[CentOS] Mail Server

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

ijez wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I need to setup a new mail server and before I got my feet wet or losing in the configurations jungle, I really need some advice from the gurus here for what the best software to used for the mailserver base on CentOS 4.x setup.
> 
> The objective is, the mailserver will  be easy to setup, maintained and have some 
> 1. database backend for storing user info ( mysql? )

LDAP, almost everything can work with it out-of-the-box.  SQL database 
support varries, and usually needs additional plugins.  If you know 
exactly what you are doing, SQL might be good way to go regardless. 
With CentOS you get Postgresql and MySQL.  Personally, I am fan of 
former, although later is more popular.

> 2. spam and antivirus filtering

For free, MIMEDefang, SpamAssassin, ClamAV.  Commercial, I heard that 
Sophos antispam works fabolously.

> 3. webbase user administrations

I used custom made stuff.  If you use Horde/IMP for webmail (there's 
also other applications from Horde framework for managing calendars, 
filters, and so on), Horde has some ability for web based user 
management too.

> 4. Provide smtp,smtps,pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps service

Sendmail or postfix (Sendmail has better plugin support for 
anti-spam/virus scanners, Postfix is easier to configure but is not as 
configurable as Sendmail).  Dovecot or Cyrus (as packaged in CentOS it 
is really trivial to setup).  Cyrus scales well, and is suitable for 
small and large installations.  There's huge difference when opening 
mailbox with 40,000+ emails (and I've got couple of 'em) in Dovecot and 
Cyrus.  So even if you have two users, Cyrus might be good way to go.

If you are going to do webmail too, Squirrelmail (or whatever it is 
called) is part of CentOS.  Horde project has IMP (you'd need to install 
Horde, than IMP under Horde).  Horde project also has bunch of 
additional applications that integrate with each other for calendaring, 
todo lists, generating server-side mail filters (supported are procmail 
for "unix-account-based" mailboxes, and sieve for Cyrus based 
mailboxes), and much more.  Check http://www.horde.org/ for more info. 
Installing Horde/IMP for the very first time might seem a bit 
complicated since it requires bunch of additional PHP module, but it 
might be worth it.

Also, check "which imapd" thread from couple of days ago.