Virtual Users And Domains With Postfix, Courier And MySQL (Debian Etch)

This document describes how to install a mail server based on Postfix that is based on virtual users and domains, i.e. users and domains that are in a MySQL database. I'll also demonstrate the installation and configuration of Courier (Courier-POP3, Courier-IMAP), so that Courier can authenticate against the same MySQL database Postfix uses.

4 Create The MySQL Database For Postfix/Courier

By default, MySQL is installed without a root password, which we change immediately (replace yourrootsqlpassword with the password you want to use):

mysqladmin -u root password yourrootsqlpassword

Now we create a database called mail:

mysqladmin -u root -p create mail

Next, we go to the MySQL shell:

mysql -u root -p

On the MySQL shell, we create the user mail_admin with the passwort mail_admin_password (replace it with your own password) who has SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE privileges on the mail database. This user will be used by Postfix and Courier to connect to the mail database:

6 Configure Saslauthd

First run

mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd

Then edit /etc/default/saslauthd. Set START to yes and change the line OPTIONS="-c" to OPTIONS="-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd -r":

vi /etc/default/saslauthd

#
# Settings for saslauthd daemon
#

# Should saslauthd run automatically on startup? (default: no)
START=yes

# Which authentication mechanisms should saslauthd use? (default: pam)
#
# Available options in this Debian package:
# getpwent  -- use the getpwent() library function
# kerberos5 -- use Kerberos 5
# pam       -- use PAM
# rimap     -- use a remote IMAP server
# shadow    -- use the local shadow password file
# sasldb    -- use the local sasldb database file
# ldap      -- use LDAP (configuration is in /etc/saslauthd.conf)
#
# Only one option may be used at a time. See the saslauthd man page
# for more information.
#
# Example: MECHANISMS="pam"
MECHANISMS="pam"

# Additional options for this mechanism. (default: none)
# See the saslauthd man page for information about mech-specific options.
MECH_OPTIONS=""

# How many saslauthd processes should we run? (default: 5)
# A value of 0 will fork a new process for each connection.
THREADS=5

# Other options (default: -c)
# See the saslauthd man page for information about these options.
#
# Example for postfix users: "-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd"
# Note: See /usr/share/doc/sasl2-bin/README.Debian
OPTIONS="-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd -r"

Then create the file /etc/pam.d/smtp. It should contain only the following two lines (go sure to fill in your correct database details):

9 Install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, And ClamAV

To install amavisd-new, spamassassin and clamav, run the following command:

apt-get install amavisd-new spamassassin clamav clamav-daemon zoo unzip bzip2 unzoo libnet-ph-perl libnet-snpp-perl libnet-telnet-perl nomarch lzop pax

Afterwards we must configure amavisd-new. The configuration is split up in various files which reside in the /etc/amavis/conf.d directory. Take a look at each of them to become familiar with the configuration. Most settings are fine, however we must modify three files:

11 Quota Exceedance Notifications

If you want to get notifications about all the email accounts that are over quota, then do this:

cd /usr/local/sbin/
wget http://puuhis.net/vhcs/quota.txt
mv quota.txt quota_notify
chmod 755 quota_notify

Open /usr/local/sbin/quota_notify and edit the variables at the top. Further down in the file (towards the end) there are two lines where you should add a % sign:

vi /usr/local/sbin/quota_notify

[...]
my $POSTFIX_CF = "/etc/postfix/main.cf";
my $MAILPROG = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t";
my $WARNPERCENT = 80;
my @POSTMASTERS = ('postmaster@yourdomain.tld');
my $CONAME = 'My Company';
my $COADDR = 'postmaster@yourdomain.tld';
my $SUADDR = 'postmaster@yourdomain.tld';
my $MAIL_REPORT = 1;
my $MAIL_WARNING = 1;
[...]
           print "Subject: WARNING: Your mailbox is $lusers{$luser}% full.\n";
[...]
           print "Your mailbox: $luser is $lusers{$luser}% full.\n\n";
[...]

Run

13 Populate The Database And Test

To populate the database you can use the MySQL shell:

mysql -u root -p
USE mail;

At least you have to create entries in the tables domains and users:

INSERT INTO `domains` (`domain`) VALUES ('example.com');
INSERT INTO `users` (`email`, `password`, `quota`) VALUES ('sales@example.com', ENCRYPT('secret'), 10485760);

(Please take care you use the ENCRYPT syntax in the second INSERT statement in order to encrypt the password!)