Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[Thomas Harold]

On 11/23/2009 2:12 PM, /dev/rob0 wrote:

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 01:55:22PM -0500, Thomas Harold wrote:

We used Postfix only for a long time (SMTP/POP3), ...


Um, no, Postfix does not serve POP3.


Thanks for catching that.  I wonder what the Solaris admin was using to 
serve up POP3 access to the mbox files?  Maybe it was qpopper, that 
sounds familiar...


(I'd have to dig back through my SSH session log files to know for sure.)

Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[/dev/rob0]

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 01:55:22PM -0500, Thomas Harold wrote:
> We used Postfix only for a long time (SMTP/POP3), ...

Um, no, Postfix does not serve POP3.
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Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[Thomas Harold]

On 11/22/2009 12:39 PM, Spyros Tsiolis wrote:


Due to reasons beyond me (mainly my clients demanding more for their
buck / things like webmail etc.), I was forced to start searching for
(always) open source alternatives.



We used Postfix only for a long time (SMTP/POP3), back in '07 I started 
researching, built a test rig in early '08 and we switched full over to 
Postfix/Dovecot in late spring of '08.  You'll have a lot of reading 
ahead of you and I recommend registering a domain or two to use as a 
test bed on the new system before you start adding the real domains and 
repointing MX records at the new box.



1. Do multiple domain handling.


This can be done with virtual domains and users.  We found it easier to 
go with virtual users instead of system users for our multi-domain setup.


http://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers
http://wiki.dovecot.org/SystemUsers

Personally, we use PostfixAdmin (a web-based tool) along with its 
databases (in PostgreSQL) to store our virtual domains and to manage 
domains/accounts.  Our Postfix (which handles the SMTP side) and Dovecot 
(which handles the POP3/IMAP side) query this database for domain/user 
information.


We used to use a system users setup, which had the advantage (and 
disadvantage) that Fred could receive email as "f...@anyofourdomains" 
without having to do anything special.  With the virtual user setup, we 
had to put fred@ into one domain, and then setup aliases in the other 
domains that rewrote f...@otherdomain into f...@homedomain.  In the long 
run, I'm happier, because most of our users really didn't need to be 
addressable as "u...@anyofourdomains".



2. Have a centralized user base
3. Have a centralized mail repository for each user (like exchange,
only without the admin/maintenance pain that comes with it)


We store user email in Dovecot's Maildir setup, usually under:

/var/vmail/domain/user/

There are lots of sub-folders below that point specific to the MailDir 
implementation.  I personally have IMAP mailboxes with hundreds of 
thousands of messages spread across dozens of folders and a total size 
of over 2GB.



4. be able to do IMAP/POP3 and not SMTP/POP3 (or do I need all three
of them ?)


SMTP servers (postfix, sendmail) handle accepting mail from the outside 
world before handing it off to a LDA (local delivery agent) like 
Dovecot.  The SMTP server also handles taking mail from a mail client 
(submitted via SMTP) and either handing it to the LDA for local delivery 
or contacting foreign SMTP servers to deliver to other domains.


(Postfix also has an LDA component, and a POP3 component, but you can 
plug other LDA servers in like Dovecot.)


POP3/IMAP access to the mailbox location is usually the job of Dovecot.


5. Interface with things like web-based mail software (LAMP ?)


We use SquirrelMail here for our webmail.  I'm pretty sure that it talks 
to the Dovecot IMAP server in order to access the user's mailbox.  Once 
you have IMAP access to your mailboxes configured, you can use lots of 
different tools to talk to it.

Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[Tomasz Suchodolski]

Spyros Tsiolis pisze:

Hello list,

1. Do multiple domain handling.
2. Have a centralized user base
3. Have a centralized mail repository for each user (like exchange, 
   only without the admin/maintenance pain that comes with it)

4. be able to do IMAP/POP3 and not SMTP/POP3 (or do I need all three
   of them ?)
5. Interface with things like web-based mail software (LAMP ?)

Am I in the right place ? I would certainly like to think so.
However, the feedback belongs to you .



Dovecot can do IMAP/POP3. If you want to achieve your points you need to
put a lot of other things together. Better try something like Zimbra
http://www.zimbra.com/community/

--
Tomasz

Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[Mark Sapiro]

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 05:39:15PM +, Spyros Tsiolis wrote:
> 
> OK, I just registered with the list, so please be tolerant :-)
> I've been using another MTA for about, oh, I'd say nine years now.


I think we may have some terminology issues here. Dovecot is not a Mail
Transfer Agent (MTA). It is a POP3/IMAP server and can also act as a
Local Delivery Agent (LDA) for an MTA. It can also be used to provide
authentication services to an MTA for SMTP authentication.

 
> Due to reasons beyond me (mainly my clients demanding more for their
> buck / things like webmail etc.), I was forced to start searching for
> (always) open source alternatives. 
> 
> The last MTA was only POP3/SMTP. It does no webmail. It interfaces with
> other software with a lot of pain and difficulty.


Dovecot does not do webmail, but it can provide the IMAP access required
by some web based User Agents (MUA) such as SquirrelMail
 or roundcube .


> I'll cut to the chase. I would like to start using some kind of software
> that can do the following :
> 
> 1. Do multiple domain handling.
> 2. Have a centralized user base
> 3. Have a centralized mail repository for each user (like exchange, 
>only without the admin/maintenance pain that comes with it)
> 4. be able to do IMAP/POP3 and not SMTP/POP3 (or do I need all three
>of them ?)
> 5. Interface with things like web-based mail software (LAMP ?)
> 
> Am I in the right place ? I would certainly like to think so.
> However, the feedback belongs to you .


I think so. See  for more info.

-- 
Mark Sapiro mark at msapiro net   The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, Californiabetter use your sense - B. Dylan

Re: [Dovecot] Newbee, some questions

[Charles Marcus]

On 11/22/2009 12:39 PM, Spyros Tsiolis wrote:
> Hello list,
> 
> OK, I just registered with the list, so please be tolerant :-)
> I've been using another MTA for about, oh, I'd say nine years now.

Ummm... dovecot is not an MTA, it is a POP/IMAP server.

I'd recommend the postfix list...