Mail/Webmail solution for multiple domains on a Debian server

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Roger Day wrote:
> Looking for some assistance on getting a server configured to run 
> mail for a number of clients.  They need POP/IMAP (and webmail) 
> access for multiple users on multiple domains.
> 
> Previously I have used a 'packaged' product where the 'supplier' of 
> the 'packaged solution' would preconfigure the server with their 
> image.  This has a number of benefits but also a number of draw backs 
> and have thus decided to look for an alternative.....

What were the limitation you ran into with this "packaged" solution? Was 
there some reason why you couldn't customize the solution after the 
"image" had been installed?


Administration of a mail server has become non-trivial, even for small 
setups, and it has been my experience that unless a business has really 
special requirements, it'll be more cost effective, and just as 
functional, to outsource the problem.

I suspect at some point Google will open up their Gmail service to act 
as an MX for customer domains, and provide cheap or advertiser 
supported, hosted email for small businesses. But until that happens...

A shared web hosting service, which you can find in the neighborhood of 
$120 per year, would meet the requirements you have so far stated. A 
good provider will stay on top of the latest anti-spam measures, in 
addition to handling the more mundane maintenance tasks (keeping the 
software updated, server running, and backups). And of course they 
typically provide a web GUI for creating domains and mailboxes.

If that doesn't offer enough flexibility, then maybe the next option to 
consider is a different dedicated hosting provider. Then you can 
customize their canned solution, and still have most of the setup work 
done for you and a nice web GUI to administer it.


> I am looking for comments on how good (or bad?) this way of doing
> it...

I don't have experience with Exim or IMP, but have used SpamAssassin and 
ClamAV. You'll find the latter two at the top of the list of popular 
choices for mail processing tools. Form what I've read about Exim, it 
would also be a top pick.

There's nothing wrong with the general approach you're proposing, once 
you've decided that taking the custom route is desired or justified.

I'd second DSR's tool recommendations of Postfix and dovecot. I don't 
have a personal favorite for a web mail client, having never had the 
need to research them.


> How practical is it to try and cobble these components together?

Quite practical, but I guess this is relative to how much time (or 
money) you care to spend on this.

For example, at http://www.postfix.org/docs.html you'll find a slew of 
HOWTOs describing how to combine Postfix with other tools.

I'd estimate that it could take a month or more for someone without 
existing experience with these tools to research and fully come up to 
speed on putting together all the components you describe and 
configuring them. Once you've decided what to use, installing them, 
particularly on Debian, will be the easy part.

There are some packaged solutions, often dubbed "toasters" or "POP 
toasters" due to their appliance-like approach, that combine an MTA and 
many of the other tools you need into a complete mail server setup, 
typically with a web GUI.

Some classic examples of this are Mail::Toaster[1] or QmailToaster[2], 
both of which are based on qmail, which is why I personally wouldn't 
recommend them. I'm not sure how active development still is on these 
projects. I'm not aware of similar projects for Exim or Postfix, but 
haven't specifically looked for them. There are commercial solutions 
built around Postfix, such as PostConf[3] or Trustix[4]. If you're 
looking for more of a Microsoft Exchange replacement, SUSE LINUX 
Openexchange Server[5] or Scalix[6] might be options to consider.

1. http://www.tnpi.biz/internet/mail/toaster/
2. http://www.qmailtoaster.com/
3. http://www.postconf.com/
4. http://www.trustix.com/
5. http://www.novell.com/products/openexchange/
6. http://www.scalix.com/

I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows of an open source solution 
equivalent to PostConf.


> The other factor is that right now I have very limited time so would
> like to look to engage some 'hands on' assistance...

My company has done MySQL backed Postfix installations with virtual 
domains and users.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/