You need to set zimbrarequireinterprocesssecurity=0 to get it working again with that cert-hostname mismatch.

What's the status here? We need Windows 8 support. Windows 8 has been in the making for years, it comes as no surprise at all. Zimbra VMware had months to work on this with Release Previews. Is anyone here listening???

Yes, it is possible to add a Zimbra 7 account as Exchange in Windows 8 (works with Mail, Calendar and Contacts). Works fine, except downloads of file are not possible in mail app.

Frist: Your version: zmcontrol -v

You need to set the zimbraDataSourcePollingInterval as well (without IMAP) for the specific data source. Search the forum for this.

Will it work for Reminders set to > 5 min?

Well, I'll have to side with Gruic. Zimbra HA or Server-To-Server-Sync has been promised for quite some time, and the workaround using Vmware instances is not suitable for many installations - not even considering the useless overhead needed for virtualization.

Well, you will definitely need to find the passwords for access to the server (SSH passwords and/or keys).

There are some threads here covering this. Just search for cold standby.

Have you looked at the mail filter rules available in ZCS via the web interface?