Ubuntu on ESXi Networking

[Hightower]

We've just installed our ESXi server, and first port of call was to move the Zimbra server over. However, the network doesn't seem to be getting picked up within Ubuntu.

 

Any ideas? I'm sure some of you have done this. BTW, it wasn't a physical box - it used to be a VMWare Server machine that I have just converted to ESXi

[DMcCoy]

We've just installed our ESXi server, and first port of call was to move the Zimbra server over. However, the network doesn't seem to be getting picked up within Ubuntu.

 

Any ideas? I'm sure some of you have done this. BTW, it wasn't a physical box - it used to be a VMWare Server machine that I have just converted to ESXi

 

Make sure you pick E1000 for the network card type, the others need vmware tools installed before they will work.

[Hightower]

Just tried this and didn't work.

 

I've just converted a Windows machine and this worked as soon as I powered it on the first time, which tells me I have the networking set up correctly in ESXi.

 

I've checked /etc/network/interfaces and it's configured as it should be, but an ifconfig just show the local loopback or something?

[bossman]

@Hightower:

 

Did you build the Ubuntu server first as a VM then install Zimbra on this VM then import all the users mailboxes and accounts?

 

Have a word with Webman and see if he can help you on this score

[Hightower]

@Hightower:

 

Did you build the Ubuntu server first as a VM then install Zimbra on this VM then import all the users mailboxes and accounts?

 

Have a word with Webman and see if he can help you on this score

 

The Ubuntu server was built originally as a VM for VMWare Server, and has never been a physical machine. I thought because of this it would have been even easier to convert than if it was a physical machine.

[Hightower]

Ok, I've managed to get the machine replying to a ping - but I have an even bigger problem in that Zimbra won't start properly. ZMControl Status shows that mailbox is not starting since converting this machine to ESXi Infrastructure.

[webman]

Looking at a few VMWare forum posts, they recommend using the VMWare Converter tool to import VMs from Server into ESXi. Give that a go (choose your ESXi host as both source and destination) and see what happens.

[Hightower]

Looking at a few VMWare forum posts, they recommend using the VMWare Converter tool to import VMs from Server into ESXi. Give that a go (choose your ESXi host as both source and destination) and see what happens.

 

That's what I tried initially webman. VMWare Converter with source set to our VMWare Server (where the VM image is now) and destination set to the new ESXi server.

 

This took about an hour to complete but power on worked great. I then discovered that the new network port had been defined as eth1 instead of eth0 so I reset this (deleting the persistent file). This put the new network port to eth0 and I started getting a reply. But Zimbra still isn't working.

[webman]

Ah right

 

Anything meaningful in the logs?

 

/var/log/messages, /opt/zimbra/log/mailbox.log or /opt/zimbra/log/zmmailboxd.out are good places to look.

[DMcCoy]

You need dns and an mx record working before zimbra will start.

[Hightower]

You need dns and an mx record working before zimbra will start.

 

That's not the problem - Zimbra has been setup and working for the past 6 months. It's the conversion/moving to ESXi that's created the problem.

 

@Webman: I'm just in the process of converting again to make sure it wasn't a one off problem. This is gonna take a while so will check the logs in the morning if I have the same problems again.

 

Cheers,

[DMcCoy]

That's not the problem - Zimbra has been setup and working for the past 6 months. It's the conversion/moving to ESXi that's created the problem.

 

@Webman: I'm just in the process of converting again to make sure it wasn't a one off problem. This is gonna take a while so will check the logs in the morning if I have the same problems again.

 

Cheers,

 

Changing network adaptor can affect /etc/networks and /etc/networks/interfaces stopping dns from resolving. I assume the static address is the same too.

[Hightower]

Changing network adaptor can affect /etc/networks and /etc/networks/interfaces stopping dns from resolving. I assume the static address is the same too.

 

The static address is fine and DNS isn't the problem as we can resolve the server address, and get a reply. Flip side and the server can resolve other hosts too and get a reply.

 

I think the problem lies within zimbra as I can SSH in no problem - it's just the mailbox service in zimbra which is failing to start.

[Hightower]

Ok, got this working. I converted the machine from VMWare Server to ESXi using the VM conversion tool, and selecting the same options as I did the first time.

 

Then before I did anything else I powered on the machine and deleted /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

 

I then restarted the box immediately and logged in as Zimbra to check on status. All services up and I can log into webmail!

 

Chuffed!

[Hightower]

Whoops - powered the machine down again, and upped the available RAM to 8GB (was set to 1GB) and this stopped the Zimbra mailbox service from working (and I did this the first time too).

 

How can I up the memory to 8GB without breaking the box?

 

I've just changed it back to 1GB and it works again, but need to up it to 8 ideally.

[Hightower]

whoops again - could this have anything to do with it being a 32-bit OS?

[Hightower]

Just changed RAM from 1 to 3GB (4GB inc swap) and zimbra works. F*%$ it! Now I'm gonna have to reinstall Zimbra on a new 64-bit OS!

[webman]

Just leave it at 4GB?

[Hightower]

Just leave it at 4GB?

 

But then we'll always be limited to 4GB - there's only 2 year groups using it now so I would rather get it done now then when everyone is on it.

 

Is there a simple way to backup/restore mailboxes to the new install?

[webman]

There are two ways I see you can do this.

 

Either 1) migrate the whole Zimbra install to 64bit, or 2) install from scratch, configure the same way, set up accounts etc. then import mail.

 

Option 1 requires planning, time, and lots of typing; but there's a very good guide on the wiki.

 

Ajcody-Notes-Server-Move - Zimbra :: Wiki

 

Option 2 means you get a clean slate, but will take extra time to backup all mailboxes and re-import them.

 

You can backup a mailbox to a compressed folder on the command line (as the Zimbra user) like this:

 

zmmailbox -z -m [email protected] getRestURL .//?fmt=tgz > /tmp/johndoe.tgz

 

and then import like this:

 

zmmailbox -z -m [email protected] postRestURL "//?fmt=tgz&resolve=reset" /tmp/johndoe.tgz

Edited December 17, 2009 by webman

[Hightower]

Thanks for that webman - that'll come in very useful!

 

I actually take the time to document exactly how I've installed a linux server, and it's times like this when it comes in handy. Fine it might have taken me 3 hours to write the documentation, but now I can just open it up, follow my detailed instructions and maybe save myself a day or two

[Hightower]

The backing up of the file works. I transferred it to the new host and I get the following error when I try to restore the mailbox:

 

ERROR: service.FAILURE (system failure: POST failed, status=500 system failure: tgz formatter failure)

We were on version 5.x but with installing a new box I decided to go straight to 6.x - could this be causing the problem? Is there a way around this?

[webman]

Yes, probably a version issue. There's a post on the Zimbra forum for it, but wasn't solved.

 

I'd install the matching Zimbra version, and then do an upgrade to the latest 6.x release once everything works.

[Hightower]

I have created a script that has a backup line in for each user. This backed up every mailbox to an individual TGZ. I then zipped these up to one file, SCP'ed it across to the new server, extracted this file and then ran the same file that I ran to backup, except with the restore command in it's place.

 

I run this logged on as Zimbra and it takes a while - but no mailboxes have been restored. Yet, if I just manually enter one line straight into the terminal it take a few seconds then completes - when I log in this time it has been restored!?

 

What's going on?!

 

P.S. This is v5 to v5 as I reinstalled the new zimbra.

[webman]

In the script, try entering the full path to the zmmailbox command. I think it's in /opt/zimbra/bin/.