Life in code, apps and OS's

These days many more companies are using mixed IT enviroments using a mixture of Windows, Linux, UNIX and Mac’s and I for one am using a mixture of Microsoft Windows and Linux (Ubuntu). On my network I use a Microsoft Active Directory and want to be able to get all Server (Linux & Windows) as well as Desktops (Linux and Windows) to authenticate in a central location.

Since browsing the web I managed to find this cool package that can be installed on Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) which enables you to add and authenticate Ubuntu 8.04 against a Windows Domain Controller (Microsoft Active Directory)

So here goes…

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install likewise-open
sudo domainjoin-cli join fqdn.of.your.domain Administrator
sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults
sudo /etc/init.d/likewise-open start

Using the above commands you have installed ‘likewise-open’ which is the package that makes it possible for the Ubuntu client/server to logon to a Windows domain, added the client/server to the windows domain, updated the system services and then started the service.

Now that the LikeWise package has been installed you can now logoff (although I recommend full system reboot) and logon in this format:

DOMAIN\username

You need to ensure that you prefix the username with the Domain name.

The good points about this kind of setup is as follows:

• Single username/password combination across entire network.
• Enforces password policys
• Likewise Open enables Linux, Unix and Mac authentication on a Microsoft network using Active Directory. A user can now interactively log in to the Linux, Unix or Mac machine using Active Directory credentials, and can access any kerberized services that the non-Windows machine hosts.

In this post I will be showing you how you can install a fresh copy of Ubuntu on a server using two Hard disk drives either ATA or SATA drives, I would recommend using proper server hardware as if one of the HDD controllers fail then you still wont be able to reboot your server immediately. For thoses who are not familiar RAID1 mirrors data identically over two (or more) hard disks.

1. Firstly enter your Ubuntu Server Compact disk into the CD-ROM tray and boot the server with it, When you get to the Partioning options menu you will need to select ‘Manual’ like shown below:

2. Next I created 3 partitions on both disks: 8 GB for /, 500 MB for swap and the remaining space for /home. Please note that at this stage the partition types must be “physical volume for RAID” (0xFD in fdisk) instead of “Ext3 journaling file system”. Also note how the first partitions of both disks are marked bootable (the B flag in picture 4). Without setting those partitions bootable you might not be able to boot your computer without a CD!

3. Setting partition type and bootable flag, Next I went up and selected “Configure software RAID” (picture 4).

4.Two disks with partitions for RAID1 volumes, Next I saved the modifications made to the partition tables (picture 5).

5.  Saving the changes, Next I created three (3) MD devices (each configured as RAID1 with 2 active and 0 hotspace disks — pictures 6-9).

6. Creating new MD devices.

7. RAID1 = mirror.

8. Two active devices.

9. No spare devices, Next I selected the physical disk partitions to be included in the RAID1 set (picture 10). It’s important to select two partitions with identical sizes so in my case md0=sda1+sbd1, md1=sda2+sdb2 and md2=sda3+sdb3.

10. Selecting MD components, Next I configured file systems and mount points for each RAID device. In my case “RAID device #0″ is ext3 mounted on /, “RAID device #1″ is swap and “RAID device #2″ is ext3 mounted on /home (pictures 11-15).

11. File systems created on the RAID devices.

12. / filesystem created on the RAID device #0

13. swap created on the RAID device #1

14. /home filesystem created on the RAID device #2

15. All file systems configured, Finally I went down and selected “Done setting up the partitions” and selected “Yes” to write the changes made to the partition table (picture 16). From this point on the Ubuntu installation is a normal installation.

16. Saving the changes.

After installation and the first reboot I installed grub also on the second disk’s (/dev/sdb) master boot record (MBR). Without this the PC will not start if the first disk (/dev/sda) fails and is removed from the PC.

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub
grub> device (hd0) /dev/sdb
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

WARNING: There is a serious bug in Ubuntu 7.10 (see this and this for details) which makes the boot fail if one of the physical disks in the RAID1 set is missing.

Testing it out..

After installation I verified that all file systems (/, swap and /home) are really on the RAID1 disks.

martti@ubuntu:~$ grep /dev/md /etc/fstab
/dev/md0        /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/md2        /home           ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/md1        none            swap    sw              0       0

martti@ubuntu:~$ df -h / /home
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md0              7.4G  586M  6.4G   9% /
/dev/md2               12G  159M   12G   2% /home

The status of all RAID devices can be checked from the /proc/mdstat file. Each mdN device contains two sdXN disks and each mdN device should have “2/2″ and “UU”. More details can be seen with the mdadm utility.

martti@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md2 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1]
      12659136 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
      489856 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      7815488 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --query --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90.03
  Creation Time : Wed Oct 17 16:45:59 2007
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 7815488 (7.45 GiB 8.00 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 7815488 (7.45 GiB 8.00 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 2
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Wed Oct 17 15:16:18 2007
          State : active
 Active Devices : 2
Working Devices : 2
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 1760de71:d6ca4125:8324c8dc:300ec7e1
         Events : 0.11

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8        1        0      active sync   /dev/sda1
       1       8       17        1      active sync   /dev/sdb1

 Recovering from a failed disk..

Next I simulated a disk failure by disconnecting /dev/sdb. The system still boots but the status shows /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2 and /dev/sdb3 have disappeared from the system and how the /dev/mdN is marked as “degraded” in the status field.

martti@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10]
md2 : active raid1 sda3[0]
      12659136 blocks [2/2] [U_]

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0]
      489856 blocks [2/2] [U_]

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0]
      7815488 blocks [2/2] [U_]

unused devices: <none>

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --query --detail /dev/md0
/dev/md0:
        Version : 00.90.03
  Creation Time : Wed Oct 17 16:45:59 2007
     Raid Level : raid1
     Array Size : 7815488 (7.45 GiB 8.00 GB)
  Used Dev Size : 7815488 (7.45 GiB 8.00 GB)
   Raid Devices : 2
  Total Devices : 1
Preferred Minor : 0
    Persistence : Superblock is persistent

    Update Time : Wed Oct 17 15:16:18 2007
          State : active, degraded
 Active Devices : 1
Working Devices : 1
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0

           UUID : 1760de71:d6ca4125:8324c8dc:300ec7e1
         Events : 0.11

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8        1        0      active sync   /dev/sda1
       1       0        0        -      removed

Next I reconnected the disk and instructed the system to rebuild itself. After rebuild everything was ok again.

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1
mdadm: hot added /dev/sdb1

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --add /dev/md1 /dev/sdb2
mdadm: hot added /dev/sdb2

martti@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --add /dev/md2 /dev/sdb3
mdadm: hot added /dev/sdb3

martti@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md2 : active raid1 sdb3[2] sda3[0]
      12659136 blocks [2/1] [U_]
      	resync=DELAYED

md1 : active raid1 sda2[0] sdb2[1]
      489856 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md0 : active raid1 sdb1[2] sda1[0]
      7815488 blocks [2/1] [U_]
      [>....................]  recovery =  2.8% (215168/7815488) finish=16.2min speed=9780K/sec

unused devices: <none>

That’s it.

After getting three old Dell Dimension L1000R desktop PC’s after work was going to throw them out I decided to turn one of them into a Linux server mainly for me to have sitting on the internet mainly to use for remote backups and remote access to documents and other stuff I want to keep safe and access securely over the net (SSH) and therefore decided to turn this moderatly powered Dell machine into a server that would be able to run on any internet connection I put it on (obviously would need to foward ports) but would use DynDNS for the domain name and IP Update service so regardless of if my IP address was to change (Which is likely if your ISP does not give you a static IP address or have not purchased one) so anyway, This little quick tutorial is how you can setup the DynDNS client using ddclient, Configure and ensure that it automatically checks and updates your IP address if required.

Step #1

First off if you havent already registered a DynDNS account you will need to do this by visiting the website at www.dyndns.com, They also have a how-to which is easy to follow and will let you know how you can register an account and create your Hostname. (click here for the How-to)

Step #2

Now to keep your username and password secure over the internet when the ddclient program updates your IP address we will send the username/password combination over an SSH-Tunnel (Secure Shell) so we will have to install a few packages using Ubuntu’s lovely APT tool, So at the console (as root user) enter the following command:

apt-get install ssh libio-socket-ssl-perl

Step #3

Now we install the ddclient (The program that is used to communicate with the DynDNS service and update your IP address with DynDNS if a change of IP is detected.), So again, logged on as ‘root’ issuse this command at the terminal prompt:

apt-get install ddclient

Step #4

The installation will now prompt you to answer a series of questons (if you havent already logged into your DynDNS account and created a Hostname you will need to do it now before going any further). The screens should now look as follows:

^ You will need to select ‘www.dyndns.com’ as your dynamic dns service provider as shown above.

^ You now need to enter your full domain name that you registered with DynDNS.

^ Obviously you need to enter your DynDNS Username as shown above otherwise anyone would be able to update your IP address and therefore hijack your domain.

^ Enter your DynDNS account password as shown above.

^ Finally type web as the DNS Interface to use as shown above.

Ok now basically the ddclient is now fully setup but we still have a little more work to do to ensure that our DynDNS username and password is send encrypted over SSH to the DynDNS Servers, So moving on we now need to edit the raw ddclient configuration file so as root, enter the following command at the Terminal:

vim /etc/ddclient.conf

This should now open the configuration file in VIM (A CLI text editor for Linux/UNIX) the coniguration should look something like this (the bold line is what we will be changing so pay attentsion:

# Configuration file for ddclient generated by debconf
#
# /etc/ddclient.conf

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid
protocol=dyndns2
use=if, if=web
server=members.dyndns.org
login=your-dyndns-username
password=‘your-dyndns-password’
your-host-name.homelinux.net

Ok, So now change the use=if, if=web text to the following:

use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com/, web-skip='IP Address'

Secondly add this to the top of the configuration file below the comment’s section (comments are prefixed with # (hashes))

ssl=yes
daemon=300

The above two lines that you just added to the configuration file tells ddclient to connect using SSL and to check for updates every 5 minutes (300 seconds).

Now we need to check that ddclient is set to run as a daemon (System Service) so again, lets open the next configuration file by issueing this command:

vim /etc/default/ddclient

Now the configuration file itself should look like this…

# Configuration for ddclient scripts
# generated from debconf on Tue Jan 29 20:23:32 CST 2008
#
# /etc/default/ddclient
# Set to “true” if ddclient should be run every time a
# new ppp connection is established. This might be useful,
# if you are using dial-on-demand
run_ipup=”false”

# Set to “true” if ddclient should run in daemon mode
run_daemon=”true”

# Set the time interval between the updates of the dynamic DNS name in seconds.
# This option only takes effect if the ddclient runs in daemon mode.
daemon_interval=”300″

Thats basically it, All we now need to do is to restart the ddclient daemon by entering this command at the console:

/etc/init.d/ddclient restart

I have had endless problems recently trying to install Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server on my HP Compaq DL360 which uses the Compaq SmartArray (v.1.50), Last night I managed to solve the problem and thought that I would post it on my blog for others to use if they are having the same problems…

After installing the OS, This is what I needed to do is outlined below:

Reboot the machine with the installation CD. Select “Rescue a Broken System”. Follow all the steps until it errors. This will present you with the advanced installation widget.

Select “Execute a Shell”

After you enter the console. You need to execute the following commands:

$ mkdir target
$ mount /dev/ida/c0d0p1 target
$ chroot target
$ echo "cpqarray" >> etc/mkinitramfs/modules
# for Ubuntu 6.10 etc, use the following command instead...
#$ echo "cpqarray" >> etc/initramfs-tools/modules
$ update-initramfs -u

Now simply reboot and your server should now run sweet … It worked for me. 

In this tutorial I will be explaining with simple to follow steps how to install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite onto a Ubuntu 6.06 server with a locally running DNS Server (BIND).

For this tutorial you will need to obtain the Ubuntu Server edtion CD rom from www.ubuntu.com

Once you have downloaded the CD and burn it to CR-ROM you will need to boot the server from it and install it with all the default options. Obviousy you can customise the keyboard layout and location settings as required.

Once you have installed the base system make sure that you set the root users password..

sudo passwd root

You will then need to enter the password you used during setup and then enter the new password for the root user account and then confirm it.

The next required step is to install SSH so that you can administer and install the rest of the server remotely using an SSH client such as PuTTY.

apt-get install ssh openssh-server

The next step that we want to do is to set a static IP address on the server to do this we need to edit the NIC settings to do this type:

vi /etc/network/interfaces

and then ammend the file to look as follows, you will obviously need to make it suit your network settings such as default gateway, IP address etc.

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).# The loopback network interfaceauto lo

iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.0.110

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 192.168.0.0

broadcast 192.168.0.255

gateway 192.168.0.1

Next you will need to restart the NIC to enable the changes.

/etc/init.d/networking restart

The next step is to add the hostname to the systems hostname file to open the file type the following:

vi /etc/hosts

Then add your server hostname as like follows:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain    localhost192.168.0.110   mail.example.com      mail# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts

::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback

fe00::0 ip6-localnet

ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix

ff02::1 ip6-allnodes

ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Afterwards type the following command in:

echo mail.example.com > /etc/hostname

Now you will need to restart the server to do this type the following command:

shutdown -r now

Once the server is back online, log in as the root user again and check that the hostname after issueing both of the following commands are both ‘mail.example.com’

hostname
hostname -f

The next stage is to disable the package manager from installing packages from the CD-ROM so basically we need to disable it from the /apt/sources.list file. So to do this we need to issue the following command:-

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Basically you will need to comment the following line to disable the CD from being used.

[...]#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 6.06 _Dapper Drake_ - Release i386 (20060531)]/ dapper main restricted

[...]

Also you will need to enable the universe mirror and security mirrors by uncommenting them. (which appear further down the page)

Next to update the server so it has the latest package updates etc. we will need to issue these commands:

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade (This will take several mins as it downloads the latest package updates approx 40MB)

Once you have fully updated your Ubuntu server you will then need to install some additional packages that Zimbra requires, to do this issue the following command at the command prompt…

apt-get install libidn11 curl fetchmail libpcre3 libgmp3c2 libexpat1 libxml2 libtie-ixhash-perl perl expat

Now after those packages have been downloaded and installed on your server the next step is to download and install BIND (A Linux/Unix DNS Server) – We will be setting this up locally so that we can run the server standalone without requiring another server on your network for DNS. So now enter the following command…

apt-get install bind

After BIND has been downloaded and installed we now have to configure it for our needs. Now what we do is we are going to split the DNS, You will need to edit /etc/bind/named.conf.options

Uncomment the following and change to reflect your own upstream DNS servers. In my case I am using my ADSL router, adjust yours accordingly.

 // forwarders {//      0.0.0.0;

// };

Mine now looks like this:

 forwarders {      192.168.0.254;

};

Hoever you can add more than one DNS server for external addresses, For example you could also use an external DNS servers provided by your ISP… here is an example:

forwarders {69.145.248.50; 69.145.232.4;

};

Next what we have to do is edit the following file and insert the core infomation about the local DNS server. The file that you will need to ammend is as follows: /etc/bind/named.conf.local

	// We are the master server for mail.example.com zone "mail.example.com" {

type master;

file "db.mail.example.com";

};

After you have added the above infomation and saved the file we now need to create the zone file to do this type the following:

vi /var/cache/bind/db.mail.example.com

Now make the contents of the file look as follows:-

;;       Addresses and other host information.

;

@       IN      SOA     mail.example.com. hostmaster.mail.example.com. (

10118      ; Serial

43200      ; Refresh

3600       ; Retry

3600000    ; Expire

2592000 )  ; Minimum

;       Define the nameservers and the mail servers

IN      NS      xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx <- YOUR SERVER IP eg. 192.168.0.101

IN      A       xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx <- YOUR SERVER IP eg. 192.168.0.101

IN      MX      10 mail.example.com.

Now that we have setup the Local DNS server we need to change the server’s DNS lookup to point to the phyical server so now we need to edit the following file: /etc/resolv.conf

Then add the following line (above any exsisting name servers):

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Obviously you will need to replace the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your server’s IP address in my case it is:

nameserver 192.168.0.101

Now we are ready to restart the DNS server and test if all is now working, to do this issue the following command at the console:

/etc/init.d/bind reload

Now to test it, type the following:-

nslookup mail.example.com

The resault should show as your server’s IP address in my case the resault was:

192.168.0.101

Now were ready to start the download and installation process of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite server.

So now lets change the working directory to save the download of Zimbra to, Lets issue the following command…

cd /usr/src

Now we are going to download Zimbra from SourceForge, type the following command (This will download version 4.5.6 – The latest version at the time of writing this tutorial.)

wget http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/zimbra/zcs-4.5.6_GA_1044.UBUNTU6.tgz

After it has been downloaded we now want to extract Zimbra so we can begin the install…

tar xvfz zcs-4.5.6_GA_1044.UBUNTU6.tgz

Great, Now we are ready to begin the install process, lets change to the extracted directory and initialse the installation process:-

cd zcs/
./install.sh

The installer should now look like this; It will also ask you some questons, you will need to answer them as follows…

Operations logged to /tmp/install.log.4416
Checking for existing installation…
zimbra-ldap…NOT FOUND
zimbra-logger…NOT FOUND
zimbra-mta…NOT FOUND
zimbra-snmp…NOT FOUND
zimbra-store…NOT FOUND
zimbra-apache…NOT FOUND
zimbra-spell…NOT FOUND
zimbra-core…NOT FOUND

PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE.
ZIMBRA, INC. (“ZIMBRA”) WILL ONLY LICENSE THIS SOFTWARE TO YOU IF YOU
FIRST ACCEPT THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. BY DOWNLOADING OR INSTALLING
THE SOFTWARE, OR USING THE PRODUCT, YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY
THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS
AGREEMENT, THEN DO NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL OR USE THE PRODUCT.

License Terms for the Zimbra Collaboration Suite:
http://www.zimbra.com/license/collaboration_suite_collective_license_1.0.html

Press Return to continue <– <ENTER>

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-spell [Y] <– <ENTER>

The system will be modified. Continue? [N] <– y

Main menu

1) Hostname: mail.example.com
2) Ldap master host: mail.example.com
3) Ldap port: 389
4) Ldap password: set
5) zimbra-ldap: Enabled
6) zimbra-store: Enabled
+Create Admin User: yes
+Admin user to create: admin@mail.example.com
******* +Admin Password UNSET
+Enable automated spam training: yes
+Spam training user: spam.tukjrdnaco@mail.example.com
+Non-spam(Ham) training user: ham.rg8fvq6cd4@mail.example.com
+Global Documents Account: wiki@mail.example.com
+SMTP host: mail.example.com
+Web server HTTP port: 80
+Web server HTTPS port: 443
+Web server mode: http
+Enable POP/IMAP proxy: no
+IMAP server port: 143
+IMAP server SSL port: 993
+POP server port: 110
+POP server SSL port: 995
+Use spell check server: yes
+Spell server URL: http://mail.example.com:7780/aspell.php

7) zimbra-mta: Enabled
zimbra-snmp: Enabled
9) zimbra-logger: Enabled
10) zimbra-spell: Enabled
r) Start servers after configuration yes
s) Save config to file
x) Expand menu
q) Quit

Address unconfigured (**) items (? – help) <– 6

Store configuration

1) Status: Enabled
2) Create Admin User: yes
3) Admin user to create: admin@mail.example.com
** 4) Admin Password UNSET
5) Enable automated spam training: yes
6) Spam training user: spam.tukjrdnaco@mail.example.com
7) Non-spam(Ham) training user: ham.rg8fvq6cd4@mail.example.com
Global Documents Account: wiki@mail.example.com
9) SMTP host: mail.example.com
10) Web server HTTP port: 80
11) Web server HTTPS port: 443
12) Web server mode: http
13) Enable POP/IMAP proxy: no
14) IMAP server port: 143
15) IMAP server SSL port: 993
16) POP server port: 110
17) POP server SSL port: 995
18) Use spell check server: yes
19) Spell server URL: http://mail.example.com:7780/aspell.php

Select, or ‘r’ for previous menu [r] <– 4

Password for admin@mail.example.com (min 6 characters): [8BD.yZtFh] <– [specify a password for the admin user]

Select, or ‘r’ for previous menu [r] <– <ENTER>

Main menu

1) Hostname: mail.example.com
2) Ldap master host: mail.example.com
3) Ldap port: 389
4) Ldap password: set
5) zimbra-ldap: Enabled
6) zimbra-store: Enabled
7) zimbra-mta: Enabled
zimbra-snmp: Enabled
9) zimbra-logger: Enabled
10) zimbra-spell: Enabled
r) Start servers after configuration yes
s) Save config to file
x) Expand menu
q) Quit

*** CONFIGURATION COMPLETE – press ‘a’ to apply
Select from menu, or press ‘a’ to apply config (? – help) <– a
Save configuration data to a file? [Yes] <– <ENTER>
Save config in file: [/opt/zimbra/config.5762] <– <ENTER>
Saving config in /opt/zimbra/config.5762…Done
The system will be modified – continue? [No] <– y

You have the option of notifying Zimbra of your installation.
This helps us to track the uptake of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.
The only information that will be transmitted is:
The VERSION of zcs installed (4.5.3_GA_733_UBUNTU6)
The ADMIN EMAIL ADDRESS created (admin@mail.example.com)

Notify Zimbra of your installation? [Yes] <– [if you want to notify Zimbra of your installation, type y, otherwise n]

Configuration complete – press return to exit <– <ENTER>

Thats it!!! – Now all there is to do now is to test if Zimbra is working correctly and all services have started as they should do, issue the following command:-

su – zimbra

^ This will change to the Zimbra user.

Now we are going to check the status of the services by issueing this command:-

zmcontrol status

The resault should look as follows:

zimbra@mail:~$ zmcontrol status
Host mail.example.com
antispam Running
antivirus Running
ldap Running
logger Running
mailbox Running
mta Running
snmp Running
spell Running

If that is not the case, lets try and force the services to start by issueing this command:-

zmcontrol start

Now to get back to the ‘root’ session type the following:

exit

Thats it!!! – Its all finished, weldone!

Zimbra comes with a web interface for the administrator (https://mail.example.com:7071/zimbraAdmin) and normal users (http://mail.example.com). To learn how to use Zimbra, please refer to http://www.zimbra.com/community/documentation.html and http://wiki.zimbra.com.

You can now open a browser and open the Zimbra Administrator web interface. The URL is https://mail.example.com:7071/zimbraAdmin. Log in with the username admin and the password you specified during the Zimbra installation.

If you want to unistall Zimbra, you can do the following:-

Go the the Zimbra installation directory (I hope you didn’t delete it):

cd /usr/src/zcs

Then run

./install.sh -u

and delete the Zimbra installation directory afterwards:

cd /usr/src
rm -rf zcs

This is a really good article about backing up your Windows 2000/XP pc to a FreeNAS server using RSYNC.

 http://www.dailycupoftech.com/windows-backup-with-rsync-and-freenas/