On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 20:57:31 +0000 Paul Grenyer paul.grenyer@gmail.com allegedly wrote:

Hi all

I want to create an email server so that I can send and receive email for a number of my domains. I've tried using postfix, but it's a pig to setup and it appears I need to have a user account on the server for every email address and I can't restrict one user to only one domain. e.g. if I create a user called paul and I have two domains, I get paul@domain1 and paul@domain2. Of course this could be my misunderstanding.

So, I would like recommendations for a mailserver to run on ubuntu. Ideally I'd like it to be:

1. Easy to setup
2. Not require a user to be created for each email address.
3. Be able to create email addresses for individual domains
4. Web interface
5. Work with mailman
6. Support pop/imap
7. Support email forwarding.

Any suggestions?

Hi Paul

Yep - postfix.

I find that it is realtively easy to setup. In fact, out of the box it meets most requirements without much twiddling.

To answer your points:

You don't need a system user for each email address. Use virtual mail addressing and set the users in a mysql database. I use the wonderful "postfixadmin" application to handle all my domains amd virtual mail users. postfixadmin uses a web interface.

if you want a web interface to your email, then look at squirrelmail - but really pop or imap would be better.

postfix works well with mailman and when coupled with dovecot, it handles pops and imap with ease.

I actually have some "howtos" on my blog which may help (see for example http://baldric.net/mailman-with-postfix/ but note that I wrote that before I started using postfixadmin and mysql so the virtual maps info is out of date.) I also wrote about postfixadmin at http://baldric.net/2010/01/23/life-is-too-short-to-use-horde/

if you have specific questions in your configuration, or you want some config tips for your main.cf or dovecot config files, let me know.

Mick

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On 24/03/2012 20:57, Paul Grenyer wrote:

Hi all

I want to create an email server so that I can send and receive email for a number of my domains. I've tried using postfix, but it's a pig to setup and it appears I need to have a user account on the server for every email address and I can't restrict one user to only one domain. e.g. if I create a user called paul and I have two domains, I get paul@domain1 and paul@domain2. Of course this could be my misunderstanding.

So, I would like recommendations for a mailserver to run on ubuntu. Ideally I'd like it to be:

1. Easy to setup
2. Not require a user to be created for each email address.
3. Be able to create email addresses for individual domains
4. Web interface
5. Work with mailman
6. Support pop/imap
7. Support email forwarding.

Any suggestions?

Yes, for the MTA, I recommend postfix. It is a doddle to set-up, even easier to manage, and there's a ton of help out there if you care to look for it.

As previously suggested, virtual accounts in a mysql database are the way to go, easily managed by either of the postfix tools, or as we do here, phpmyadmin and bash scripts.

For the LTA and authentication, I recommend courier and IMAP (a requirement for webmail).

For web mail, I highly recommend roundcube which is immeasurably better than squirrelmail, and handles virtual domains very well, allowing one to use apache virtual hosting and per-domain branding to "hide" the back-end primary domain.

For auto-responders and forwarding, I recommend maildrop, which integrates with postfix and courier well, but postfix can manage that itself, and the mysql database back-end allows a great deal of flexibility as to where email goes.

If you need help, most of us here can do this stuff, and I work for beer vouchers!

Cheers, Laurie.