Install Ubuntu 12.04 Server Edition 64 Bit

Note: I did the following installation in a virtual machine, running under ESXi 5.

I downloaded Ubuntu Server 64 Bit using a Torrent to my local drive.

Using vSphere Client (running on Windows 7) I created a new VM, with 2 Gig of RAM, and 100 Gig Thin Provisioned Hard Drive.

I started the VM, and then clicked the CD Drive icon on the toolbar, and pointed it at the ISO for Ubuntu Server.

During the hard drive setup phase, I created 4 partitions using manual configuration.

100 Meg Boot
2 Gig Swap
30 Gig Root (/)
Remaining space of approx 70 Gig assigned to Opt

Installed OpenSSH Server on the additional applications screen.

Rebooted the VM when the installer completed.

Logged into Ubuntu Server via vSphere Client.

$ sudo su
entered password

$ nano /etc/network/interfaces

you will see a section which looks like this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

I changed mine to look like this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.0.7 192.168.0.6

Note1: Set your IP address according to your own network design.
Note2: the last line is set to use my own 2 nameservers, and using their internal IP addresses

Restart the network by typing:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

To make sure the above process worked enter:

ifconfig

I also like to ping an outside network to verify we have network connectivity like this:

ping google.com

Updated the OS:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

At this point I logged out, and switched to Bitvise SSH Client to install Zimbra.

 

Installed a couple of misc required libraries:

# apt-get install libgmp3c2 sysstat sqlite3

Set the hostname:

# hostname site5.northwestmall.com

# nano /etc/hostname

Inserted the same hostname into the above file.

One of the reasons I REALLY like Bitvise SSH Client (over something like Putty) is the ability to upload files to a server, without the need to setup Samba.
I had already downloaded the ZimbraInstall.tgz file, and had it on my windows 7 client machine, so I simply transferred the file to the server, to my /home/username directory, using Bitvise.

Note: The alternative way to get the file onto the server, if you haven't already downloaded it, is to issue a command like this on the server:
# wget http://files2.zimbra.com/downloads/8.0.0_GA/zcs-8.0.0_GA_5434.UBUNTU12_64.20120907144631.tgz

Then unpack the file with the following command:
# tar -xvf zcs-8.0.0_GA_5434.UBUNTU12_64.20120907144631.tgz
Note: You can type "tar -xvf zcs" and then hit Tab, and linux will fill in the rest of the file name for you, a handy feature.

 

Before continuing on with the installation of Zimbra, its a good idea to check your DNS configuration, using the following command:
# dig northwestmall.com MX

In my case, even though my servers have a FQDN ending in northwestmall.com, I needed to make sure I had incoming mail requests (for email addresses using northwestmall.com as the domain name) correctly routed to this new server.

Before I started the installation of this server, I modified the .dns file for northwestmall.com to include the following line:

@ IN MX 10 site5.northwestmall.com.

When I issued the DIG command on this server (per the example above), it confirmed I had an MX record for northwestmall.com pointing to this new server.

 

Onto the installation of Zimbra..

Change the default directory to the zimbra installation files:
# cd zcs (hit tab and it will fill in the rest of the long directory name, which was created above when we unpacked the file).

Then start the installation with the following command:

# ./install.sh

The installer informed me that I was missing one library, ie libperl5.14, so I installed it:
# apt-get install libperl5.14

Afterwards, I re-issued the ./install.sh command, and it continued further.

Install zimbra-ldap [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-logger [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-mta [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-snmp [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-store [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-apache [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-spell [Y] Enter
Install zimbra-memcached [N] Enter
Install zimbra-proxy [N] Enter

The system will be modified. Continue? [N] Y