Zimbra FAQ - White Label
XMission provides a number of services oriented to resellers, channel partners, and organizations with private label requirements.
The following FAQ provides answers to the most common questions. If we are missing anything please send requests to zimbrasales@xmission.com and we will get it added.
Please note, anywhere that we reference a variant of the "example.com" you will replace this with your primary Zimbra domain associated with your XMission Zimbra services.
Let's begin.
Contents
- 1 Available Mailboxes
- 2 Differences between the Basic and Professional mailboxes?
- 3 Private Label Billing & Support
- 4 Portable Device Support
- 5 Static IP Address and SSL Requirements
- 6 Branding Options
- 7 SSL Certificate Providers
- 8 Customer Branding Opportunities
- 9 Zimbra Themes
- 10 MX Record Migration Impact
- 11 Suggested A Records
- 12 Point MX Records
- 13 SPF Record
- 14 Add New Mail Domain
- 15 Multi-master Domain Admin Rights
- 16 Mailbox Creation
- 17 Limit Domain Mailbox Provisioning
- 18 Migration Assistance
- 19 Delete Mailboxes
- 20 Spam and Virus Filtering
- 21 User Spam Complaints
- 22 Outlook Integration
- 23 Changing End User Passwords
- 24 Zimbra Aliases and Distribution Lists
- 25 Support Options
- 26 Support Troubleshooting Guidelines
- 27 Securely Share Information With XMission
Available Mailboxes
XMission provides two service levels for resellers and private label environments: Basic and Professional. Zimbra Infrastructure customers with a dedicated environment may have additional mailbox levels available based on needs.
Differences between the Basic and Professional mailboxes?
Link a chart or private label paper here.
Private Label Billing & Support
XMission bills the private label or reseller customer of record. We do not bill the customer.
A minimum billing amount of $100 p/mo required on private label services. Private label clients are required to maintain one billable email box and one Static IP address.
XMission bills in advance for all services. Mailbox billing for all accounts is added or removed from billing during the first week of each calendar month.
XMission supports the private label customer or record. XMission does not provide direct support to private label end user mailbox holders.
Private label clients can call, email, or use livesupport to contact XMission support services. https://xmission.com/support
Portable Device Support
Absolutely, yes. They support IMAP for all portable devices and desktop applications. As well, they have webmail access. Although the Base account mobile webmail isn't as feature rich as the Premium mobile webmail experience.
The Professional accounts support portable devices with both IMAP and ActiveSync.
Static IP Address and SSL Requirements
Typically only a single IP address and SSL certificate is required. This allows you to establish your domain as the "email gateway" for your customer base. When you setup your domain as the "email gateway" for your customer base this only requires one Static IP address and one SSL certificate. Best practice is to upgrade an existing SSL certificate to wildcard and utilize a generic subdomain practice such as email.example.com or zimbra.example.com.
A secondary advantage establishing your domain as the email gateway provides is that if you ever change email platforms in the future end users would not have to change settings.
Branding Options
XMission can provide your choice of either a generic Zimbra branded login and webmail page or a custom branded login and webmail page. The choice is entirely yours. Both options require use of a Static IP address and SSL certificate.
Reference this document: http://wiki.xmission.com/Customer_branded_Zimbra_webmail
SSL Certificate Providers
All commercially available SSL providers.
Information on CSR for SSL generation can be found here: http://wiki.xmission.com/Customer_branded_Zimbra_webmail
Customer Branding Opportunities
Same as above. It requires purchase of another Static IP and SSL cert for their domain. You will be billed for the IP address and server configuration to fit the brand to the page.
Zimbra Themes
By default you are provided with access to all Zimbra themes. Please note, the custom logo integration may not be visually pleasing with all possible Zimbra themes. Customers may also limit the themes available to the end user. This service can be made available upon request.
MX Record Migration Impact
There can be some impact when the new mailboxes are created on the XMission Zimbra servers and when updating MX records.
When a domain is added to the XMission Zimbra system any email sent from other XMission email customers will hit the local servers first and stay here, regardless of MX record settings. This is not a common occurrence but it can happen. This most commonly happens when you move your domain to XMission and any correspondence with XMission sales and support will land on the local servers.
Suggested A Records
It is advisable to create an A record entry for the following:
- Email Gateway:
The A record for your email gateway domain, mail.example.com, will point to the Static IP address XMission provides you.
- MX with XMission Spam Filtering:
Create an A record for mx.example.com and point it to 166.70.12.20, IP address for mx.xmission.com. You then will point all your customer domains to mx.example.com. (Point your domain there as well.) This makes sure that your customer emails go through XMission spam filtering service. It is important to remove the mx setting for the previous mail provider on your domains.
- MX with External Spam Filtering:
Some clients prefer to use external Spam filtering services or appliances. In this case, you can use the Static IP address provided to you for your gateway (ie mail.example.com) as en entry point. Just configure your spam filtering service to relay mail to your gateway IP, and XMission's internal spam filtering will be bypassed in favor of your external spam filter. Your client's mx records should point to your external spam filtering service.
- SMTP:
It is highly advisable for customers to set incoming/outgoing servers as your custom URL (mail.example.com). However, we understand that some customers require smtp.example.com to replace their existing records and make transition easier. In this case create the A record pointing to the unique url (mail.example.com) or to your static IP. If you require your incoming / outgoing servers to have different hostnames than mail.example.com you must notify XMission in advance before migration.
Note: Where "example.com" is used in the above instructions please replace with your specific mail domain.
Point MX Records
As noted above, you can point your MX records to mx.xmission.com or if you are using an A record point them to mx.example.com (where example.com is your domain).
SPF Record
Point SPF record to "v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.xmission.com ~all" Proper SPF will help prevent your outbound email landing in the recipient's Junk folder.
Add New Mail Domain
Simply contact zimbrasales@xmission.com with the request to add a new Zimbra domain to your service. Please reference that you are a reseller or private label customer in the email.
Multi-master Domain Admin Rights
Absolutely. XMission can add your admin account to the domain admin list on your client domains. As well, you can grant domain admin rights to your end users by following these instructions: http://wiki.xmission.com/Hosted_Email:_Admin_Panel#Granting_Domain_Administrator_Access
Mailbox Creation
You create mailboxes by logging in to the domain admin panel and create the mailbox account. http://wiki.xmission.com/Hosted_Email:_Admin_Panel#Creating_an_Account
Limit Domain Mailbox Provisioning
XMission can set a hard limit on the number of mailboxes that can be provisioned to a domain. Please contact support@xmission.com with this request. Be sure to indicate that you are a private label customer inside the correspondence.
Migration Assistance
Zimbra provides a number of useful migration tools that can be found inside the domain administrator control panel. https://zimbraadmin.xmission.com or https://zimbraadmin.example.com
Depending on the situation XMission may be able to perform migration services for large customers on a consulting basis. Fees will apply.
Please read the migration articles on our blog: https://xmission.com/blog/?s=migration
Delete Mailboxes
Mailboxes are deleted via the domain admin control panel. http://wiki.xmission.com/Hosted_Email:_Admin_Panel#Deleting_a_Zimbra_mailbox
It is important to note that any provisioned mailbox is billed to your account. Changing an account status is not the same as deleting the account and will still be billed.
Spam and Virus Filtering
Explanation of how XMission spam and virus filtering works: https://xmission.com/blog/2013/08/14/how-xmission-spam-and-virus-filtering-works
XMission efforts to mitigate impact of spam on customers: https://xmission.com/blog/2015/01/30/xmission-initiates-legal-fight-against-spammers
User Spam Complaints
The spam filtering system requires some training by the end user. To do this please advise them use the "Spam" button in the Zimbra webmail interface. (You can also use keyboard shortcut of "m+s" to quickly mark as spam.)
Any filters or mailing lists you had on the previous mail system would not transfer over in migration. You users will set those up again in the Preferences tab of Zimbra webmail.
Outlook Integration
Basic mailboxes can use IMAP settings with Outlook. Professional mailboxes can utilize the Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO). The ZCO can be found in the Tools section of the domain admin control panel.
Changing End User Passwords
You handle all password changes for end user mailboxes via the domain admin control panel. Your end users with domain admin rights may also change passwords. As a security measure XMission support staff will never change mailbox passwords.
Zimbra Aliases and Distribution Lists
It is possible to setup XMission Zimbra system to handle aliases and/or distribution list but it does require a minimum of 1 mailbox per domain. It can be a Basic account to control costs.
Support Options
XMission provides Tier 2 support to you and your team to address customer support concerns that you cannot address on your own.
The absolute best resource for your Tier 1 support needs is the XMission wiki. https://wiki.xmission.com The bulk of all your customer support requirements can be met with the documentation provided in the wiki. If there is anything missing please contact zimbrasales@xmission.com and request a new article on the topic.
- Email: support@xmission.com Please indicate you are a reseller in the subject line. Typical same or next business day response.
- Phone: 801-539-0852 x 4 or 877-964-7746 x 4 - All hours response.
- Live Chat: https://livesupport.xmission.com - All hours response.
Again https://wiki.xmission.com is your best resource for general Zimbra support.
You may also reference the official Zimbra support forums: https://forums.zimbra.org
Support Troubleshooting Guidelines
Please provide the following information with every support request via the methods outlined above.
- Mailbox address
- Summary of mailbox issue. Include Email client(s) in use by client and any errors being reported.
- Identify steps that have been taken toward resolution
- Were XMission wiki pages lacking necessary information?
If there is a problem that isn't addressed inside our wiki documents [1] we can get these created quickly to better support moving forward.
Any sensitive information you need to provide XMission should only be shared using https://secrets.xmission.com. You enter the note information on the ecrets page, create a custom url, and then share that URL with your XMission agent.
