Multi-node Zimbra installs sometimes fail in mysterious ways.. We recently resolved what turned out to be a network problem but it was causing our Zimbra install to fail with what I originally suspected was an LDAP problem. I think the troubleshooting process may prove useful. This is Zimbra 5.0.4:

If a store doesn’t appear to be communicating with its ldap master, here’s how a I debugged it

On the ldap master:

# vi /etc/syslog.conf
    local4.debug          -/var/log/zimbra.log
# /sbin/service syslog reload
Reloading syslogd...                                       [  OK  ]
Reloading klogd...                                         [  OK  ]
# su - zimbra
$ zmlocalconfig -e ldap_log_level=800
$ zmcontrol stop && zmcontrol start

Now tail -f /var/log/zimbra.log for slapd logging

Now from the store:

yum install openldap-clients (RHEL5) or
up2date openldap-clients (RHEL4) if ldapsearch isn’t installed

$ ldapsearch -h zldap.morganjones.internal -W -x -LL -D cn=config
-b cn=zimbra objectclass=*
Enter LDAP Password:
version: 1 

dn: cn=zimbra
objectClass: organizationalRole
description: Zimbra Systems Application Data
cn: zimbra 

dn: cn=admins,cn=zimbra
objectClass: organizationalRole
description: admin accounts
cn: admins 

...

dn: cn=com_zimbra_convertd,cn=zimlets,cn=zimbra
zimbraZimletDescription: Convertd Extension for Admin UI
zimbraZimletVersion: 1.0
objectClass: zimbraZimletEntry
zimbraZimletIndexingEnabled: TRUE
zimbraZimletKeyword: com_zimbra_convertd
cn: com_zimbra_convertd
zimbraZimletIsExtension: TRUE
zimbraZimletPriority: 12
zimbraZimletEnabled: TRUE
$

side note: Zimbra users TLS for connections before stores and ldap servers. ‘-LL’ forces ldapsearch to use TLS, -x turns off ldaps.

Here’s the background that started me down this path:

Install ldap master with at least zimbra-ldap

Install a store, answer ‘n’ to zimbra-ldap and ‘y’ to zimbra-store. At the Main menu choose ‘1’ for Common Configuration.

Set Ldap master host and Ldap Admin password and when I typed ‘r’ it hung just like this:

Common configuration

   1) Hostname:                                store01.morganjones.internal
   2) Ldap master host:                      zldap.morganjones.internal
   3) Ldap port:                                389
   4) Ldap Admin password:                 set
   5) LDAP Base DN:                           cn=zimbra
   6) Require secure interprocess communications: yes
   7) TimeZone:
             (GMT-05.00) Easten Time (US & Canada)

Select, or 'r' for previous menu [r] r

A quick look at /tmp/zmsetup* revealed:

Couldn't bind to zldap.morganjones.internal as uid=zimbra,cn=admins,cn=zimbra
Checking ldap on zldap.morganjones.internal:389
Unable to startTLS: Resource temporarily unavailable
Couldn't bind to zldap.morganjones.internal as uid=zimbra,cn=admins,cn=zimbra
checking isEnabled zimbra-store

Aha.. an LDAP connectivity problem.