Postfixadmin – setup/install guide for virtual mail users on Postfix

37 Replies to “Postfixadmin – setup/install guide for virtual mail users on Postfix”

1. Wonderful guide, after searching the web for a few hours I finally found a simply, easy-to-read guide which even I could follow 😀

2. The .deb package seems to install the site to /usr/share/postfixadmin when your install procedure never mentions anything about either modifying this location, or creating symlinks to accomodate your web server configuration, or changing your web server configuration to fit. I think it deserves some kind of mention at least.

3. Ernie – The debian installer should map ‘/postfixadmin’ onto the server (/etc/apache2/conf.d/postfixadmin.conf perhaps??).

4. Oh, you’re right, it does. I probably just had to restart apache afterwards.

5. Good documentation, thanks.
   Could you provide some pointers on setting up xmlrpc? I don’t think we have it currently active on our Debian system. If we don’t use xmlrpc, can we continue to use the old config.php syntax, adding the mysql login and password, etc?

6. Here is my maildroprc with that the courier quota work out of the box with postfixadmin and you dont need to patch anything:

   hope someone can use it.

   # —– BEGIN CONFIGURATION —–
   #
   # All values *must* be inside quotes.
   # Quotes are required!!!
   ##

   SHELL=”/bin/bash”
   SENDMAIL=”/usr/sbin/sendmail”
   MAILDROP=”/usr/bin/maildrop”
   FORMAIL=”/usr/bin/reformail”
   ## SPAMC=”/usr/bin/spamc”
   SPAMC=”/usr/bin/spamc -x”
   SA_LEARN=”/usr/bin/sa-learn”
   TEST=”/usr/bin/test”
   VHOME=”/home/virtual”
   LOGDIR=”/var/log/maildrop”
   MAILDIRMAKE=”/usr/bin/maildirmake”
   MKDIR=”/bin/mkdir”
   CHOWN=”/bin/chown”
   CHMOD=”/bin/chmod”

   # —– END CONFIGURATION —–
   # —– DO NOT MAKE CHANGES PAST THIS LINE —–

   logfile “$LOGDIR/maildrop.log”

   RECIPIENT=tolower(“$1”)
   USER=tolower(“$2”)
   HOST=tolower(“$3”)
   SENDER=tolower(“$4”)
   HOME=tolower(“$5″)
   QUOTA=”$MAILDIRQUOTA””S”

   #
   # Set date/time
   #
   TICKS=`date +%s`
   DATE=`date +%T`
   TIME=`date +%x`

   DEFAULT=”$HOME”
   if ( !$HOME )
   {
   HOME=”$VHOME”
   DEFAULT=”$HOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST”
   }

   MAILDIR=”$DEFAULT/”

   ##
   ## maildir erstellen
   ##
   # Let’s check if /home/vmail/domain.tld/username exists
   `$TEST -d “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST/” && exit 0 || exit 1`
   if( $RETURNCODE == 1 )
   {
   log “domain und user”
   ## Now check if the domain directory /home/vmail/dominio.tld exists.
   `$TEST -d “$VHOME/$HOST/” && exit 0 || exit 1`
   if( $RETURNCODE == 1 )
   {
   log “domain”
   `$MKDIR -p “$VHOME/$HOST”`
   log “Domain neu erstellt”
   }
   log “user”
   `$MAILDIRMAKE “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST”`
   ## Quotas fuer maildir erstellen

   ## checken ob quotas auf 0 oder -1 gestellt sind
   if( $QUOTA > “0” )
   {
   log “quotas 0 maildirmake”
   `$MAILDIRMAKE -q $QUOTA “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST/”`
   log “User Dir neu erstellt”
   }
   }
   ## quotas checken und bei aenderung in der DB updaten
   if( $RETURNCODE == 0 )
   {
   log “quota update”
   ## checken ob quotas auf 0 oder -1 gestellt sind
   if( $QUOTA > “0” )
   {
   log “quotas updates quotas nicht 0”
   `$MAILDIRMAKE -q $QUOTA “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST/”`
   }
   else
   {
   log “quotas update quotas 0”
   ## Falls quotas auf 0 oder -1 dann wird das quota file geloescht
   `$TEST -d “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST/maildirsize” && exit 0 || exit 1`
   if( $RETURNCODE == 1 )
   {
   log “quotas 0 sizefile loeschen”
   `rm “$VHOME/$HOST/$USER@$HOST/maildirsize”`
   }
   }
   }
   ##

   ## log file
   logfile “$LOGDIR/maildrop.log”

   #
   # Check for admin user .adminfilter file
   #
   ADMIN_FILTER=”$DEFAULT/.adminfilter”
   `$TEST -e $ADMIN_FILTER && exit 0 || exit 1`
   if ( $RETURNCODE == 0 )
   {
   exception {
   log “$TICKS : >>> Including $ADMIN_FILTER”
   include “$ADMIN_FILTER”
   }
   }

   to “$MAILDIR”

   exit

7. Hi,
   thx for this nice tutorial, i installed postfixadmin a while back and have to upgrade now after a disk crash.

   although i’m using mysql, i’ve mapped my sql config and postfix/courrier pop works fine, as well as virtual mail delivery.
   Mail accounts can be retrieved thru pop without error but i have the following problem :

   sasl authentication fails for smtp and i have noticed a few things that differs on my debian from yours.

   first saslauthd seems to work and postfix queries it for smtpd action but salsauthd fails to authenticate account information, for an unknown reason.

   i have the following saslauthd sequence :
   saslauthd[24963] :rel_accept_lock : released accept lock
   saslauthd[24964] :get_accept_lock : acquired accept lock
   saslauthd[24963] :cache_get_rlock : attempting a read lock on slot: 1412
   saslauthd[24963] :cache_lookup : [login=mail@domain.com] [service=domain.com] [realm=smtp]: not found, update pending
   saslauthd[24963] :cache_un_lock : attempting to release lock on slot: 1412
   saslauthd[24963] :do_auth : auth failure: [user=mail@domain.com] [service=smtp] [realm=domain.com] [mech=pam] [reason=PAM auth error]

   but i’ve seen you mention imap for sasl authentication and i was wondering if any imap package were required for proper use of sasl authentication ? what about PAm what kind of config does that require if any ?

   the other thing is that with my sasl packages installed (libsasl2-2, libsasl2-modules, libsasl7, sasl2-bin) i don’t have any /etc/sasl/ path
   i did create /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf as it was already present in my previous conf
   and those two files look identical so i was wondering what’s really required..

   but my main problem concerns that sasl imap thing as i don’t seem to have anything imap installed on my system, i’m wondering how sasl can access the database account info..

   i also remember fighting with cyrus sasl on my previous install, and sasl in general there was some password encryption problem at the time, is it required or can it be discarded ?

   thx for any input

8. looks like i had to change the sasl setup and setup the pam smtp, as follows :
   (the sql matches a postfixadmin setup)

   /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf :
   pwcheck_method: saslauthd
   saslauthd_path: /var/run/saslauthd/mux
   log_level: 3
   mech_list: PLAIN LOGIN
   auxprop_plugin: mysql
   ## optional ##
   allow_plaintext: true
   sql_hostnames: 127.0.0.1
   sql_user: postfix
   sql_passwd: yourdbpass
   sql_database: postfix
   sql_select: select password from mailbox where username = ‘%u’
   ## end optional ##

   i’m not sure the #optional# statements are required as there are some others in the pam setup, but i found that conf as is. I don’t seem to need those optional statements on my setup.

   then create /etc/pam.d/smtp :
   auth required pam_mysql.so user=postfix passwd=yourdbpass host=127.0.0.1 db=postfix table=mailbox usercolumn=username passwdcolumn=password crypt=1 md5=1

   account sufficient pam_mysql.so user=postfix passwd=yourdbpass host=127.0.0.1 db=postfix table=mailbox usercolumn=username passwdcolumn=password crypt=1 md5=1

   you may have to install libpam-mysql to get mysql support in pam.
   And as i thought, it seems that /etc/sasl/smtpd.conf is not required on my debian setup.

   thx for the tutorial.

9. Lovely! You are the first person that actually mentions how to use Postfixadmin after setup 😀

   thanks!

10. miro – Really? I did… news to me!

11. Why do you setup these two lines?

    local_transport = virtual
    local_recipient_maps = $virtual_mailbox_maps

    They will completely skip local delivery and for example Mailman integration won’t work. What’s the advantage of these two lines?

12. I’m bit confused of this part:

    “Create /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf with …”

    when and how then this file is readed?
    there is no definition of this in postfix config….

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14. Aiva – afaik, /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf is the default file postfix uses if you want to do smtpd authentication (i.e. allowing people to relay through your server using their mailbox username/password to identify themselves)

15. Felix – local_transport / local_recipient_maps – they may well be unnecessary; I just ‘do them’. sorry I can’t provide a better answer.

16. Pingback: Random notes from installing postfixadmin 2.3 deb | David Goodwin

17. Thanks for this post, answers a bunch of questions I was having.

18. Hi, what packages are required to install? Thanks

19. Thanks for this input.

    I am currently looking for a way to integrate mailman into a configuration like this (on the Postfix side at least, I have dovecot for IMAP). But all I find searching for mailman and postfixadmin is people trying to figure out the same thing.

    Does anyone know a solution?

20. How to create vmail user and which user id & gid value set in /etc/courier/authdaemonrc

21. 
    This guide is based on release 2.3 of Postfixadmin. It’s about the only open source project I contribute to regularly – so I ought to at least make an effort and document it

    I have translated some part of it into french, but i don’t know where to send it. Can you email me the reference, please ?

22. Patrick – my email address would be a good bet (david at codepoets co uk)

23. OS : debian etch
    database : mysql
    dovecot

    I always got the message
    “Setup password not specified correctly
    If you want to use the password you entered as setup password, edit config.inc.php and set
    $CONF[‘setup_password’] = ‘607cff0fb23fec6012109f2c34ec9738:f73e57a9973b40cedc1eb1fc7178198a313930ec’;”

    please help me…..

24. Im having the same prob like ana.
    The only thing that i could find in the web was this:
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/postfixadmin/forums/forum/676076/topic/3495210
    Theres no eAccelerator running.

    please help me too…

25. Flo – do you have APC or similar op-code cache turned on, and it’s been told to not re-check the source code of files? Hence, I’d suggest restarting Apache/the web server.

    Failing that, check if config.local.php has an override for $CONF[‘setup_password’] – perhaps it contains a different one that’s overwriting the above?

    Failing that, check out #postfixadmin on irc.freenode.net

26. hi i asked you questions.
    i have freebsd 8.1 server with apache 2, mysql, php5. this server is mail server. (postfix+squirrel mail) i want to add mailuser (over than 10000 user) automatically. how i do it? i think user in mysql table. i want to script for you if possible. Best regards

27. Hm I set
    $CONF[‘encrypt’] = ‘cleartext’;
    Dunno why it worked, Mailbox Passwords are stored now Plain too. Sux kinda, maybe ill check myself a hardcoded md5 in SQL queries. However, later, i must go on with everything.

    Later in furtheron Setup i couldnt btw connect to DB.
    It was a “!” (exclamation mark) in the MySql Password.

    So: Users passwords in plain text, mine pass no special chars. Born to be root.

    After this setup, i took the mailbox create script and stripped/included it in order to allow users of mine System setting up Mailboxes themselfes (finally).
    That way i can use all Languages etc from Postfixadmin.
    Its working kewl.

    Now im going on with Postfix Database Setup, thats the less trivial step i would say.
    I mean: Oki Postfix Admin. When i have a Table where i can simply add rows: Im saved from creating mailboxes every day.
    Funny what can happen when u try to run a PHP script with Mysql support yey!
    Thx for the help!

28. Thank you so much for this post! I’ve tried to set up Postfix+Postfixadmin+Courier+SASL+PostgreSQL on Ubuntu 10.10 for hours now and your solution to use the rimap method (which is way more elegant than PAM) solved all of my problems in an instant!

    Thanks again! You saved my day!

29. how to create superadmin? keep getting “Setup password not specified correctly” encrypt=cleartext, setup password used same as the config.ini.php, what was wrong?

30. The installer will prompt you for a setup password; after entering this it will show you a hashed string which needs to go into the config.*.php file. Once this is done, you can use the installer (/setup) to create superadmins.

31. Let me quote a sniplet from PostfixAdmin’s INSTALL.TXT:

    There are also lots of HOWTOs around the web. Be warned that many of them may be outdated or incomplete.
    Please stick to the PostfixAdmin documentation, and use those HOWTOs only if you need some additional information that is missing in the PostfixAdmin DOCUMENTS/ folder.

    This is also true for this HowTo – the queries for alias domains are missing. David, can you please update the text? 😉

32. Yeah – I know – I did start to write an updated version for CentOS or something similar… but then never got as far as publishing it. Taking/embedding screenshots and being explicit with instructions seemed to take forever.

33. I was trying to use vacations with my msql domains… “transport_maps” was all that I needed thanks

34. Have you seen this?
    https://github.com/BigRedS/postfixadmin-installer

    It’s an attempt to automate install on Debian systems. Mostly Just Works, though there’s a few known issues.

35. Thanks for the post, nice tutorial.

36. Hello, David,
    http://squirrelmail-postfixadmin.palepurple.co.uk/ requires userID/password to access/download? Can you please publish the secret-handshake? 🙂

37. Hi – See https://github.com/postfixadmin/postfixadmin/tree/master/ADDITIONS/squirrelmail-plugin – the plugin is there …. and has been for a bit. I’m just rubbish at updating docs! thanks.