[Ubuntu] Zimbra BUSTED! HELP!

[Hightower]

Yesterday I was setting up our ESXi server to auto shutdown VM's when the UPS sent the signal. Long story short is the script worked, but because I didn't have VMWare Tools on our Zimbra server it just hard powered it off.

Now I can't get MTA service on Zimbra to work. Something about postfix problems and such.

I'm in the middle of running a file system check to see if this resolves the issues, but can anybody offer any advice in advance to try and get this back up and running?

[powdarrmonkey]

tail /var/log/mail.log -n 30

(or similarly named log file, this is the Debian name).

[kesomir]

Backup a copy of the zimbra folder and run the installer if latest, or do an upgrade.

You can perform a reinstallation with the same version by just re-running it.

This can fix borked zimbra and has sorted me out in the past.

[Hightower]

Backup a copy of the zimbra folder and run the installer if latest, or do an upgrade.

You can perform a reinstallation with the same version by just re-running it.

This can fix borked zimbra and has sorted me out in the past.

If I reinstall it should it keep the mailboxes or will it remove them?

[kmount]

Before reinstalling do what powdarrmonkey suggested so we can actually see what's wrong.

[Hightower]

Figured it out (I think)

Exim4 is using port 25 thus causing Zimbra not to start the MTA. I've stopped Exim4 and Zimbra could then successfully start

Just got to remove Exim4 now.

[kmount]

Yeah, I would imagine you've installed something such as mailx or such with which exim4 has pulled in as a dependency of which wasn't a problem until the box rebooted. (Reinstalling zimbra won't fix this).

Run dpkg -l | grep exim4 to get all of the exim package names (I don't like wildcarded removals) and remove them one at a time taking note of any other apps it may wish to remove.

[Hightower]

That seems to have done it! Just removed every package related to Exim4, rebooted and we're back in action!

[Hightower]

Okay - I found out why Exim4 was on there. I was trying to add a disclaimer so I installed Altermime.

However, the make details available here:Domain Disclaimer Extension Admin UI - Zimbra :: Wiki didn't work on my box so I did a:

apt-get install altermime

This however puts Exim4 on there too which breaks Zimbra. Firstly, does the disclaimer thing require Exim4?

If not, how do I install altermime without it installing Exim4?

[webman]

If you're on 6.0.4, you don't need to do any hacking, there are some parameters you can set through the CLI to do it: Disclaimer message - Zimbra - Forums

If you're not on 6.0.4, upgrade, then do the above

[kesomir]

Posted for archive use

If I reinstall it should it keep the mailboxes or will it remove them?

An in-situ reinstall (or upgrade using same version) should not affect mailboxes. (Although I suggested a backup of the zimbra folder to be extra sure - you can drop the copied folder back in place if something horrible happens) It just resets configuration and setyp and is what you need to do when moving architecture (say from 32 bit to 64bit).

Yeah, I would imagine you've installed something such as mailx or such with which exim4 has pulled in as a dependency of which wasn't a problem until the box rebooted. (Reinstalling zimbra won't fix this).

I believe that running the installer would have displayed the port conflict and made troubleshooting easy though

[Hightower]

Cheers Webman - that did the trick. Should maybe read the documentation ALL the way through next time hehe