I wrote this script during the gruelling process of installing and setting up an email server. It perfectly reproduces my successful steps to ensure the same setup time and time again.
I've linked this file on Github to a shorter, more memorable address on my website so you can get it on your machine with this short command:
curl -LO lukesmith.xyz/emailwiz.sh
When prompted by a dialog menu at the beginning, select "Internet Site", then
give your full domain without any subdomain, i.e. lukesmith.xyz
.
Read this readme and peruse the script's comments before running it. Expect it to fail and you have to do bug testing and you will be very happy when it actually works perfectly.
- Postfix to send mail.
- Dovecot to receive mail.
- Config files that unique the two above securely with native log-ins.
- Spamassassin to prevent spam and allow you to make custom filters.
- OpenDKIM to validate you so you can send to Gmail and other big sites.
- use a SQL database or anything like that.
- set up a graphical interface for mail like Roundcube or Squirrel Mail. If you want that, you'll have to install it yourself. I just use isync/msmtp/mutt-wizard to have an offline mirror of my email setup and I recommend the same. There are other ways of doing it though, like Thunderbird, etc.
- A Debian or Ubuntu server. I've tested this on a Vultr Debian server and one running Ubuntu and their setup works, but I suspect other VPS hosts will have similar/possibly identical default settings which will let you run this on them. Note that the affiliate link there to Vultr gives you a $100 credit for the first month to play around.
- A Let's Encrypt SSL certificate for your site's
mail.
subdomain. Create a nginx/apache site atmail.<yourdomain.com>
and get a certificate for it with Let's Encrypt's Certbot. - You need two little DNS records set on your domain registrar's site/DNS
server: (1) an MX record pointing to your own main domain/IP and (2) a
CNAME record for your
mail.
subdomain. apt purge
all your previous (failed) attempts to install and configure a mailserver. Get rid of all your system settings for Postfix, Dovecot, OpenDKIM and everything else. This script builds off of a fresh install.- Some VPS providers block port 25 (used to send mail). You may need to request that this port be opened to send mail successfully. Although I have never had to do this on a Vultr VPS, others have had this issue so if you cannot send, contact your VPS provider.
- After the script runs, you'll have to add two additional DNS TXT records which involves the OpenDKIM key that it generates during the script.
Let's say we want to add a user Billy and let him receive mail, run this:
useradd -m -G mail billy
passwd billy
Any user added to the mail
group will be able to receive mail. Suppose a user
Cassie already exists and we want to let her receive mail to. Just run:
usermod -a -G mail cassie
A user's mail will appear in ~/.Mail/
. I you want to see your mail while
ssh'd in the server, you could just install mutt, add set spoolfile="+Inbox"
to your ~/.muttrc
and use mutt to view and reply to mail. You'll probably
want to log in remotely though:
Let's say you want to access your mail with Thunderbird or mutt or another email program. For my domain, the server information will be as follows:
- SMTP server:
mail.lukesmith.xyz
- SMTP port: 587
- IMAP server:
mail.lukesmith.xyz
- IMAP port: 993
- Username
luke
(I.e. not[email protected]
)
The last point is important. Many email systems use a full email address on login. Since we just simply use local PAM logins, only the user's name is used (this makes a difference if you're using my mutt-wizard, etc.).
You're a big boy now if you have your own mail server!
You can tweak Postfix (sending mail
NEW TWEAKS: This fork of emailwiz is meant to work specifically on Alpine Linux
If this script or documentation has saved you some frustration, you can donate to support me at lukesmith.xyz/donate.