Mail Server Administration
Contents
1. be handling mail 3 Hand off for incoming email to Dovecot s LMTP service so it can get saved on the server 4 STARTTLS encryption for all connections for increased security 5 Access to ports 465 and 587 for sending in addition to the default port 25 6 Hand off for authentication to Dovecot This involved making changes to the following files 1 etc postfix main cf 2 etc postfix mysql virtual mailbox domains cf 3 etc postfix mysql virtual mailbox maps cf 4 etc postfix mysql virtual alias maps cf 5 etc postfix master cf 4 4 3 Dovecot We configured the following in Dovecot 1 Set the IMAP POP3 and LMTP protocols 2 Define the mail location 3 Use MySQL for username password lookups for authentication 4 Configure needed sockets for authentication and LMTP 5 Require SSL encryption This required making changes to the following files 1 etc dovecot dovecot conf Dovecot s main configuration file 2 etc dovecot conf d 10 mail conf Deals with the server s file system 3 etc dovecot conf d 10 auth conf Defines how user authentication is handled 4 etc dovecot conf d auth sql conf ext New authentication file for SQL type authen tication 5 etc dovecot dovecot sql conf ext An included authentication file with the MySQL connection parameters 6 etc dovecot conf d 10 master conf Where sockets are configured 7 etc dovecot conf d 10 ssl conf Where SSL related parameters are specified 4 5 Detailed2. is potentially harmful e Lists Creating groups of people to which emails can be specifically sent e Storage and Backup Direct access to where mail is stored and the ability to back it up e Customization Pick the applications to use and tune them for specific needs e Troubleshooting When something goes wrong it can be immediately investigated and fixed e Monitoring Logs for incoming and outgoing messages as well as for connection and authorization attempts can be viewed e Control Ultimately that is what it is all about The responsibility of setting up and running and mail server for a company or other orga nization is not a trivial task and one or both of these tasks typically lies with the System Administrator Our tangible objective was to set up and configure a mail server from scratch and host it publicly Intangibly our personal learning goals were to learn more about Linux using open source packages and building a working system This exercise facilitated this experience 3 Background A mail server is composed of three major software components 1 Mail Transfer Agent MTA relays mail between the mail server and the wider Internet This includes delivering an outside email to one of the users or sending an email from one of the users 2 Mail Delivery Agent MDA takes mail from the MTA s queue and saves it to individual mailboxes on the mail server 3 Mail Storage and Retrieval Server ma
3. A Mail Delivery Agent and IMAP POP3 server that is lightweight modern and configurable 3 MySQL http www mysql com Database to store domain authentication and alias information that is widely regarded as the world s most popular open source database and for good reason Our go to authority and an extremely good source of information on this topic can be found at Linode s library article on Running a Mail Server 2 4 3 1 Installation The installation of the above components was done with the following command sudo apt get install postfix postfix mysql dovecot core dovecot imapd dovecot pop3d dovecot lmtpd dovecot mysql mysql server 4 4 Configuration of Components The following sections describe on an intermediate level the required configuration of the different mail server components 4 4 1 MySQL The MySQL database has a user postman dedicated to the mail server and contains three tables 1 virtual domains the domains that will receive mail here 2 virtual_users all of the email addresses and passwords 3 virtual_aliases email aliases lets you forward mail from one email address to an other Figure 2 Mail server database tables 4 4 2 PostFix We configured the following in Postfix 1 Virtual domains aliases and users so we don t have to make an actual UNIX user for everybody who needs an email address 2 MySQL access so it can read the list of domains for which it should
4. CLEMSON UNIVERSITY CPSC 424 SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION AND SECURITY SECTION OO1 Mail Server Administration Authors Joshua GROPPE William COLLINS Instructor James M MARTIN Ph D April 25 2014 CG s g 1 Introduction Email is a major form of communication in modern society for both personal and professional purposes While there exist many free email programs many professional and academic entities choose to host their own mail server Motivation for doing this can come in several forms and have an array of benefits However our primary motivation for doing this is because the responsibility of running a mail server typically lies with a System Administrator Thus experience in this area is extremely valuable We set up and configured a public mail server on a Linux system While we control the creation of accounts we have tested and proven that they can be seamlessly integrated with mail clients on both Windows and Mac operating systems and used to send and receive email like any other type of mail service 2 Motivation amp Objectives There exist many free email services such as Google s Gmail or Yahoo s Yahoo Mail How ever professional and academic entities often choose to create and host their own for some or all of the following reasons e Privacy Sending storing and managing mail internally provides a higher level of security e Virus and Spam Blocking unwanted emails and determining what
5. Instructions The methodology section above provided an intermediate level description of what we did to successfully setup a mail server For detailed instructions of how to do this using the setup and configuration we decided upon please refer to the following Linode library article https library linode com email postfix postfix2 9 6 dovecot2 0 19 mysql 5 User s Manual 5 1 Obtaining a user account As of now the only way to add new user accounts to the server is by manually adding them to the mysql database This can be done with the following command INSERT INTO mailserver virtual_users id domain_id password email VALUES 1 1 ENCRYPT firstpassword CONCAT 6 SUBSTRING SHA RAND For testing and grading purposes have created two test user accounts and passwords One is for Professor Martin and the other is for Pengfei These are listed below Jim Martin e username jmarty venti in e password thisdeservesana Pengfei Xuan e username pxuan venti in e password linuxmaster 5 2 Setting up your account with a mail client In order to access the email accounts provided above a mail client is needed We have tested accounts with both Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail 7 2 5 2 1 Microsoft Outlook 2010 Microsoft Outlook is able to detect the server configuration with only basic details provided Only the username and password are re
6. ail Incoming Mail Server Configuration The next screen will prompt you to enter your outgoing mail server settings Use all of the same information as the previous step with the exception that mail venti in is now being used as the SMTP Server 5 2 3 Other Mail Clients Other mail clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird or KDE s KMail will also work with our server Simply provide the full email address when prompted for a username and mazil venti in when asked for both the incoming and outgoing mail servers 6 Analysis amp Results After configuring the server it was capable of all the planned features These features are listed below and were tested using both IMAP and POP delivery methods 1 Send mail from one account managed by the server to another 2 Send mail from an account managed by the server to an account managed by another provider Gmail 3 Receive mail on one account managed by the server from another 4 Receive mail on an account managed by the server from another provider 5 send and receive attachments 6 Secure mail with an SSL Certificate 7 Send and receive mail using a number of mail clients The section below shows screen shots that demonstrate successful configuration and use in both Microsoft Outlook 2010 Figure 5 and Apple Mail 7 0 Figure 6 Home Send Receive Folder View AREXE Delete Reply Reply Forward B New New E mail Items v7 amp All New Delete Respond Fin
7. d a Contact v Rules GI Address Book JN OneNote VW Filter E mail Quick Steps Move Tags Find P3 Move to AS Move amp To Manager g Team E mail E3 Unread Read Send Receive All Folders Send Receive v Follow Up 7 4 Favorites lt Search Inbox Ctri E P Venti Mail r Inbox Outlook Data 3 Sent Items Arrange By Date Newest on top Pengfei Xuan lt pxuan venti in gt a Deleted Items Inbox jmarty ven 4 Outlook Data File A Inbox CA Drafts T Sent Items a Deleted Items 4 Today Pengfei Xuan Venti Mail 3 Microsoft Outlook Junk E mail 3 Outbox ry RSS Feeds Fe Search Folders kl Ca A Microsoft Outlook Test Message Sent Sun 4 20 2014 4 17 PM To jmarty vent in 4 17 PM Jim 4 01 PM I see you ve also registered for an email account with venti in Rumor has it that it is managed by a few of the undergraduates in the class I ll look into it and keep you posted Penfei See more about Microsoft Outlook Ww syuaw yulodde Buiwosdn op syse 0 Aepoy 4 Filter applied Connected m amp 100 C x Figure 5 Microsoft Outlook Mailbox Example Inbox Venti 6 messages Gmail All Mail SMART MAILBOXES J Today D be 3 Basecamp GMAIL E Important MAIL ACTIVITY Figure 6 Apple Mail Mailbox Example See More from Wil Collins Joshua Grop
8. ect s goal of advancing our systems administration experience More specifically we now have an active hand knowledge of how an email system works and how to configure and maintain it 7 1 Problems Encountered The only significant problem that we encountered was that the initial password for the MySQL database contained a character that was not understood by Postfix 7 2 Future Work Going forward these are some things that we would like to and to our system 1 Create a web interface that can be used to create and manage accounts 2 Develop a method for periodically backing up the mail database 10 References 1 Sharon Campbell Email with postfix dovecot and mysql nttps library linode com email postfix postfix2 9 6 dovecot2 0 19 mysql May 2013 2 Sharon Campbell Running a mail server https library linode com mailserver June 2018 11
9. nages users and their mailboxes as they check their email over IMAP POP3 connections INCOMING amp OUTGOING MAIL gt lt gt lt Figure 1 Components of a Mail Server 2 There exist many open source packages to serve these functions 4 Methodology 4 1 Overview The implementation of our system involved the following activities tasks 1 Purchasing a Linux server and domain name 2 Purchasing and install an SSL certificate 3 Creating a dedicated MySQL database 4 Selecting and installing software components 5 Configuring components 4 2 Server Domain Name amp SSL Certificate The first step was to acquire a Linux server We decided to purchase a virtual private service hosted by Linode LLC https www linode com We then purchased the following domain name and pointed it at our server https venti in Finally we purchased a signed SSL certificate from StartSSL https www startssl com 4 3 Selection amp Installation of Components Our criteria for selecting the open source software packages to function in the roles described in the Background section was based on the following e Documentation e History of reliable usage e Community Support e Lightweight After doing significant research on the topic we selected the following components Postfix http www dovecot org A Mail Transfer Agent that is modern security oriented and very flexible Dovecot http www postfix org
10. pe Computer Information Systems Clemson University 864 238 6634 solideSe r ENERO write pride a E m gt P Q Hide Inbox Sentv Drafts v MAILBOXES Sort by Date v Wil Collins 4 22 14 v Inbox Hmm Try Again Wil Collins April 9 2014 1 25 PM Clemson What was up with that To Joshua Groppe Hide Details p Re Suup Sent Venti Gmail a Wil Collins 4 12214 amp Let s see who gets this first K Clemson voshius Cropne aons Milestone 2 tex Al Gmail 6 Re Suup Sweeeeet Joshua Groppe Computer Information A Venti Systems Clemson University 864 238 6634 gt unk Wil Collins 418 14 W Do work Joshua Groppe April 9 2014 1 25 PM gt g Trash Will it go through now ED To Wil Collins Hide Details p Re Suup 4 v Archive Clemson All aaa Wil Collins To jgroppe clemson edu Suup Here is an email from vent in April 9 2014 1 23 PM Hide Details Sent Venti 7 Conclusions amp Future Work We have successfully attained our tangible goal of setting and running up a mail server We have demonstrated that it integrates correctly and easily with popular mail clients and that mail can be sent and received reliably and securely In addition we have gained significant experience in the following 1 Learning about open source packages 2 Adding non trivial components to a Linux based system 3 Building extending and evaluating a system All of which directly apply to this proj
11. quired in the Add New Account context An example configuration is shown in Figure 3 below Auto Account Setup Click Next to connect to the mail server and automatically configure your account settings Wil Collins Example Ellen Adams E mail Address wil venti in Type the password your Internet service provider has given you Text Messaging SMS C Manually configure server settings or additional server types lt Back Next gt Cancel Figure 3 Microsoft Outlook 2010 Account Configuration 5 2 2 Apple Mail 7 2 Apple Mail requires a slightly more in depth configuration After selecting Add Other Mail Account in the Add New Account context you will be prompted for the same infor mation as Outlook username and password but upon clicking Create you will be informed Account must be manually configured On the next page you will be prompted to input your incoming mail settings Enter mail venti in as the Mail Server and your username and password in their respective boxes Make sure you use the entire email address in the username field An example configuration is shown in Figure 4 below A Google y Google Incoming Mail Server Info anced Account Type IMAP POP Venti Mail Server mail venti in User Name wil venti in Password eeccece Cancel __ __Back _ j __Next 7 Use only this server TLS Certificate None For support visit Google Figure 4 Apple M
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