Install iRedMail on Ubuntu 9.04

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This tutorial will walk you through the process of installing the
iRedMail
bundled mail server to successfully send and receive e-mail.

This tutorial assumes a few things:

You have followed the Ubuntu 9.04 setup guide
You are running on a new server with no other software installed
You are running the commands as a normal user with sudo privileges
The current version of iRedMail at the time of writing is 0.6.0 and
it is in beta.

Read this before continuing:

Mail servers are complex pieces of software and can be difficult to
setup and maintain. An improperly configured mail server could cause
quite a havoc not only on your server but for the rest of the Internet
if spammers begin using your servers to send spam. Before attempting to
run a mail server please be sure that you have a comfortable
understanding of DNS (SPF/TXT/MX records), Domain Keys, Sender Policy
Framework, and how mail servers/mail flow works. If you are not sure
about any of these topics please read up before continuing otherwise you
may run into problems and become frustrated very quickly.

Reverse DNS

Before we can begin installing the mail server we need to setup our
reverse DNS. Without this you will find it hard to send or receive a lot
of e-mails across the Internet because servers will think you are
spamming them or sending falsified e-mail.

Setting up reverse DNS through our Control Panel is very easy. Please
refer to our instruction on how to setup a reverse DNS
record.
Keep in mind that DNS changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate
across the Internet.

Perl locale fix

Our servers ship with no locale information so they are world-friendly.
To install the locale information type the following:

 sudo aptitude install language-pack-en-base

Aptitude update

Next we will make sure that our server is update to date software-wise.
To do this we will run an Aptitude update:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude upgrade

Set the host name

One final step that needs to take place is setting up the host name of
your mail server. You can view your current host name by typing:

hostname --fqdn
kelly.myServer

Now this might work for most applications but for a mail server this
just won't do! We need to set your mail server's host name to match the
Fully Qualified Domain Name. A Fully Qualified Domain
Name, or FQDN, might look like www.google.com. For most mail servers
it will be something like mail.yourdomain.com.

To change your host name we will need to modify the /etc/hostname file
on your server. This is the file that stores the host name information.

 sudo nano /etc/hostname

When the nano editor opens you will see the default host name listed.
Delete the line and type in your host name. Like I said earlier, most
mail servers are mail.yourdomain.com. Be sure to write down what you
set your host name to as we will need it later on.

Once you have modified the host name simply press CTRL-X followed by
Y and Enter to save.

Modify your host file

We have one more change to make before we can begin the installation.
When addressing your FQDN we need to tell the server that it will be
referring to itself and not some IP on the Internet. This will help
reduce traffic and helps the server know where it is located. To do this
we will need to modify the /etc/hosts file. This, too, is an easy
task!

To modify the hosts file type the following:

 sudo nano /etc/hosts

The nano editor will open with your hosts file.

The first thing you need to do is delete the second 127.0.0.1 line with
your old host name. This should leave you with a single 127.0.0.1 line.
Move over to the localhost portion of that line and add your FQDN
(mail.mydomain.com, for instance) followed by your subdomain that you've
chosen (mail, in our example). Your line should look similar to the one
below:

127.0.0.1  mail.mydomain.com mail localhost localhost.localdomain

To save the file simply press CTRL-X followed by Y and Enter
as we did before.

Reboot the server

To apply our host name changes we will need to reboot the server.

 sudo reboot

Once your server has rebooted please log back in.

Enable Aptitude Sources

To enable the additional Aptitude sources so iRedMail can find the
software it needs to function. To do this we need to modify the
/etc/apt/sources.list file. To modify the file type the following:

 sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Go to the bottom of the file and add the following lines:

deb https://mirrors.163.com/ubuntu jaunty main universe
deb https://mirrors.163.com/ubuntu jaunty-updates main universe

To save the file simply press CTRL-X followed by Y and Enter

Now we need to test our source list changes. To do this type the
following:

 sudo aptitude update

Install prerequisite packages

You're probably thinking "when are we going to install the software?"
Have no fear, we are almost there! First we need to install a software
package for the system to install correctly. The following software
package needs to be installed:

acl - File system permission control

 sudo aptitude install acl

Enable ACL

We need to enable ACL access control on the file system. Please read
this portion very carefully.

Making improper changes to this file could destroy
your file system

Open up the /etc/fstab file and modify the mount options that are
used to mount the main file system partition.

 sudo nano /etc/fstab

Look for a line that begins with either /dev/sda1 or /dex/xvda1 and
put a # comment mark in front of it.

If that line started with /dev/sda1 go to the bottom of the file and
type or copy in the following line:

/dev/sda1    /    ext3    errors=remount-ro,noatime,acl     0     1

If the line started with /dev/xvda1 go to the bottom of the file and
type or copy in the following line instead:

/dev/xvda1    /    ext3    errors=remount-ro,noatime,acl     0     1

Save the file with CTRL-X, then Y and Enter.

Remount the file system

Once you have the changes made to the /etc/fstab file you now need to
reload them. This is fairly easy to do.

 sudo mount -o remount,rw,acl /

Now we are ready to install iRedMail!

Switch to Root User

iRedMail will not install with sudo privileges so we must switch to
the root user. To do this type the following:

 sudo su -

You should be presented with a root@ prompt now.

Download iRedMail

To install iRedMail you will need to download the installation package
from their website. Please point your web browser to
https://code.google.com/p/iredmail/downloads/list and download the
latest version. At the time of writing the current version is 0.6.0.
For the purposes of our installation we will be using wget to download
the installation package. Note that we are downloading this to the home
directory of the current user.

 cd ~
 wget https://iredmail.googlecode.com/files/iRedMail-0.6.0.tar.bz2

Uncompress iRedMail

You'll notice that iRedMail comes packaged as a TAR file with further
BZ2 (BZip2) compression. To unpack this type the following:

 tar xjf iRedMail-0.6.0.tar.bz2

This will create a directory called iRedMail-0.6.0.

Download installation-related packages

A few packages need to be downloaded by the installer before
installation can commence. Run the following lines of code to make this
happen:

 cd iRedMail-0.6.0/pkgs/   (Note that the directory name may differ between versions)
 bash get_all.sh

This will download all of the packages necessary to install. Now we need
to refresh the repository list:

Start the iRedMail installer

The moment has come! To start the installation type the following:

 cd ~/iRedMail-0.6.0     (Note that the directory name may differ between versions)
 bash iRedMail.sh

On the welcome screen, click Yes to continue.
You will be prompted for the home directory location for the
vmail user.

The default value, /home/vmail, will be listed -- this is okay.
Simply press Next for the default option.
You will be then asked which backend you would like to use: MySQL
or OpenLDAP.

For our example we will use MySQL as the backend, so highlight MySQL
and press the space-bar to select, then click Next to continue.
Enter your MySQL password and click Next.
Enter your vmail user password This will be a system user that
holds all of your mail. Type it and click Next.
You will be asked to enter your first virtual domain.

This is the domain that you will be hosting mail for. Type in your
domain name (such as mydomain.com) and click Next.
Enter the administrator name of your virtual domain.

The default value of postmaster is an industry standard and should
be used. This address will be [email protected] when the
installation is completed. click Next.
Set a password for the above postmaster e-mail address.
Click Next after you have entered it.
Add the first user for your domain.

This will be your first e-mail account such as john.doe. The full
e-mail address would be [email protected]. Enter the user name
here and click Next.
Set a password for the user we just added.

You will see the full e-mail address at the top of the window. Type
in the password and click Next.
You will be prompted if you would like to setup SPF (Sender
Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail).

SPF is highly recommended, but DKIM is optional and should only be
installed by more experienced users. Uncheck DKIM if you are
unfamiliar with it. Keep in mind that these will require additional
DNS entries to be made. If you would like to use these simply
click Next. We will walk you through setting up the SPF and
DKIM records later.
Because we are choosing MySQL as our backend we have a number of
administrative tools we can install. Those tools include
phpMyAdmin, PostfixAdmin and AWstats. We also have the ability
to select which WebMail client we would like to install.

Our installation will choose the default options (Roundcubemail,
phpMyAdmin, PostfixAdmin and Awstats) so just click Next.
Select a default language for WebMail and click Next.
Set and e-mail address as the PostfixAdmin administrative e-mail.

You can use the default [email protected] e-mail or use a
different address. Click Next.
Set an e-mail address to use for the root user.

This is where all system e-mail will be sent pertaining to the
system and the root user. Put in your e-mail address and
click Next. It is advised to use an e-mail address NOT
hosted on your mail server.
When you are prompted to continue with the installation, enter Y
and press Enter.
You will be prompted at the end of the installation if you would
like to use the default iptables firewall configuration.

If you have a brand new server simply press Y and then
Enter. Do not do this if you have previously made modifications
to your iptables configuration.
You will then be prompted if you would like to restart iptables.

For now press N and press Enter.
You will be asked if you would like to start Postfix now.

Press N and press Enter.

Your installation should now be finished and you will be returned to a
shell prompt.

Delete setup files

Before this server is ready to be used in a production environment it
must be safely locked down and the setup files should be removed. This
is easily accomplished with one rm statement.

 rm -f ~/iRedMail-0.6.0/config

Reboot the server

Go ahead and reboot the server to reload everything and cleanly start
Postfix.

 reboot

Once the server comes back up go ahead and log back in as a normal user.

Setup SPF Record

Now we will need to go setup an SPF record. Go to
https://old.openspf.org/wizard.html to determine what your SPF record
should be. Once you have done this please submit a ticket and we will
process your SPF record. Note that your mail may still function without
this but you may receive frequent mail rejections.

OPTIONAL: Create DKIM (DomainKey)

To create a the Domain Key entry type the following:

 sudo apt-get install amavisd-new

 sudo /usr/sbin/amavisd-new showkeys

You will see an output like the following:

[user@mail ~]$ sudo /usr/sbin/amavisd showkeys
; key#1, domain mydomain.com, /var/lib/dkim/mydomain.com.pem
dkim._domainkey.mydomain.com.     3600 TXT (
  "v=DKIM1; p="
  "MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQCuv5EpKWzSRGm8Gtks8uDEpllQ"
  "Ug50USM6LjIEfx77+C9c3GpuxtTdfYMUlA7nqlolJ0GCx+PPrbSOCKZO1UeHAG2M"

  "/KYC9Kw8ByqP80Ni+Xx+M2fNSQCn4c+fmsX6AwLHZfshTmR6lGNTL/VMi84GgJtA"
  "vfufWEShr/j8f4udcwIDAQAB")

If you are hosting your DNS with Cloud Servers please submit a ticket
and request that the domain key is added. We will create a TXT record
for your domain with the above key. If you are hosting your DNS
elsewhere you will need to create a TXT record for
dkim._domainkey.mydomain.com and use the enclosed text (without the
quotes) as the content.

OPTIONAL: Test DKIM

Once you have the TXT record created you can test it on your server by
typing the following:

 sudo /usr/sbin/amavisd-new testkeys

If it passes you should see something like the following:

TESTING#1: dkim._domainkey.mydomain.com        => pass

If you receive 'fail' then you may have a problem with your key. Please
check it again. This will also result from DNS entries that have not
propagated yet.

Reboot the server

Reboot your server one more time.

 sudo reboot

Once the server has come back online proceed below.

Access WebMail

Point your web-browser to https://mail.mydomain.com/mail/ and this
should bring up the RoundCubeMail WebMail application. Type in your
login name and password and click Login. Send yourself an e-mail from
another e-mail account to see if it is working. You can also send an
e-mail to someone on the Internet to test outbound e-mail.

Information about your install

You can find information about your installation file located here:
~/iRedMail-0.6.0/iRedMail.tips

Common links

The following links are valid for your iRedMail installation. Please
replace mail.mydomain.com with your FQDN.

postfix.admin - https://mail.mydomain.com/postfixadmin/
RoundCubeMail WebMail - https://mail.mydomain.com/mail/
phpMyAdmin - https://mail.mydomain.com/phpmyadmin/
AWstats - https://mail.mydomain.com/awstats/awstats.pl

Troubleshooting: View mail logs

If you are having troubles with your mail server you might want to take
a peek at the logs. To view the logs for iRedMail simply type the
following:

 sudo tail -F /var/log/mail.log

This will display the last output of the log and show the entries as
they are added in real-time. Your output may look like the output below:

Jul  8 23:25:53 mail postfix/smtp[4530]: 2CBEFD49DD: to=<[email protected]>, relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:10024,
    delay=2251, delays=2251/0.04/0/0.44, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 2.0.0 Ok, id=04262-04, from
    MTA([127.0.0.1]:10025): 250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 87F93D49DA)
Jul  8 23:25:53 mail postfix/qmgr[4298]: 2CBEFD49DD: removed
Jul  8 23:25:53 mail postfix/pipe[4536]: 87F93D49DA: to=<[email protected]>, relay=dovecot, delay=0.06,
    delays=0.04/0.01/0/0.02, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecot service)
Jul  8 23:25:53 mail postfix/qmgr[4298]: 87F93D49DA: removed

Updated 4 months ago