FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions

Sales: Pricing and Packaging

Is Zimbra free? What version do I need?

Zimbra has both a free Open Source Edition as well as a premium Network Edition.

• Here is the open source license info

Version	License and Terms of Use
Network Edition Version 8.0 – 8.5	Network Edition End User License Agreement

Version	License and Terms of Use
Open Source Edition 8.5, 8.6 and 8.7	Zimbra Open Source Edition License
	Zimbra Open Source Edition License FAQ
	Open Source Collaboration Web Client Code
	Open Source Collaboration Server Code
	Open Source Zimlets Code

Version	License and Terms of Use
Open Source Edition 8.0 – 8.5	For IT Admins, Binaries
	Zimbra Public End-User License Agreement, Version 2.5(ZP-EULA)
	For Developers, Source Code
	Zimbra Public License, version 1.4(ZPL)

• Here is the product editions

Can you explain how the pricing works?

Pricing of Network Edition depends on the size of your installation and the type of business or organization you have. Generally speaking:

• The more mailboxes you purchase, the less you will pay per mailbox (sliding scale)
• Non-profits, government, education are eligible for discounted rates
• Service providers (who resell hosted Zimbra) have pricing conducive for large-scale deployments

Here is an example:

• A business wanting 150 mailboxes of the Professional Edition: $28 x 150 = $4,200 per year. This license commitment is eligible for Zimbra Basic Support.
• A government agency looking for the same package: $14 x 150 = $2,100 per year. Also eligible for Zimbra Basic Support.

How do you define a "mailbox license"? Is that one person?

A mailbox license is an account with a physical email inbox and typically belongs to one person.

Now it is possible to have an account set up for a virtual "role" within your organization that may not be staffed by an individual. So, to decide how many licenses you want to purchase the next question becomes when do you need a new account versus just using an alias or distribution list (which are not considered new accounts).

First some definitions:

• Account: "Jane@work.com", she has a mailbox, calendar, documents, quota, etc.
  • An account is considered a provisioned account that is counted against your license, regardless of the account status. The only accounts that are not counted against your license are system accounts (for example spam and archiving), and external virtual accounts (for example, a share granted to a user on another email system).

• Alias: She can also be "jane.smith@work.com" or even "info@work.com".
  • The alias is unique to this account
  • Jane could receive email sent to info@work.com and would reply back as "jane@work.com"
  • All the mail sent to the alias lives in her mailbox (if she leaves the mail archive for "info" would be lost)
• Distribution List: A group of accounts / aliases

To have a permanent role in your organization for "info@work.com" that doesn't disappear if Jane moves you will want a new account. This way others can log in to check the email, you will have an archive, you can reply back to messages as "info", plus Jane won't have all the "info@work.com" counting against quota.

Important: Zimbra Collaboration count disabled or inactive mailboxes against your license, because you are retaining a copy of the data and have access to the account. If you don't want the mailbox counted against your license, you can retain a copy of the account by exporting the data using your own method or you can delete the account.

Can I get Zimbra if I want fewer than 25 mailboxes?

We sell ZCS for on-premise deployment at a minimum of 25 mailboxes, so there are two options if you want less than 25:

• For on-premise installations some customers purchase the minimum 25 licenses, planning for growth
• Most use one of Zimbra's many hosting providers who will provide the exact number of mailboxes you need (remember Zimbra does not provide hosting to customers, we only sell ZCS for on-premise deployment)
• You can purchase up to 100 mailboxes licenses directly in our new Zimbra Shop, where you will be able to select the number of Mailboxes, pay and receive the license straight away.

Will Zimbra host ZCS for me?

No, we only sell the software license. If you want someone to host Zimbra for you we have many Hosting Partners who can provide you with that service.

I am running the Network Edition trial, how do I buy Zimbra?

You can purchase ZCS by contacting your sales representative or simply buy online. Things to know: the number of Standard / Professional Edition mailbox licenses you want, if you need Zimbra Mobile, Zimbra Archiving and Discovery or any Support options and they will provide you with a quote form and contract to sign. Not sure who your sales contact is?, just email sales@zimbra.com.

I am running ZCS Open Source Edition, can I upgrade to Network Edition?

Yes. The process is the same as a typical upgrade.

1. Perform a backup of your Open Source environment (just in case)
2. Download the Network Edition and unzip it
3. Follow the installation process by running ./install.sh (You should get prompted if you want to upgrade from an existing version of Zimbra, in this case OSS. Choose 'Yes' and follow directions).
4. For reference, the installation instructions for Network Edition

Is it possible to mix ZCS Open Source Edition accounts with Network Edition accounts in one installation?

Unfortunately you can not mix them, but there are multiple versions of Network Edition available to meet varying needs.

Can I have some accounts running ZCS Network Edition Professional and then most accounts running Standard in my installation?

Yes. From a features standpoint, this is managed by "Class of Service" in the Administration Console where you can set up different features per account. A business running ZCS on-premise that wants to have 50 accounts with Standard and 50 with Professional features would purchase 50 of each license respectively. Service providers can also define their own COS, but should contact Sales for details on the resale pricing model.

How much storage does each Zimbra account come with?

If you are installing ZCS on premise then storage is only limited by how much physical storage space you wish to allocate to each account (eg it can be unlimited, 10GB, 2GB, etc) depending on hardware constraints. The Administration Console allows your IT team to easily set up "Class of Service" for the accounts.

If you wish to purchase a Zimbra account from a hosted service provider, they will determine how much storage will be allocated to you; typically based on industry norms.

How do I get Zimbra Support? What options are available?

Zimbra Support is provided to users who purchase ZCS Network Edition. All customers who purchase are eligible for Basic service which includes Email, Support Portal access, Knowledge Base, and upgrades. Customers with a qualifying license commitment are eligible for Premium service which includes phone and 24x7 crisis support. Basic service customers are able to purchase "Per Incident" phone and crisis support if they wish.

Network trial users are also eligible for Basic support for the duration of their 60-day trial.

Zimbra Collaboration Open Source Support

If you are running Zimbra Collaboration Open Source, you can have now support for your Infrastructure thanks to Zimbra Open Source Support

Ensure your Business Email with Zimbra Open Source Support, providing the same level of reliable technical support for open source edition as for our Network Edition. Supporting millions of mailboxes already, Zimbra Open Source Edition Support provides many advantages for Zimbra’s open source user base:

• Elevate to Business Ready: OSE Support can take your Zimbra deployment to the business-ready level.
• Provided by Experts: Receive support from the people who know Zimbra the best!

Do I have a phone support?

Paying customers must have Premium support service on top of their Basic support service. Network trial users are eligible for Basic Support only, which does not include phone support.

What happens when my Network Edition 60 day Trial license expires?

Your basic ZCS features will still be working, but the following occurs:

• You can no longer add new user accounts
• Zimbra Mobile and the Zimbra Outlook & iSync Connectors will be disabled
• Administrators will see an alert message when they log into the Admin console

Of course, if you're not ready to purchase Network Edition but like Zimbra, you can always revert the Trial to the Open Source Edition. You will lose all the Network Edition benefits, but your data will still be intact plus you will have the basic features.

What is the Support and Maintenance renewal policy for customers on Zimbra Perpetual license ?

Customers under a perpetual license must pay 20% support during the first year, and thereafter can elect annually whether to renew Support and Maintenance. Such customers must be under a current Support agreement to be eligible to receive any minor updates (such as 6.0.x) including security patches/updates, major updates (such as 6.x) or new versions (such as 7.0). Customers who choose to not renew their Support at the time of the annual renewal may subsequently resume Support, and have access to product updates and upgrades, by paying the "true up amount" back to the time of non-renewal. An additional reinstatement fee may also be applied.

For example, if the customer fails to renew for 6 months, in order to resume Support, the customer must pay 18 months (6 months of unpaid support + 1 year of support from date of renewal) to get back on the Support and Maintenance plan.

Please reference the Zimbra Maintenance & Support Terms and Conditions for official information on Support Terms and Conditions: http://www.zimbra.com/support/support-offerings

Admin Field Guide: Installation & Configuration

Here's some gotchas we hear about from the Zimbra Community when installing and configuring ZCS. Hope this makes for smooth sailing!

What are the prerequisites for installing ZCS and how do I avoid install hassles?

See the "ZCS System Requirements" document at https://files.zimbra.com/website/docs/8.6/ZCS_System_Requirements_8.6.0.pdf for the most up to date requirements.

• Do you have all the install pre-req's ironed out and port conflicts resolved? Installation will check and fail on any of these conditions.
• Prerequisite: For Red Hat Enterprise, CentOS and SUSE operating systems, the server must also have the following installed:
  • nc. Netcat
  • NPTL. Native POSIX Thread Library
  • sudo. Superuser, required to delegate admins
  • libidn. For internationalizing domain names in applications (IDNA)
  • curl. A command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax
  • GMP. GNU Multiple-Precision Library

You can find a complete Wiki article with all the OS dependencies in the next Wiki article.

Avoiding conflicts: what are the default port configurations when Zimbra is installed?

See Ports for a more complete list.

Default port usage:

• 25 SMTP (postfix)
• 80 HTTP
• 110 POP3
• 143 IMAP
• 389 LDAP
• 443 HTTPS
• 993 IMAP SSL
• 995 POP SSL
• 7025 LMTP

How do I make sure that DNS is configured correctly?

• Overview of MTA and DNS
• Make sure the default domain supplied in the DNS wizard is the actual email domain and not the FQDN of the box

What are the top issues affecting performance?

• Make sure that your client machines satisfy the system requirements for systems specs, operating system, and browser.
• Make sure the server machines meet the system requirements for hardware and operating system; size your hardware with growth in mind!
• Review the "System Requirements" (PDF) document available at https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.7.0/Single_Server_Installation#System_Requirements
  • Evaluation and Testing
    • Intel/AMD 64-bit CPU 1.5 GHz
    • RAM requirements: For single server installations, a minimum of 8GB of RAM is required.
    • For multi-server installations, contact Zimbra sales for recommendations.
    • 5 GB free disk space for software and logs
    • Temp file space for installs and upgrades*
    • Additional disk space for mail storage
  • Production environments
    • Intel/AMD 2.0 GHZ+ 64-bit CPU
    • RAM requirements:For single server installations, a minimum of 8GB of RAM is required.
    • For multi-server installations, contact Zimbra sales for recommendations.
    • Temp file space for installs and upgrades*
    • 10 GB free disk space for software and logs (SATA or SCSI for performance, and RAID/Mirroring for redundancy)
    • Additional disk space for mail storage
    • Temp files space: The zimbra-store requires 5GB for /opt/zimbra, plus additional space for mail storage. The other nodes require 100MB.

• • • RAID-5 is not recommended for installations with more than 100 accounts.

How does the license key work?

• The license key is provided to you in the Network trial registration email from the Sales Team.
• When you do the installation you will automatically be provided a single user license (admin) to enable the install.
• From the Admin UI (Global Settings / License / Update License) you can then apply the key to the trial system and provision up to 50 accounts for the life of the trial.
• After the trial expires you will no longer be able to add new accounts but the ones you already have provisioned may still work for some time.
• Existing customers with license issues can always visit the Support Portal

I get the error "can't change install type from trial to trial" when I try to apply a license.

• You cannot update trial license with a new trial license key. Please contact your Zimbra sales representative to obtain an extended trial license.

I can't get to the Admin UI when I type in the URL into my browser.

• Make sure the URL connects to the Admin UI using SSL: "https" and to port ":7071" by default.

How do I change the Zimbra server's hostname?

• Here is how you do it through the Command Line Interface tool
• Other handy commands in the CLI:Server Command-Line and Zimbra CLI Commands

We use Active Directory, what level of "access" into AD does Zimbra need to authenticate users?

• In order for Zimbra to use external AD/LDAP for authentication and/or GAL, you need to create a user that can see all user objects in the AD schema.
• Configuration of external auth/GAL is by means of an easy wizard in the Admin UI.

How do I access the Exchange migration tools?

• Click Downloads at the top right of the Administration Console to find the Migration tools and documentation.

Are there any known installation issues or help for troubleshooting?

• Take a look at Installation Issues for more tips.
• Even more questions and answers from the Community

General Product Questions

What features are available in the Network Edition Trial?

The Trial is fully featured: you have full access to everything including Outlook Connector, Zimbra Mobile, Clustering, and HSM for 60 days.

What phones are supported by Zimbra Mobile?

• All iPhone models that supports Activesync, IMAP and POP3
• All Android based devices that supports Activesync, IMAP and POP3
• All Windows Mobile 5 devices
• Symbian S60 and S80 devices like the Nokia E-Series, Palm devices like the Treo 700P sync natively with Zimbra. (Some require additional 3rd party plugins)
• Blackberry is supported through a third party partner.

Which browsers does the web client work with?

See the "ZCS System Requirements" document at https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.7.0/Single_Server_Installation#System_Requirements or the latest release notes for the most up-to-date information.

What versions of the Ubuntu Linux OS does Zimbra support?

We support Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (deprecated since ZCS 8.8 and above), 14.04 LTS and 16.04LTS(Long Term Support), Zimbra Collaboration 8.0.x also supports Ubuntu 10.04 LTS but ZCS and that Ubuntu version are deprecated. This is the 'enterprise' version of Ubuntu and is officially supported by Canonical, the commercial arm of Ubuntu (this version will be supported by them for the next 3 - 5 years). When the next release candidate of "LTS" is available we will support it; the next candidate is likely 18 - 24 months out.

What languages is Zimbra translated into?

• French, German, Italian, Japanese, Finnish, Russian, among others.
• The Zimbra Translations Wiki contains the latest list

Does Zimbra set a storage limit or quota on accounts?

Administrators can set any storage quota limit they feel is appropriate for an account (or multiple accounts via Class of Service) in a deployment, eg 54MB, 2.2GB, 4GB... Technically there is no physical storage limit imposed by the ZCS platform itself. But practically speaking, storage limits should be set based on the physical hard drive space available, number of users, limitations present in any sync 'end points', and overall growth projections.

Can Zimbra scale to support large installations?

• Zimbra supports installations from 25 mailboxes well past 1 million.

Does Zimbra support clustering?

• Zimbra will support an Always On/HA Infrastructure in a future versions of Zimbra Collaboration.

Are there any instructions on making and installing Zimlets?

• Many customers write Zimlets on their own, but you can find a list of Zimbra's publicly announced Zimlets in the Featured Zimlet Showcase
• There is an entire Category in this Wiki related to the Zimlets, take a look - http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=Category:Zimlets

Can you add 3rd party services to Zimbra like Barracuda AS/AV?

Yes - in addition to our native AS/AV, we can integrate with external AS/AV and many customers have done this.

Is there a Zimbra Hosted solution?

Yes, you can have Zimbra hosted for you by working with one of our hundreds of Hosting Partners.

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Keywords: Tags: pricing , requirements , third party , clustering , scalability , quota , ofzd