Zimbra Email NotesCollege of Engineering Computing Services • Kansas State University |
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Introduction [top] K-State email services will be moving to Zimbra email during Spring semester of 2009, in stages:
The transition should be almost painless.
K-State WebMail users will see much faster email service with many new features.
Users of Thunderbird, Outlook and other local clients will experience faster service.
but...
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See Zimbra features demonstrated in short videos [top] Eight short "product tour" videos demonstrate many Zimbra features. They are preceded by a short introduction/sales pitch (which may put you off); then the videos play in sequence. To go directly to the videos, click the "Topic Index" button (near the lower right corner of the video frame) to jump to a video of interest. |
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Any email asking for your password is BOGUS [top] Caution: Internet criminals may attempt to exploit the transition by sending email pretending to be from K-State, asking for your eID and password in order to fix some transition-related "problem" with your account. Don't fall for it, no matter how genuine it appears. K-State will never ask you to send your eID password in an email. |
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Things to do before May 29, 2009 [top] The general transition to Zimbra begins on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 6 pm. Before that time:
1. Don't "tidy up" or make major changes to your K-State email folders. K-State has already copied most of your email to Zimbra. If you make changes before the transition, your copied email at Zimbra will have to be changed to match. It will be helpful if you do not make major changes before the transition. 2. Copy from K-State Webmail any address books or other information you want to save. After the transition on May 29, 2009, everyone will lose access to the current WebMail environment, and to WebMail-related portions of their eProfile. You will lose access to:
This does NOT refer to address books, filter rules etc. that you may have created in your local email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.). This refers ONLY to information in your K-State WebMail environment and in your K-State eProfile. K-State has a checklist, with notes on how to export address books or save other information, here: http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/e-mail/docs/zimbra/migration.html
3. Review configuration settings for Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. K-State has published a table of settings for local email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) which will work in both the current K-State e-mail environment and the new K-State Zimbra e-mail system: http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/e-mail/portnumbers.html Your local email clients, whether on a campus computer, home computer or a portable device, should be checked to be sure the settings are listed in the table above. Note that there are several possible settings for SMTP, POP and IMAP. If your setting matches any of those listed, that setting is correct. |
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What happens during the transition? [top] Prior to the transition, K-State began copying everyone's email folders to their new "home" at Zimbra. That process is now almost completely done, and K-State is now copying daily changes to Zimbra to keep everyone's mail folders at Zimbra up to date. When the transition begins at 6 P.M. on May 29th, 2009, everyone at K-State will lose access to their email (except for the 1600 people who have already migrated to Zimbra). All incoming and outgoing email will be held for later delivery (no email will be lost). K-State will complete the updating of all email folders at Zimbra. At that point, K-State will switch over to Zimbra as the new email environment. The email that was held will be released, and K-State will resume allowing access to email.
K-State plans to update the main Zimbra web page at http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/e-mail/zimbra/ throughout the weekend with the current status of the migration Over 30,000 email accounts will be moved in the transition. For a small number of individuals, unexpected problems may prevent 100% of their email from being transferred successfully to Zimbra. These individuals will be given access to the new Zimbra environment at the same time as everyone else, and the remainder of their email will be migrated as soon as possible. Again, no email will be lost. |
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After the transition ... [top] The transition is expected to be completed by Sunday evening, May 31, 2009. At that time, access will be "turned on" to the Zimbra environment. * Use a web browser for your first access to Zimbra email. We recommend that everyone access their email at first by using a web browser, NOT Thunderbird or some other client. Sign in with your eID and password at K-State plans to have an individualized status message on the sign-in page to let you know if your migration to Zimbra has been completed. * Check your email folders, and their contents. Try to verify that all of your email was copied correctly. * Empty your Trash folder. This ensures that the number of messages in a folder is displayed correctly. Open the Trash folder and move any messages you want to keep to another folder. Right-click on the Trash folder, then click "Empty Trash" on the context menu. . * Notice that your folders are no longer sub-folders of your INBOX. In the current K-State email system, your INBOX is the only folder at the root of your mail folder tree. It contains both your incoming mail and all other folders (DRAFT, TRASH, SPAM, etc) and their sub-folders. In Zimbra, your INBOX contains only incoming mail. All immediate sub-folders have been moved out of your INBOX and are now at the same level as your INBOX -- at the root of your email folder tree. If the moved folders contained any sub-folders, they are still in the moved folders. This change is inconsequential in the WebMail (web browser) environment, but local clients like Thunderbird or Outlook will have to adjust to the new arrangement, as discussed in the next section. |
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Getting your local email client(s) up and running [top] Most people who use a local client should find that it simply works, after the transition, with all of the functionality it had before the move to Zimbra. The local client has its own address books, distribution lists, signature files and preference settings, and is simply talking to a different server (at Zimbra) to access mail folders. However, when you first attempt to access your email using Thunderbird, Outlook or some other local email client, there are a few one-time problems you may encounter.
Once over these initial hurdles, you should find that your local client has all the functionality that it had before, and the response should be faster. The one remaining difference you may notice is .. spam. |
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Issues with SPAM [top] Early adopters have generally found that Zimbra handles spam poorly compared to other Webmail and email systems. This may or may not be a problem for you, depending on the quantity and type of spam you receive. First, Zimbra can, and does, mistakenly tag genuine mail as spam. You will need to examine mail in your Spam folder before deleting it. When you find mail mistakenly placed in your spam folder, there are a couple of things you can do. You can click the "Not Spam" button, which fixes that particular message and transfers it to your Inbox. You can also create a Zimbra mail filter to "whitelist" the mail, so that all future mail meeting the filter tests can be kept in your Inbox (or routed to another mail folder), preventing it from ending up in your Spam folder. Zimbra filters are discussed in a later section. Second, Zimbra may miss genuine spam, leaving it in your Inbox. This is a nuisance, and it also adds to security risks by not sending password scams and other malicious mail to your Spam folder (where you are far less likely to notice it, read it or act on it). The only available solution is to attempt to "blacklist" mail using Zimbra filters, but these blacklists rules are effective only when you can clearly identify some unique characteristic. |
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Using the Zimbra web environment [top] Although Zimbra works well with local clients, including various smartphones and portable devices, its extensive list of new capabilities are available only when you access Zimbra using a web browser. This is often referred to as using the "Web client" as opposed to a "local client". The most noticeable improvement is its greatly increased speed. Zimbra uses a combination of multiple servers and so-called AJAX technology to provide fast responses to your input. Zimbra is more than email - it is a "collaboration suite" of tools for creating and sharing files, calendars and task lists, and the Zimbra calendar will eventually become the official University calendar. But for email in particular, using the "web client" (a web browser) allows you to:
As you use the web client, you may find that it has the speed and functionality formerly available only in a local client -- plus the benefits of server-based address books and filter rules. In the following sections, you will find specific guidance and suggestions for configuring and using Zimbra with the web client. More information about these topics is in the Zimbra Web Client Guide. In the Zimbra web client, access this guide by clicking the Help link in the upper right corner; then click the Zimbra help link. |
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Choose/change the form of your email address [top] To change your email address from @k-state.edu to @ksu.edu
We recommend that you choose the form of address that you used prior to the transition, to ensure that your email will be recognized as legitimate by LISTSERV-type lists and other applications that use your email address to identify you. |
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Create and configure one or more email signatures [top] To create one or more email signatures
To enable a default email signature
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Populating your address books [top] Address books are found under the Contacts tab. You begin with two (empty) address books named "Contacts" and "Emailed Contacts". You add your own entries to "Contacts"; when you send email, the recipients are automatically added to "Emailed Contacts". There is a third, system-wide address book called the Global Address List. It contains contact information for all K-State faculty, staff, and students (except students who have requested that their personal contact information be kept confidential). K-State will keep the Global Address List current; you cannot change its contents. You can create additional address books by clicking on the New Address Book button. You can have many address books; when you type an address in email, all address books are searched for matches to the text you type. The quickest way to populate an address book is to import addresses from another source, such as your WebMail address book or you address books in your local client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc).
The general procedure is straightforward.
The temporary address book allows you to evaluate the success of the import procedure; if something is wrong, you can simply delete it. When the address book is imported sucessfully, you can stop, or if you prefer you can move the imported addresses to some other address book, such as "Contacts". Example, part 1: export from Thunderbird
Example, part 2: create a temporary address book in Zimbra
Example, part 3: import into the Zimbra temporary address book
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Setting up mail filters [top] Mail filters are very useful. They can move selected mail to folders you specify, or apply tags to them, or make sure that good email is not placed in your spam folder. Because Zimbra filters are on the server, they work for you 24 hours every day and act on every piece of mail as it arrives - independently of whether you choose a local client or a web client to access your email. Order is important. Zimbra filters are applied in the order you see in the Filters section. Rearranging the order by moving them one step upwarad or one step downward is tedious. You can insert a new filter into the list by selecting an existing filter, then click New Filter. It will be created directly above the existing filter you selected. Avoid using the "matches exactly" test. It is very literal, and very tricky. "Contains" is a safer test. One way to verify that filters are working is to have a filter tag any file it matches. Be very careful if you use the "Discard" filter action. "Discard" removes a message with no chance of later recovery or examination. It does NOT put a mesage in the Trash folder. |
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Creating "whitelists" [top] Filters are the only method available to "whitelist" messages - that is, to make sure that they never end up in your Spam folder. Just adding an address to your address book won't do it. You have to create a filter - one that moves the mail to a folder or leaves it in your inbox as the final action. In Zimbra, the fate of email is determined by a three step process.
Any filter that moves a message to any folder - including your inbox - as a final action results in "whitelisting" that message. |