Quick and dirty web post for dovecot

 

So here we go with dovevot for checking that spiffy new mail server.

Since I have postfix encrypting the passwords so I dont have to worry about admins being trustworthy that presented a fun issue or two and here is how i got around them.

I did the default install of dovecot 

yum install dovecot 

and then edited the funk out of my /etc/dovecot.conf file

dont forget to make a backup of it before you edit it

#where to run it 

base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/

# Just the basics, no s protocols with it 

protocols = imap pop3 

#listen on all addresses and standard ports 

listen = [::]

#i wanted to seperate it from my maillog so that i could get a better reading of whats going on 

log_path = /var/log/dovecot 

log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:S "

# what directory should it "login to" 

login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login

# most people have this as /var/vmail/%d/%n 

mail_location = maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir

# !! Turn this off before going to production!! 

mail_debug = yes

# this is my postfix user ID and group ID 

first_valid_uid = 89

last_valid_uid = 89

# how many connections at a time 

max_mail_processes = 50

#specify the protocols and anything special about them

protocol imap {

}

protocol pop3 {

}

protocol lda {

  postmaster_address = postmaster@yourdomain.com

  hostname = mail.yourdomain.com

}

#this is to enforce standard user names 

auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@

# Again turn these off before going to production 

auth_verbose = yes

auth_debug = yes

auth_debug_passwords = no

#how many worker processes per login (If needed) 

auth_worker_max_count = 20

# what type of authorization 

auth default {

   mechanisms = plain login digest-md5 cram-md5 

  passdb sql {

    #the location to your user and password information 

    args = /etc/dovecot-mysql.conf 

  }

  userdb sql {

     #the location to your database connection 

    args = /etc/dovecot-mysql.conf 

  }

#Tried a few things for this part, and this one finally worked for me 

  socket listen {

    client {

      path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client

      mode = 0660

      user = postfix 

      group = postfix 

    }

  }

}

# Any special plugins you want to load up 

plugin {

}

That is simple enough, but it took a while to get everything dialed in, and now the killer, dovecot-mysql.conf. It was a pain getting this information straight so here it is 

#NOTHING i found mentioned the Driver =  anwhere .. it was a leap of faith to get it 

driver = mysql

# if you do not have encrypted password you do not need this part 

default_pass_scheme = CRYPT

# YOUR database connection string 

connect = host=localhost dbname=postfix user=postfixuser password=mySuperSecretPassword 

#get the password for the user name 

password_query = SELECT password FROM mailbox WHERE username = '%u'

# change to reflect your mail directories, your postfix user/group number and quotas 

user_query = SELECT '/home/vmail/%d/%nMaildir' as home, 'maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir' as mail, 89 AS uid, 89 AS gid, concat('dirsize:storage=',quota) AS quota FROM mailbox WHERE username ='%u' AND active ='1'

Postfix + MySQL on CentOS 

Some things might not be right, but this is what worked for me, so if it doesn't work for you, sorry but this is how I did it, and it works. There are many many many links to doing this, so if this doesnt work keep searching. 

For this I started with a clean CentOS install, it was CentOS 5.4. During the CentOS install I used the advanced package options and I selected squirrelmail, httpd(web server), mysql, and I unchoose sendmail, it still installed sendmail. 

After the machine is booted and updated we then want to setup the mysql database and user.

/etc/init.d/mysqld start

mysql -u root -p 

Password: ***************************************** (not really my password, but you get the idea

mysql> create database postfix 

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> grant all on postfix.* to 'postfixuser'@'localhost' identified by 'MySuperSecurePassword!'; 

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

now we want to add the postfix packages. 

/etc/init.d/sendmail stop 

yum remove sendmail 

yum install php-mysql spamassassin php php-mbstring postfix 

Postfix should now be installed, but it is missing some things. 

[root@localhost ~]# postconf -m

btree

cidr

environ

hash

ldap

nis

pcre

proxy

regexp

static

unix

If you notice, there is not MySQL support in there. That is in a special package in the CentOS Plus repo. 

wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos-5/5.4/centosplus/i386/RPMS/postfix-2.3.3-2.el5.centos.mysql_pgsql.i386.rpm 

When you do the rpm install it will tell you that you need postgressql, i just installed it and made sure it was off and the service was off.

yum install postgresql 

When you install postfix from the RPM it will tell you that you have a newer version on your system, and that is why we are using the --force 

rpm -U postfix-2.3.3-2.el5.centos.mysql_pgsql.i386.rpm --force  

Restart the server/service then run the postconf -m again to verify the MySQL support

[root@localhost ~]# postconf -m

btree

cidr

environ

hash

ldap

mysql

nis

pcre

pgsql

proxy

regexp

static

unix

Next we want to add Postfix Admin, there is no RPM for this, but it is a simple web application that will setup the tables in the database for you. 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/postfixadmin/

Because this is going to be a straight mail server, I just untared it in the /var/www/html directory and set it up from there. This is a nice utility for managing and maintaining users, and you can create admins per domain so that they can manage their own accounts. 

connect to the server at the postfix admin URL and configure that, it will allow you to configure the databases even though we haven't setup postfix to use the databases yet. 

After you have postfix admin configured it is time to add the magic to the postfix/main.cf file. 

You want to change it to allow users 

Be sure to find the corisponding lines here and comment them out or change them in the main.cf

#MySQL DB properties

# This is for the virtual users 

virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/virtual_alias_maps.cf

# the group id that postfix runs as 

virtual_gid_maps = static:89

# Create this directory and chmod -R postfix:postfix /home/vmail 

virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail

# this will be the domains that are allowed to send/receive on the box 

virtual_mailbox_domains = mysql:/etc/postfix/virtual_domains_maps.cf

# mailboxes 

virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/virtual_mailbox_maps.cf

# more user and groupIDs 

virtual_minimum_uid = 89

virtual_mailbox_uid = 89

# we want the transport type to be virtual instead of physical 

virtual_transport = virtual

virtual_uid_maps = static:89

And the Database connections

cat virtual_alias_maps.cf

user = postfixdatabaseuser

password = password

host = localhost

dbname = postfix

table = alias

select_field = goto

where_field = address

cat virtual_alias_maps.cf

user = postfixdatabaseuser

password = password

host = localhost

dbname = postfix

table = alias

select_field = goto

where_field = address

cat virtual_domains_maps.cf

user = postfixdatabaseuser

password = password

hosts = localhost

dbname = postfix

table = domain

select_field = description

where_field = domain

Restart the postfix server, add to local users with postfix admin, and use squirrelmail to verify that you can send and receive emails.

Again this is a general overview, email me if you have any questions.

Edits might be made to this as time goes on as well.