[Users] March 10, 2020 Zeta Alliance Conference Call Summary

[Randy Leiker]

Hello Zeta Alliance Community, 

Here is a summary of this week’s conference call. A few brief reminders: 


    * Conference calls are every Tuesday and open to all using either the FreeConferenceCall.com VoIP app or via a dial-in number: [ https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance | https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance ] 
    * Each week’s call agenda can be found at: [ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUUDJpwp2CAylU6lxtbEdVcUX_qSbciyes6gLTWw2fY/edit ] 
    * A copy of each week’s summary is also posted to the Zimbra Forum: 
        * January 2020: [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67572 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67572 ] 
        * February 2020: [ https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67726 | https://forums.zimbra.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67726 ] 
        * March 2020: [ http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67855 | http://forums.zimbra.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67855 ] 
    * Constructive feedback on these call summaries is always welcome. 

March 10, 2020 Conference Call Summary 

Daylight Savings Time (North America) / Summer Time (Europe) 
With the recent start of Daylight Savings Time in most of North America on March 8th, and the upcoming start of Summer Time in Europe on March 29th, this creates a temporary time difference between the two continents causing some to join the weekly call an hour earlier or later than normal. To address this issue, everyone on the call agreed to join the upcoming March 17th & 24th conference calls at the usual time (https://www.freeconferencecall.com/wall/zetalliance) while those calling in from Europe will join the call an hour earlier than normal until the start of Summer Time on March 29th. 

Zimbra Connector for Outlook (ZCO) 
Mark S. asked which locations Synacor plans to distribute ZCO updates, as this has been observed to sometimes be inconsistent. John H. said that new versions will continue to be released: 


    * As part of major and minor Zimbra version releases 
    * Within Zimbra patches (from the Zimbra Yum/Apt repos) 
    * From the Zimbra downloads page (https://www.zimbra.com/downloads/zimbra-connector-for-outlook/). 

It was noted that the Zimbra downloads page does not currently have the latest ZCO version posted, but John H. said this will be updated shortly for those that wish to obtain the latest ZCO version, but do not wish to upgrade their Zimbra server version at this time. 

Mark S. also asked which server versions of Zimbra are supported by the new version of the ZCO. John H said all supported server versions of Zimbra (https://www.zimbra.com/support/support-offerings/product-lifecycle/) are officially supported by the latest version of the ZCO. 

Zimbra 8.8.15 Patch 8 Released 
Mark S. reported that the release of 8.8.15 P8 includes a security fix that will be important for any multi-tenant installs of Zimbra, particularly for Zimbra BSPs (https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Zimbra_Releases/8.8.15/P8). Randy L. asked for clarification on the known issue documented in the Patch 8 release notes where Outlook reportedly hangs when ZCO synchronizes with a Zimbra server. John H. said a restart of Outlook can be used to recover, and also said this is due to a known bug in ZCO 8.8.15 Build 1867 (included with Patch 8). A fixed version of ZCO has already been created, but was not available in time to be included in Patch 8. The bug fix is undergoing final testing which is expected to be released very shortly. This bug fix version will also reportedly include a fix for another known issue in ZCO build 1867: "Contact group members lose all contact information, except email id, after syncing to ZCO." 

Changing The Global Max Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) Version 
Mark S. asked for advice regarding changing the default Global Max EAS Version setting in the Zimbra Administration site in Home > Network Modules NG > Mobile. Mark noted that the default max version in 8.8.15 is set for EAS 14.1 and EAS 2.5 for Samsung devices. With 8.8.15 P8 adding support for EAS 16.0 and 16.1, Mark asked for anyone’s thoughts on changing the global max EAS version to either 16.0 or 16.1. Cine offered his opinion that very recent Android devices and iPhones should be able to support EAS 16.0 or 16.1. He explained that changing the max EAS version usually only takes effect when an ActiveSync account is first setup on a mobile device, since mobile devices normally only select the EAS version once, during an initial synchronization with an ActiveSync server. He also explained that if the max EAS version is changed in the Zimbra Admin site, that testing has shown some mobile devices may initiate a full re-synchronization, along with selecting a new EAS version, if the mobile device doesn’t receive a response that it expects from the ActiveSync server. 

Cine explained that changing the Samsung EAS max version is tricky as testing has shown that various synchronization problems appear starting with EAS 8.1 and later. He said that if Samsung phone owners are able to use a different email/calendar/contacts app with their ActiveSync account, other than the native apps provided by Samsung, it should in theory be possible to switch the Samsung EAS max version to 14.x or 16.x. 

Cine also explained that EAS 16.0 includes a complete redesign of the calendar synchronization feature, and that EAS 16.1 includes a new remote-wipe feature that can target a specific email account. More details on differences between EAS versions are available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_ActiveSync#History 


Randy Leiker ( randy at skywaynetworks.com ) 
Skyway Networks, LLC 
[ http://www.skywaynetworks.com/ ] 
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