Zimbra OSE with Active sync with mobile and outlook13/window8 mail

Zimbra OSE with Active sync with mobile and outlook13/window8 mail

Implementation Reference

http://imanudin.net/2014/11/11/how-to-enable-mode-activesync-on-zimbra-ose/

http://vwiki.co.uk/Z-Push_v2_with_Zimbra

Test Environment

Test Zimbra Server - mail.sysnetglobal.net

Test z-push server - 182.50.129.154 ( earlier securitrans server ) on Centos 6x

test account - biswajit.banerjee@sysnetglobal.net - pass Sysop_0603

domain mapping - mobile.tetrain.com for ip 182.50.129.154

Implementation on the activesync server (182.50.129.154)

Install packages needed by Z-Push

yum install php-cli php-soap php-process php httpd

Download and install Z-Push. When this article written, Z-Push final release is 2.1.3-1892 version

wget -c http://download.z-push.org/final/2.1/z-push-2.1.3-1892.tar.gz
tar -zxvf z-push-2.1.3-1892.tar.gz
mv z-push-2.1.3-1892 /var/www/html/z-push

Make log directory and data

mkdir /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push
chmod 755 /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push
chown apache:apache /var/lib/z-push /var/log/z-push

Make document root for Z-Push on Apache

vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/z-push.conf

Fill with information like below

Alias /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync /var/www/html/z-push/index.php
php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off
php_flag register_globals off
php_flag magic_quotes_runtime off
php_flag short_open_tag on

Also make sure memory_limit = 128M on /etc/php.ini. Download Z-Push Zimbra Backend

wget -c http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/zimbrabackend/Release61/zimbra61.tgz

tar -zxvf zimbra61.tgz
mv zimbra61/z-push-2/ /var/www/html/z-push/backend/zimbra

Configure Z-Push for using Zimbra Backend

vi /var/www/html/z-push/config.php

change and adjust with your region

define('PROVISIONING', false);
define('LOOSE_PROVISIONING', true);
define('TIMEZONE', 'Asia/Kolkata');
define('BACKEND_PROVIDER', 'BackendZimbra');

Configure Zimbra Backend and define Zimbra URL to localhost or hostname of Zimbra

vi /var/www/html/z-push/backend/zimbra/config.php

define('ZIMBRA_URL', 'http://mail.sysnetglobal.net');

Restart service httpd

service httpd restart

Issue on Z-push Side

Some additional steps are sometimes required due to bugs etc, see the INSTALL file included with the backend for more info.

If running Zimbra backend 59 onwards fix Z-Push's RowCmp() function Within z-push/lib/default/diffbackend/diffstate.php, replace existing contents of RowCmp() with

return strcmp( $b["id"], $a["id"] ) ;

Changes on Zimbra Server ( mail.sysnetglobal.net ) side

If running Zimbra 7.2 onwards and have clients with multiple devices you need to allow them to connect simultaneously, on your Zimbra server allow an appropriate number of sessions (default is 5)

zmlocalconfig -e zimbra_session_limit_soap=7
zmconfigdctl reload

If running Zimbra 8 onwards you need to whitelist your Z-Push server otherwise its likely to get blocked by Zimbra, on your Zimbra server allow your Z-Push server's IP address

zmprov mcf zimbraHttpThrottleSafeIPs 182.50.129.154

Basic Testing

check ActiveSync with browser : http://182.50.129.154/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync. If asking username and password, fill with username and password accounts your Zimbra Mail Server. If appear information like below, configuration Z-Push and Z-Push Zimbra Backend has been success and could be used with mobile devices

Outlook Configuration

1. Make sure you use the server name ( in our case mobile.tetrain.com ) ,use of IP will not work
2. Please ensure the use of Outlook 13 only as other lower version will not work . Only Outlook 13 supports Active sync .
3. It only supports SSL based configuration , non SSL based z-push configuration will not be supported . That means we need to have Authosized SSL certificate for mobile.tetrain.com ( in our example ) and https is enabled on the Z-push server .
4. while configuration choose manual and then Outlook.com or Exchange Activesync service
5. select as shown in picture (only example)

Outlook connecting issue - resolution

Reference : http://www.vionblog.com/connect-zimbra-community-with-outlook-2013/

First time the connectivity with the Server will fail

so

First time Open your task manager by holding “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” or right click on your task bar and select “Task Manager” At the Windows Task Manager, navigate to “Processes” tab (Windows 7) / “Details” tab (Windows 8) Taskmanager

Look for outlook.exe process and click “End Process”, if any confirmation dialog appear, simply click

Resolution Of This Outlook Error :-

You can edit z-push core files so you don’t have to kill the Outlook process.

vi /var/www/z-push/lib/core/zpush.php

 static private $supportedASVersions = array(
//self::ASV_1,
//self::ASV_2,
//self::ASV_21,
self::ASV_25,
self::ASV_12,
self::ASV_121,
self::ASV_14
);

Comment first 3 lines as shown

Mobile Configuration

Almost All mobiles with Microsoft OS , Android OS , Nokia Smart Phone , IOS ( Apple Phone ) will support Activesync.

Blackberry 10 onward will support Activesync.

You can use Activesync or Exchange Account to configure the mobile .

The mobile compatibility list is available at http://z-push.org/compatibility/

Configuration will be like

Username - Full username (biswajit.banerjee@sysnetglobal.net)
Password - email account's password 
Port - 80 ( in our case )
ssl - no ( as our implementation is without ssl so we are making it no , if implentation is with ssl (required in production environment ) then make it yes )

Thunderbird Configurations

Thunderbird does not have active sync capabilities yet . But all feature of email , contact , calander and task can be synced directly from Zimbra open source .

For email sync use IMAP

for GAL ( Global Address book list ) please follow - http://blog.darioef.com/2014/07/zimbra-gal-thunderbird-24.html

for Calander sync , follow - http://community.zimbra.com/collaboration/f/1897/t/1136947

Thunderbird with Lightning actually configure for CalDAV in a slightly unusual way in that you have to configure each calendar  individually instead of just specifying the account. You will need to specify a URL like:
https://mail.example.com/dav/me@example.com/Calendar
The last part of the URL is the name of your calendar.

Refer to the following presentation File:Thunderbird-cal-sync-zimbra.pdf