This guide covers installing Zimbra Collaboration Server on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7. Note: Zimbra 8.6 is EOL. The current production release is Zimbra 10.x — the steps below apply broadly to all versions, but download the latest release from zimbra.com/downloads.

Prerequisites

• Fresh CentOS 7 / AlmaLinux 8 minimal install (64-bit)
• Minimum 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended for production)
• Static IP address
• MX record pointing to the server’s hostname
• A/PTR (rDNS) records configured
• Ports 25, 80, 110, 143, 443, 465, 587, 993, 995, 7071 open in firewall

Step 1 — Set Hostname

hostnamectl set-hostname mail.yourdomain.com
hostname

Step 2 — Update /etc/hosts

# Add your server IP and hostname
echo "203.0.113.10  mail.yourdomain.com mail" >> /etc/hosts

Step 3 — Install Dependencies

yum install nmap-ncat perl perl-core sysstat libaio -y

Step 4 — Download and Extract Zimbra

# Download the latest Zimbra release for RHEL 7/8
# Check https://www.zimbra.com/downloads/ for current version
wget https://files.zimbra.com/downloads/LATEST_VERSION/zcs-LATEST.RHEL7_64.tgz

# Extract
tar -xzvf zcs-*.tgz
cd zcs-*/

Step 5 — Run the Installer

# Run the installation script
./install.sh

# Accept the license agreement: Y
# Install all default packages: press Enter for each (Y)
# When prompted for the Admin password, set a strong password

Step 6 — Verify Installation

# Check all Zimbra services are running
su - zimbra
zmcontrol status

# Should show all services as Running:
# antispam Running
# antivirus Running
# ldap Running
# mailbox Running
# mta Running
# proxy Running
# stats Running
# zmconfigd Running

Post-Installation Checklist

• Access Admin Console: https://mail.yourdomain.com:7071
• Access Webmail: https://mail.yourdomain.com
• Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC DNS records
• Set up automatic certificate renewal (Let’s Encrypt or commercial CA)
• Configure backup using zmbackup
• Enable two-factor authentication in the admin console