6 Create The MySQL Database For Postfix/Courier

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:

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mail.* TO 'mail_admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mail_admin_password';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mail.* TO 'mail_admin'@'localhost.localdomain' IDENTIFIED BY 'mail_admin_password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Still on the MySQL shell, we create the tables that Postfix and Courier need:

USE mail;

CREATE TABLE domains (
domain varchar(50) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (domain) )
TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE forwardings (
source varchar(80) NOT NULL,
destination TEXT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (source) )
TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE users (
email varchar(80) NOT NULL,
password varchar(20) NOT NULL,
quota INT(10) DEFAULT '10485760',
PRIMARY KEY (email)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE transport (
domain varchar(128) NOT NULL default '',
transport varchar(128) NOT NULL default '',
UNIQUE KEY domain (domain)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

quit;

As you may have noticed, with the quit; command we have left the MySQL shell and are back on the Linux shell.

The domains table will store each virtual domain that Postfix should receive emails for (e.g. example.com).

The forwardings table is for aliasing one email address to another, e.g. forward emails for info@example.com to sales@example.com.

The users table stores all virtual users (i.e. email addresses, because theemail address and user name is the same) and passwords (in encrypted form!) and a quota value for each mail box (in this example the default value is 10485760 bytes which means 10MB).

The transport table is optional, it is for advanced users. It allows to forward mails for single users, whole domains or all mails to another server. For example,

would forward all emails for example.com via the smtp protocol to the server with the IP address 1.2.3.4 (the square brackets [] mean "do not make a lookup of the MX DNS record" (which makes sense for IP addresses...). If you use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) instead you would not use the square brackets.).

7 Configure Postfix

Now we have to tell Postfix where it can find all the information in the database. Therefore we have to create six text files. You will notice that I tell Postfix to connect to MySQL on the IP address 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost. This is because Postfix is running in a chroot jail and does not have access to the MySQL socket which it would try to connect if I told Postfix to use localhost. If I use 127.0.0.1 Postfix uses TCP networking to connect to MySQL which is no problem even in a chroot jail (the alternative would be to move the MySQL socket into the chroot jail which causes some other problems).

Now let's create our six text files.

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT domain AS virtual FROM domains WHERE domain='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_forwardings.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT destination FROM forwardings WHERE source='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/') FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_email2email.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT email FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_transports.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT transport FROM transport WHERE domain='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailbox_limit_maps.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT quota FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

(If you compare these files with the files from http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual_postfix_mysql_quota_courier, you will notice that the format is different. This is because the syntax changed from Postfix 2.1 to 2.2. In this tutorial we use Postfix 2.2.8, in the other one it's 2.1.5.)

chmod o= /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_*.cf
chgrp postfix /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_*.cf

Now we create a user and group called vmail with the home directory /home/vmail. This is where all mail boxes will be stored.

groupadd -g 5000 vmail
useradd -g vmail -u 5000 vmail -d /home/vmail -m

Next we do some Postfix configuration. Go sure that you replace server1.example.com with a valid FQDN, otherwise your Postfix might not work properly!

postconf -e 'myhostname = server1.example.com'
postconf -e 'mydestination = server1.example.com, localhost, localhost.localdomain'
postconf -e 'mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8'
postconf -e 'virtual_alias_domains ='
postconf -e ' virtual_alias_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_forwardings.cf, mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_email2email.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_domains = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail'
postconf -e 'virtual_uid_maps = static:5000'
postconf -e 'virtual_gid_maps = static:5000'
postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes'
postconf -e 'broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes'
postconf -e 'smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination'
postconf -e 'smtpd_use_tls = yes'
postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.cert'
postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.key'
postconf -e 'transport_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_transports.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_create_maildirsize = yes'
postconf -e 'virtual_maildir_extended = yes'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_limit_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailbox_limit_maps.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_limit_override = yes'
postconf -e 'virtual_maildir_limit_message = "The user you are trying to reach is over quota."'
postconf -e 'virtual_overquota_bounce = yes'
postconf -e 'proxy_read_maps = $local_recipient_maps $mydestination $virtual_alias_maps $virtual_alias_domains $virtual_mailbox_maps $virtual_mailbox_domains $relay_recipient_maps $relay_domains $canonical_maps $sender_canonical_maps $recipient_canonical_maps $relocated_maps $transport_maps $mynetworks $virtual_mailbox_limit_maps'
postconf -e 'inet_interfaces = all'

Afterwards we create the SSL certificate that is needed for TLS:

cd /etc/postfix
openssl req -new -outform PEM -out smtpd.cert -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout smtpd.key -keyform PEM -days 365 -x509

<-- Enter your Country Name (e.g., "DE").
<-- Enter your State or Province Name.
<-- Enter your City.
<-- Enter your Organization Name (e.g., the name of your company).
<-- Enter your Organizational Unit Name (e.g. "IT Department").
<-- Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the system (e.g. "server1.example.com").
<-- Enter your Email Address.

Then change the permissions of the smtpd.key:

chmod o= /etc/postfix/smtpd.key

8 Configure Saslauthd

Edit /usr/lib/sasl2/smtpd.conf. It should look like this:

vi /usr/lib/sasl2/smtpd.conf

pwcheck_method: authdaemond
log_level: 3
mech_list: PLAIN LOGIN
authdaemond_path:/var/spool/authdaemon/socket

Then turn off Sendmail and start Postfix, saslauthd, and courier-authlib:

chmod 755 /var/spool/authdaemon
chkconfig --levels 235 courier-authlib on
/etc/init.d/courier-authlib start

chkconfig --levels 235 sendmail off
chkconfig --levels 235 postfix on
chkconfig --levels 235 saslauthd on
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop
/etc/init.d/postfix start
/etc/init.d/saslauthd start

9 Configure Courier

Now we have to tell Courier that it should authenticate against our MySQL database. First, edit /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc and change the value of authmodulelist so that it reads

vi /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc

[...]
authmodulelist="authmysql"
[...]

Then edit /etc/authlib/authmysqlrc. It should look exactly like this (again, make sure to fill in the correct database details):

vi /etc/authlib/authmysqlrc

MYSQL_SERVER localhost
MYSQL_USERNAME mail_admin
MYSQL_PASSWORD mail_admin_password
MYSQL_PORT 0
MYSQL_DATABASE mail
MYSQL_USER_TABLE users
MYSQL_CRYPT_PWFIELD password
#MYSQL_CLEAR_PWFIELD password
MYSQL_UID_FIELD 5000
MYSQL_GID_FIELD 5000
MYSQL_LOGIN_FIELD email
MYSQL_HOME_FIELD "/home/vmail"
MYSQL_MAILDIR_FIELD CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/')
#MYSQL_NAME_FIELD
MYSQL_QUOTA_FIELD quota

Then restart Courier:

chkconfig --levels 235 courier-imap on
/etc/init.d/courier-authlib restart
/etc/init.d/courier-imap restart

By running

telnet localhost pop3

you can see if your POP3 server is working correctly. It should give back +OK Hello there. (Type quit to get back to the Linux shell.)

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