March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

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rleiker
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March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

Post by rleiker »

Hello Zimbra Community,

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: March 3, 2020 Conference Call Summary

Proposed Nextcloud Integration for Zimbra 9 and Zimbra X
Barry demonstrated a prototype Zimlet that integrates access to Nextcloud within Zimbra 9 and Zimbra X via an HTML iframe. This avoids the time consuming effort of needing to write a Zimlet that integrates each feature individually from the Nextcloud API. He has suggested this Zimlet for inclusion in 9 and X to the Zimbra product/development team. Barry said that for each Zimlet that he writes, he is currently putting more focus on scalability, before features. Mark S. asked if Barry’s Nextcloud prototype could work in the instance where a customer has an on-premise Nextcloud installation, but they are using a cloud-hosted instance of Zimbra. Barry said that this should be possible and discussed a few of the configuration options needed in the Nextcloud configuration file to make this possible.

Zimlet Road Map
Mark S. said that one of the challenges he currently faces with his customers is clarity on which features Synacor plans to support in the future within Zimbra, so that features that will soon be deprecated are not promoted. John E. said he is pushing internally within Synacor to get a Zimlet road map published so that Synacor can communicate the Zimlet priorities that have been identified so far from Zimbra customers. He also said there is a parallel effort being made to get the product documentation updated too for the upcoming launch of Zimbra 9. John said that 16 of the 36 Zimlets are now finalized and have internally published timelines of which quarter this year they will become generally available for Zimbra 9 and X.

Suggestions for Zimbra Patch Release Notes
John E. shared a follow-up from last week’s call regarding feedback from Mark S. about an alternative way to format each patch’s release notes document so that it is easier to determine which Zimbra services need to be restarted, following the installation of a patch. John said that there is an internal discussion taking place at Synacor about a more user friendly way of presenting this information. Randy L. said that another issue with the current release notes format is that changes required in earlier patch versions are repeatedly included in all subsequent patch release notes documents, making it difficult to determine what changes a given patch actually requires. For example, even though Zimbra Chat & Zimbra Talk were replaced with Zimbra Connect in an earlier version of Zimbra some time ago, this change is repeatedly included in all release notes documents since that time. Randy suggested changing the format of the release notes document so that text headers are used to more effectively group this information together, for example: “If upgrading from Zimbra 8.8.12 P1”. Each group could then provide upgrade notes specific to coming from a given earlier Zimbra version to the current patch version. Mark S. said that another point of confusion is that Synacor assumes Zimbra admins with multi-node Zimbra installations will know which Zimbra nodes (LDAP, MTA, Proxy, Mailbox Stores) need to be updated for a patch. For example, a Zimbra admin who applies a patch to an LDAP node, when the patch is designed to fix an issue with a Network Module NG component will see an error message when installing the patch, since Network Module NG is not normally installed on an LDAP node. This can mislead the Zimbra admin in to wondering if the patch failed to install properly.

New Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO) Version Coming Soon
John H. said a new ZCO version is expected to be released in the next few weeks that will fix at least 3 different causes of crashes that currently affect Outlook. He also said that bugs present in Windows 10 and Office 365 related to searches in Outlook are known to currently cause crashes and that Zimbra has a support case open with Microsoft to determine the root cause.

Possible Bug with Recurring Calendar Events
Randy L. reported on an issue discovered by one of his customers where recurring calendar invites sent from the Office 365 version of Outlook for Mac using Exchange Web Services (EWS) do not consistently appear on the expected day and time for the invitees of the calendar event. This issue does not appear to affect calendar invitees for one-time events. Calendar invitees have reported that the recurring events appear a number of hours earlier or later than when the event organizer scheduled the event. This issue also appears to affect Zimbra Web Client users, who accept a recurring calendar invite from an organizer using Outlook for Mac. All of the calendar invitees were in the same time zone, and time zone settings on both the organizer’s and invitees’ computers were confirmed correct. John E. and John H. shared some details of the iCalendar invite message that can be examined to try and identify the root cause. John E. also reported that Synacor is currently in the process of performing testing of calendar apps for cross-client compatibility. John said that Zimbra currently supports these interfaces for processing calendar invites: SOAP API, CalDAV, Internet Free/Busy, ActiveSync, and Exchange Web Services. So far, Synacor’s testing has shown that compatibility issues have appeared mainly within CalDAV clients (example: Apple Calendar), and that compatibility seems to vary between versions of each calendar app.

Forcing Zimbra LDAP to Use TLS
Barry asked if anyone knew how to force TLS connections to and from Zimbra LDAP. Mark S. provided some Zimbra local configuration value settings. This Wiki article discusses these settings: https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/TLS/STARTT ... fig_Values
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Re: March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

Post by rleiker »

Hello Zimbra Community,

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: March 10, 2020 Conference Call Summary

Daylight Savings Time (North America) / Summer Time (Europe)
With the recent start of Daylight Savings Time in most of North America on March 8th, and the upcoming start of Summer Time in Europe on March 29th, this creates a temporary time difference between the two continents causing some to join the weekly call an hour earlier or later than normal. To address this issue, everyone on the call agreed to join the upcoming March 17th & 24th conference calls at the usual time (https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance) while those calling in from Europe will join the call an hour earlier than normal until the start of Summer Time on March 29th.

Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO)
Mark S. asked which locations Synacor plans to distribute ZCO updates, as this has been observed to sometimes be inconsistent. John H. said that new versions will continue to be released: It was noted that the Zimbra downloads page does not currently have the latest ZCO version posted, but John H. said this will be updated shortly for those that wish to obtain the latest ZCO version, but do not wish to upgrade their Zimbra server version at this time.

Mark S. also asked which server versions of Zimbra are supported by the new version of the ZCO. John H said all supported server versions of Zimbra (https://www.zimbra.com/support/support- ... lifecycle/) are officially supported by the latest version of the ZCO.

Zimbra 8.8.15 Patch 8 Released
Mark S. reported that the release of 8.8.15 P8 includes a security fix that will be important for any multi-tenant installs of Zimbra, particularly for Zimbra BSPs (https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.8.15/P8). Randy L. asked for clarification on the known issue documented in the Patch 8 release notes where Outlook reportedly hangs when ZCO synchronizes with a Zimbra server. John H. said a restart of Outlook can be used to recover, and also said this is due to a known bug in ZCO 8.8.15 Build 1867 (included with Patch 8). A fixed version of ZCO has already been created, but was not available in time to be included in Patch 8. The bug fix is undergoing final testing which is expected to be released very shortly. This bug fix version will also reportedly include a fix for another known issue in ZCO build 1867: "Contact group members lose all contact information, except email id, after syncing to ZCO."

Changing The Global Max Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) Version
Mark S. asked for advice regarding changing the default Global Max EAS Version setting in the Zimbra Administration site in Home > Network Modules NG > Mobile. Mark noted that the default max version in 8.8.15 is set for EAS 14.1 and EAS 2.5 for Samsung devices. With 8.8.15 P8 adding support for EAS 16.0 and 16.1, Mark asked for anyone’s thoughts on changing the global max EAS version to either 16.0 or 16.1. Cine offered his opinion that very recent Android devices and iPhones should be able to support EAS 16.0 or 16.1. He explained that changing the max EAS version usually only takes effect when an ActiveSync account is first setup on a mobile device, since mobile devices normally only select the EAS version once, during an initial synchronization with an ActiveSync server. He also explained that if the max EAS version is changed in the Zimbra Admin site, that testing has shown some mobile devices may initiate a full re-synchronization, along with selecting a new EAS version, if the mobile device doesn’t receive a response that it expects from the ActiveSync server.

Cine explained that changing the Samsung EAS max version is tricky as testing has shown that various synchronization problems appear starting with EAS 8.1 and later. He said that if Samsung phone owners are able to use a different email/calendar/contacts app with their ActiveSync account, other than the native apps provided by Samsung, it should in theory be possible to switch the Samsung EAS max version to 14.x or 16.x.

Cine also explained that EAS 16.0 includes a complete redesign of the calendar synchronization feature, and that EAS 16.1 includes a new remote-wipe feature that can target a specific email account. More details on differences between EAS versions are available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_ ... nc#History
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Re: March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

Post by rleiker »

Hello Zimbra Community,

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: March 17, 2020 Conference Call Summary

Zimbra Connect Maximums
Randy L. asked about the maximum number of simultaneous call participants possible when using Zimbra Connect’s Instant Meetings feature (https://zimbra.github.io/adminguide/lat ... t_meetings). Cine said that while there is no known limit on the Zimbra server-side, testing has shown that most client-side web browsers struggle with maintaining more than 5 simultaneous video streams. For the best meeting performance, he suggested that only the presenter enable their video stream and optionally a screen share, while all other call participants switch off their video streams, for audio-only connections.

Configuring TURN Servers For Zimbra Connect
Randy L. asked about the benefits of adding multiple TURN servers to Zimbra Connect’s global configuration (https://zimbra.github.io/adminguide/lat ... urn_server) for both redundancy and load sharing purposes. Cine said that there is no benefit in adding more than one TURN server, since Zimbra Connect is designed to only use a single TURN server, even if multiple TURN servers are defined in the global configuration. Randy asked if there would be a benefit in configuring Zimbra Connect to use a load balancer as its global configuration TURN server, with the load balancer then managing multiple back-end TURN servers. Cine said this should be possible, but that careful configuration and testing would be needed on the load balancer to properly handle web socket connections from client browsers since the load balancer and backend TURN servers are being used as a proxy for Instant Meeting participants. Mark S. also asked if it is necessary to add a TURN server in the global configuration to each individual class-of-service. Cine said this is not needed, as Zimbra Connect will first check for configured TURN servers at the account level, then class-of-service, then in the global configuration, just like inheritance of configuration values normally works for other Zimbra configuration settings.

Mark S asked if a TURN server is required for Zimbra Connect, even if all Zimbra servers are configured with public IP addresses. Cine said that the best way to tell if a TURN server is needed is to test the Instant Meeting feature in Zimbra Connect to determine if video calls work. If not, then a TURN server is required. Similarly Mark S. asked if a TURN server is usually needed when two or more Instant Meeting participants are on the same logical network (such as a campus network). Cine said that this is usually not needed, since the two clients will often be able to establish a direct WebRTC connection to each other. Mark also asked if a restart of mailboxd is required when making a configuration change to Zimbra Connect, such as adding a TURN server. Cine said this is not necessary, although clients will likely need to either refresh their browser windows, or log out and log back in again for the setting change to take effect for each client’s Zimbra Connect session. Randy L. suggested that there were many good write-ups online about how STUN and TURN work. For example: https://bloggeek.me/google-free-turn-server/ .

TURN Server Recommendation And Testing
Cine suggested looking at using the STUN/TURN server available from: https://www.resiprocate.org/Main_Page as he has had good experiences with it at Zextras.

For testing a TURN server and WebRTC, Cine suggested using both https://test.webrtc.org and from a Chrome web browser, the WebRTC debugging tool: chrome://webrtc-internals/ to ensure that a TURN server is properly configured.

Zimbra Drive And Zimbra Connect
Mark S. commented that sharing files via Zimbra Connect (https://zimbra.github.io/adminguide/lat ... le_sharing) did not appear to work in all instances. Cine said that when sharing a file, it is uploaded to Zimbra Drive, so Drive is required for file sharing to work within Zimbra Connect. Cine also pointed out that file sharing is not yet available in all parts of Zimbra Connect, such as the Spaces and Channels features.

Zextras App Support And Usage With Zimbra Drive
Mark S. reported that he successfully used a Zextras developed app from the iOS app store with Zimbra Drive, even though there is no official Zimbra client-side app presently for use with Zimbra Drive, other than the Zimbra Web Client. Mark asked if Zimbra provides any support for this Zextras developed app. John H. said that Zimbra does not support the Zextras apps, but they should generally work, as they share the same code base, as is found in Zimbra Server. Mark also asked if the Zextras Team app (https://www.zextras.com/suite/team/) is the same as Zimbra Connect. Cine said that while Zextras Team does contain much of the same code base as Zimbra Connect, they are considered to be two separate products, and there is no official support from Zimbra for Zextras Team.

Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO) Update
Following-up on the 8.8.15 Patch 8 discussion in last week’s call, Randy L. asked if the updated ZCO build is available yet that fixes the known Outlook issues discussed in the Patch 8 release notes. John H. said that he asked Zimbra Product Management to release the updated ZCO build containing the fixes as soon as possible, but they have opted to release the updated ZCO build as part of the Zimbra 9 General Available release that is scheduled to happen very soon.
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Re: March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

Post by rleiker »

Hello Zimbra Community,

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: March 24, 2020 Conference Call Summary

Zimbra Connect Bugs
Randy L. reported discovering 4 bugs affecting Zimbra Connect in Zimbra 8.8.15 Patch 8. A brief summary of each bug follows.

Bug # 1:
From the Zimbra Web Client, click the Connect tab, then start a new instant meeting. Invite at least 2 attendees, one should be an internal user on the same Zimbra system, and the other attendee should be on an external mail server. The external attendee correctly receives an email invite with a link to join the meeting, while the internal Zimbra user does not receive an emailed invite.

Bug # 2:
From the Zimbra Web Client, click the Connect tab, then start a new instant meeting. Invite an attendee on an external mail server. When the attendee receives the emailed invite, they click on the link to join the meeting, enter their name, but enter a different email address than the meeting organizer entered for the attendee. The attendee sees a mostly blank white page with no indication of what they did wrong, while the meeting organizer and other meeting attendees see the attendee’s name appear in the list of active participants in the meeting.

Bug # 3:
The Zimbra Connect documentation (https://zimbra.github.io/adminguide/lat ... patibility) indicates that the Quick Access sidebar in the Zimbra Web Client, where instant messages appear for a user, is compatible with Microsoft Edge. If a mailbox user receives a notification that they have a new instant message and clicks on it from the Quick Access bar, the entire page header, including the Web Client navigation tabs and search bar disappear, leaving just the body of the page. The only way for the user to recover is to click the Refresh or Back buttons in their browser. Cine said that this is likely a documentation error, as this is expected to work in the most recent versions of Edge, which were changed by Microsoft from the EdgeHTML engine to a Chromium engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft ... se_history).

Bug # 4:
From the Zimbra Web Client, click the Connect tab, invite attendees, then start a new instant meeting. After the meeting has started, click the “i” (information icon) appearing at the top of the instant messaging window to display the meeting’s properties. Next, click the “Add participants” link to invite others to the meeting. Add the email address of a user on an external mail server. When the user receives the email invite, clicks the Join link, then enters their name and correct email address, the user sees a mostly blank white page, while the meeting organizer and other meeting attendees see the new attendee’s name appear in the list of active meeting attendees.

Randy L. reported that he could also confirm encountering a 5th bug in Zimbra Connect that Mark S. reported during an earlier call where attaching a file to send to participants in an Instant Meeting (video call) or an instant messaging conversation does not make the file available for the participants in the meeting or conversation. When a file is shared during a meeting/conversation, it is expected to appear in the “Connect sent files” within the Drive tab of the Zimbra Web Client (https://zimbra.github.io/adminguide/lat ... le_sharing). Cine said that this feature requires the Zimbra Drive Zimlet to be enabled for a Zimbra Connect user. Mark and Randy both confirmed that they were able to produce this bug with the Zimbra Drive Zimlet enabled.

Troubleshooting Failed Mailbox Moves
Mark S. reported that he has a few mailbox moves between Zimbra mailbox servers failing for an unknown reason when using the “zxsuite doMailboxMove” command and asked everyone on the call for suggestions. He also asked if the deprecated zmmailboxmove command could be used as a temporary workaround. Cine suggested first performing a clean-up of the failed mailbox moves using the “doRemove” feature of the zxsuite command line tool, followed by splitting the “doMailboxMove” command in to 3 separate stages (move blobs, move backups, move mailbox) to determine which of the 3 stages is failing for the affected mailboxes. Cine also suggested running an integrity scan on the Zimbra MariaDB database, in addition to a scan for orphaned/unexpected blobs on the mailbox disk volumes.

New Zimbra Wiki Article For Setting Up a STUN/TURN Server
John H. provided a link to a draft version of a new Zimbra Wiki article pertaining to setting up a STUN/TURN server for use with Zimbra Connect and requested suggestions from those on the call for additions/revisions to the article due to numerous recent requests for this information by Zimbra customers. The new Wiki article is now published at: https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/TURN_STUN_Guide .
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Re: March 2020 Zeta Alliance Weekly Call Summaries

Post by rleiker »

Hello Zimbra Community,

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: March 31, 2020 Conference Call Summary

Zimbra Connect “Spaces” On Mailbox Servers
Mark S. asked how to control which mailbox server a Zimbra Connect “Space” is created on and how to move a “Space” from one server to another. Cine said that a Boolean value called “roomStoreEnabled”, which is set to true by default, determines if a mailbox server is a candidate for accepting new Zimbra Connect Spaces, created by mailbox users. He said that the command: “zxsuite connect space get” displays Connect Spaces on all mailbox servers. No one on the call was certain how to move a Space to another mailbox server, so Cine said he would investigate the topic and report back on a later date.

Disk Performance Recommendations for Zimbra NG Backups and HSM
Noah P. asked those on the call for recommendations for disk performance specifications when using a storage array for Zimbra NG backups and as a secondary HSM. He said he is currently looking at a storage array with a rated maximum performance of 600 IOPS. Cine suggested considering using two different mount points for the storage array: one for blobs, and another for meta data, as this should greatly improve performance during restores from backups. Noah said he was already considering putting meta data on a separate SSD storage array.

Mark S. said that in his experience when using disks in the AWS cloud service with a 500 IOPS rating, he has observed occasional slow down alerts from the NG real-time backups. Cine said that this should be less of an issue in the latest Zimbra version, as the NG backup module now incorporates intelligent caching and queueing methods.

Randy L. said that in his experience using the VMware vSAN product with a large number of VMs, that a disk’s queue depth was critical, as compared to just IOPS, since IOPS numbers can be manipulated by manufacturers with caching trickery. He suggested looking at the queue depth specifications for the storage array that Noah is considering purchasing and mentioned that VMware’s hardware compatibility guide may be a good source for a list of drive and storage array manufacturers who publish the queue depth specification, since this information is not widely available for all drive and storage array manufacturers.

Zimbra 9 Updates
Mark S. asked if there were any new updates related to Zimbra 9 that the Zimbra employees on the call could share. No updates were available during the call, but more information will be forthcoming very soon.

New Call Participant
John Rabara of Synacor introduced himself as a sales resource for Zimbra BSPs and said he would try to join the Zeta Alliance conference calls more frequently in the future so as to contribute any information he can offer the group.
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