[CentOS] Re: Planning Mail Server (with low resources)

Rodrigo Barbosa rodrigob at suespammers.org
Tue Dec 6 17:27:52 UTC 2005


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On Wed, Dec 07, 2005 at 01:06:39AM +0800, Feizhou wrote:
> >>sendmail led to qmail led to postfix
> >>
> >>I am sure exim fits somewhere :D
> >
> >Actually, exim somes from S/Mail :)
> 
> From smail's page: Smail-3 was written as a Sendmail replacement for 
> 'normal' people
> normal was italized. I remembered there was a connection some where :D

:)

> >>>Anyway, I think your solution, even tho it does have many merits, will
> >>>add unneeded complexity to Alain's setup.
> >>
> >>He still needs a virtual backend. Either learn to use someone else's 
> >>tools or make your own...
> >
> >If he really opts for a virtual backend, and he doesn't have a problem
> >with "blackbox" solutions, there are some nice ones based on qmail.
> >I would never use it, but some people use and like it.
> 
> Well, it probably just that I have not seen one for postfix yet, not 
> that i looked....

Me neither. I have been running e-mail server for so long, that I
really don't care about these "blackbox" solutions. They are more
trouble than they are worth.

> >>Simple it is. There is absolutely NOTHING to do after initial 
> >>installation and configuration. Oh, you meant the setup? Well, some 
> >>manage with help, others won't get anywhere without.
> >
> >I have installed qmail twice. Trying to get any HA system in place
> >with it was a nightmare.
> 
> HA? No way with any other MTA unless you have some form of centralized 
> delivery information for the mta to a SAN/FC/NFS (ack!)/some form of 
> shared storage.

EMC storage if you have the cash.
AFS if you don't.

NFS is as unreliable as it gets.

> >But I can symptize with you. I (me, myself) find postfix a pain
> >to configure.
> 
> I don't find postfix a pain to configure...besides Devdas and one of my 
> managers, there is no other postfix guy where i work. We do have an exim 
> guy :D. postfix requires more reading to maintain and configure. It gets 
> an unfair advantage by being preinstalled and preconfigured for system 
> account delivery and thereby making it appear simple.

Yeah, the bastards :)

Actually, as long as you have a sound base system (qmail, exim, postfix,
even zmailer), and someone with a few years experience, you can always
get a good system.

> >>AH, we have a slight misunderstanding here. procmail don't handle 
> >>.forward files I believe. procmail is a filtering program. Its 
> >>competitor/comparison would be maildrop for which I'd vouch for given 
> >>procmail's cpu hogging properties.
> >>
> >>.forward simply does not match .qmail
> >
> >
> >Oh. .forward has nothing to do with "local delivery". You are correct
> >in comparing procmail with maildrop. Those are the one we can classify
> >as "local delivery system".
> 
> how can you say that? .forward provides delivery instructions for 
> locally delivered mails so how come you say that it has nothing to do 
> with "local delivery"?

Actually, .forward provides intra-MTA routing instructions, not delivery
instructions :)

I agree "nothing to do" was a little strong worded, since everything
has to do with local delivery. That is, after all, what the whole
e-mail system is about.

> >But yes, if you are comparing ".forward" with ".qmail", you are correct.
> >Myself, I like ".procmailrc" better :) Or .exim_filter, which can be
> >configured, but I really don't recomend. Exim filters are so "powerful"
> >that I tend to consider them more of a security problem than a feature.
> >I'm just happy they are not enabled by default, and even take a little
> >doing to get running.
> 
> So exim has its own filtering agent too? I must look at exim one day.

Yup. You can even use it to do most things people usually do with
amavis. I have a server where I implemented individual message size limiting,
so each group of uses will have a different limit, entirely based on
exim filters.

Of course, exim is monolitic, so I would not say it has its own filtering
agent. It has a filtering system :)

Actually, you can do almost everything you get from procmail with
exim filters. I'm just used to write procmail rules, and have
a huge database of those, so I keep using it for the sake of
simplicity (and not reinventing the weel).

> Hmm...probably time to take this offlist if we continue :P

Nah. No one started screaming yet, or even compared us to Bryan. So
we still have some room :)

- -- 
Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org>
"Quid quid Latine dictum sit, altum viditur"
"Be excellent to each other ..." - Bill & Ted (Wyld Stallyns)

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