zimbra Connect, both on the server-side and client-side.
Consolidating Zimbra Mailboxes Via Restores
Mark S. said he has a customer that is trying to consolidate their Zimbra mailboxes for employees no longer with their organization in to a single common mailbox. He asked if it is possible to use the zxsuite backup/restore feature to first backup the former employees mailboxes, then restore each into a single consolidated mailbox. Cine said this is not currently possible, but has been discussed as a possible future feature with the Zextras product team. Mark said he will instead use another method, such as an IMAP synchronization to merge the mailboxes.
Missing Domain Settings
Noah P. said that after upgrading to 8.8.15 Patch 16, he began receiving some unexpected emailed alerts from his Zimbra server related to missing settings for some of the domains setup in Zimbra. He said the emails have a subject of “ZxAuth: Invalid Domains Data From server (mail store hostname)” and include the body text of: “The following domains are missing:” followed by a list of his alias domains and domains with email archiving enabled. Cine said that Zextras is looking at clarifying the text for these administrator notifications, and that it relates to domains setup in Zimbra that may be missing a public service host name, public service port number, or protocol setting. He also said that 8.8.15 Patch 16 and 9.0 Patch 9 have a known bug, where this notification is sent for alias domains too, when it was intended to only be sent for real domains. Randy L. said that he too has seen these same notifications after installing Patch 16, and was able to resolve them by filling-in one or more of the missing properties for domains that are configured for email archiving only, even though those settings will never be used by the Zimbra email archiving feature.
Mark S. suggested that adding a switch to the “zmprov getAllDomains” command would provide an easy means for Zextras to perform this check only for real domains in Zimbra, as compared to a combination of real domains, email archiving domains, and alias domains, as it currently does. John E. suggested that Mark open a new RFE (request for enhancement) with Zimbra for his suggestion. John also said that the majority of the zmprov commands are converted internally within Zimbra to SOAP requests, so implementing this change would be non-trivial, but suggested that submitting an RFE would be helpful to get a discussion started.
Follow-Up: Zimbra Multi-Server Install Issue
In the November 24th Zeta Alliance call ( viewtopic.php?f=9&t=68942&p=299848#p299848 ), Mark S. described an issue encountered when setting up a second LDAP server in a new Zimbra install. Barry D. had suggested enabling the link local IPv6 address for the Zimbra servers to resolve the issue, but upon testing this suggestion, Mark reported today that it did not appear to have any impact and the issue remains unresolved.
Upgrading From 8.8.15 Patch 16 to 9.0 Patch 9
Noah P. asked if there are many differences to be expected in upgrading from 8.8.15 Patch 16 to 9.0 Patch 9. John E. said that they are very close, and in some limited cases, there may be certain features that have been implemented in 9.0, but not yet implemented in 8.8.15 Patch 16.
TLS 1.3 Support For Nginx
John E. said that similar to the addition of TLS 1.3 support for the OpenSSL and Postfix components in Zimbra, introduced in 8.8.15 Patch 15 ( https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.8.15/P15 ) and 9.0 Patch 8 ( https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/9.0.0/P8 ), there is a possibility that TLS 1.3 support will be introduced for Nginx in Zimbra, sometime next week. He said that if anyone has an immediate need for TLS 1.3 support in Nginx in the interim, to contact Zimbra Support for further assistance.
Randy Leiker
Skyway Networks, LLC
