Creating a Mail Server on Ubuntu 12.04

Mail Server on Ubuntu 12.04 (Postfix, Courier, SSL/TLS, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Amavis, Roundcube)

Introduction

Main components:

• Postfix is the mail transfer agent (MTA) responsible for accepting new messages and storing them on your server as well as allowing authorised users to send e-mail.
• Courier sits in front of Postfix and provides an IMAP and POP3 interface for clients to connect to.
• SASL with SSL and TLS allows you to authenticate and communicate with the mail server securely.
• SpamAssassin will analyse your e-mails as they arrive and will filter out what it thinks is spam.
• ClamAV will scan e-mails for viruses before delivering it to your inbox.
• Amavis ties SpamAssasin and ClamAV together, and is itself hooked into Postfix.
• MySQL will be used to manage user accounts and e-mail forwarding.
• Roundcube is the mail interface similar like Squirrelmail

Install required packages from repo

 apt-get update
 apt-get install -y mysql-server postfix postfix-mysql libsasl2-modules libsasl2-modules-sql libgsasl7 libauthen-sasl-cyrus-perl sasl2-bin libpam-mysql clamav-base libclamav6 clamav-daemon clamav-freshclam amavisd-new spamassassin spamc courier-base courier-authdaemon courier-authlib-mysql courier-imap courier-imap-ssl courier-pop courier-pop-ssl courier-ssl

During the installation of MySQL you will be prompted for the root user password

Enter a secure password, and don’t forget it!

Similarly, during the installation of Courier you will be presented with the following configuration prompts

Choose No

Choose OK

Choose Internet Site

Enter your mail server name (e.g. replace mail.example.com with your own domain). Make sure you have this subdomain configured in your DNS records.

Choose OK

After everything has finished, we can proceed to configure our mail server.

Configuration

Postfix

First, we create file name main.cf

 mv /etc/postfix/main.cf{,.default}
 nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Copy/paste the following (change all instances of mail.yourdomain.com):

 myorigin = /etc/mailname
 smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name
 biff = no
 append_dot_mydomain = no
 readme_directory = no
 mydestination =
 relayhost =
 mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
 mynetworks_style = host
 mailbox_size_limit = 0
 virtual_mailbox_limit = 0
 recipient_delimiter = +
 inet_interfaces = all
 message_size_limit = 0
 
 # SMTP Authentication (SASL)
 
 smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
 broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
 smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
 smtpd_sasl_local_domain =
 
 # Encrypted transfer (SSL/TLS)
 
 smtp_use_tls = yes
 smtpd_use_tls = yes
 smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.crt
 smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.key
 smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
 smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
 
 # Basic SPAM prevention
 
 smtpd_helo_required = yes
 smtpd_delay_reject = yes
 disable_vrfy_command = yes
 smtpd_sender_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, permit
 smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, reject_unauth_destination
 
 # Force incoming mail to go through Amavis
 
 content_filter = amavis:[127.0.0.1]:10024
 receive_override_options = no_address_mappings
 
 # Virtual user mappings
 
 alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
 alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
 virtual_mailbox_base = /var/spool/mail/virtual
 virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/user.cf
 virtual_uid_maps = static:5000
 virtual_gid_maps =  static:5000
 virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/alias.cf
 virtual_mailbox_domains = mysql:/etc/postfix/maps/domain.cf

Next, we edit file master.cf

 mv /etc/postfix/master.cf{,.default}
 nano /etc/postfix/master.cf

Copy/paste the following (no changes is required):

 #
 #
 # Postfix master process configuration file.  For details on the format
 # of the file, see the master(5) manual page (command: "man 5 master").
 #
 # Do not forget to execute "postfix reload" after editing this file.
 #
 # ==========================================================================
 # service type  private unpriv  chroot  wakeup  maxproc command + args
 #               (yes)   (yes)   (yes)   (never) (100)
 # ==========================================================================
 smtp      inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
 smtps     inet  n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
   -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes
 submission inet n       -       -       -       -       smtpd
 pickup    fifo  n       -       -       60      1       pickup
   -o content_filter=
   -o receive_override_options=no_header_body_checks
 cleanup   unix  n       -       -       -       0       cleanup
 qmgr      fifo  n       -       n       300     1       qmgr
 tlsmgr    unix  -       -       -       1000?   1       tlsmgr
 rewrite   unix  -       -       -       -       -       trivial-rewrite
 bounce    unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
 defer     unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
 trace     unix  -       -       -       -       0       bounce
 verify    unix  -       -       -       -       1       verify
 flush     unix  n       -       -       1000?   0       flush
 proxymap  unix  -       -       n       -       -       proxymap
 proxywrite unix -       -       n       -       1       proxymap
 smtp      unix  -       -       -       -       -       smtp
 # When relaying mail as backup MX, disable fallback_relay to avoid MX loops
 relay     unix  -       -       -       -       -       smtp
 	-o smtp_fallback_relay=
 showq     unix  n       -       -       -       -       showq
 error     unix  -       -       -       -       -       error
 retry     unix  -       -       -       -       -       error
 discard   unix  -       -       -       -       -       discard
 local     unix  -       n       n       -       -       local
 virtual   unix  -       n       n       -       -       virtual
 lmtp      unix  -       -       -       -       -       lmtp
 anvil     unix  -       -       -       -       1       anvil
 scache    unix  -       -       -       -       1       scache
 #
 # ====================================================================
 # Interfaces to non-Postfix software. Be sure to examine the manual
 # pages of the non-Postfix software to find out what options it wants.
 #
 # Many of the following services use the Postfix pipe(8) delivery
 # agent.  See the pipe(8) man page for information about ${recipient}
 # and other message envelope options.
 # ====================================================================
 #
 # maildrop. See the Postfix MAILDROP_README file for details.
 # Also specify in main.cf: maildrop_destination_recipient_limit=1
 #
 maildrop  unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient}
 #
 # See the Postfix UUCP_README file for configuration details.
 #
 uucp      unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient)
 #
 # Other external delivery methods.
 #
 ifmail    unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient)
 bsmtp     unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient
 scalemail-backend unix	-	n	n	-	2	pipe
   flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension}
 mailman   unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py
   ${nexthop} ${user}
 amavis    unix -        -       -       -       2       smtp
   -o smtp_data_done_timeout=1200
   -o smtp_send_xforward_command=yes
   -o disable_dns_lookups=yes
   -o max_use=20
 127.0.0.1:10025 inet n  -       -       -       -       smtpd
   -o content_filter=
   -o local_recipient_maps=
   -o relay_recipient_maps=
   -o smtpd_restriction_classes=
   -o smtpd_delay_reject=no
   -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_mynetworks,reject
   -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=
   -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=
   -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_mynetworks,reject
   -o smtpd_data_restrictions=reject_unauth_pipelining
   -o smtpd_end_of_data_restrictions=
   -o mynetworks=127.0.0.0/8
   -o smtpd_error_sleep_time=0
   -o smtpd_soft_error_limit=1001
   -o smtpd_hard_error_limit=1000
   -o smtpd_client_connection_count_limit=0
   -o smtpd_client_connection_rate_limit=0
   -o receive_override_options=no_header_body_checks,no_unknown_recipient_checks

As all our mail users are going to be virtual (i.e. we’re not going to create physical user accounts for each user), we only need to create one mail directory and one user account.

 groupadd virtual -g 5000
 useradd -r -g "virtual" -G "users" -c "Virtual User" -u 5000 virtual
 mkdir /var/spool/mail/virtual
 chown virtual:virtual /var/spool/mail/virtual

Now we’ll create the database which will store the mail user configuration and forwarding rules. Enter the password you created during the MySQL installation. Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword, yourdomain.com and admin password to something more secure)

 CREATE DATABASE mail;
 GRANT ALL ON mail.* TO mail@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'mailuserpassword';
 
 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
 USE mail;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `alias` (`source` varchar(255) NOT NULL, `destination` varchar(255) NOT NULL default , `enabled` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '1', PRIMARY KEY  (`source`)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `domain` (`domain` varchar(255) NOT NULL default , `transport` varchar(255) NOT NULL default 'virtual:', `enabled` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '1', PRIMARY KEY  (`domain`)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `user` (`email` varchar(255) NOT NULL default , `password` varchar(255) NOT NULL default , `name` varchar(255) default , `quota` varchar(255) default NULL, `enabled` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '1', PRIMARY KEY  (`email`)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
 
 INSERT INTO `alias` (`source`, `destination`, `enabled`) VALUES ('@localhost', 'admin@yourdomain.com', 1);
 INSERT INTO `alias` (`source`, `destination`, `enabled`) VALUES ('@localhost.localdomain', '@localhost', 1);
 INSERT INTO `domain` (`domain`, `transport`, `enabled`) VALUES ('localhost', 'virtual:', 1);
 INSERT INTO `domain` (`domain`, `transport`, `enabled`) VALUES ('localhost.localdomain', 'virtual:', 1);
 INSERT INTO `domain` (`domain`, `transport`, `enabled`) VALUES ('yourdomain.com', 'virtual:', 1);
 INSERT INTO `user` (`email`, `password`, `name`, `quota`, `enabled`) VALUES ('admin@yourdomain.com', ENCRYPT('adminpassword'), 'Administrator', NULL, 1);

Now that the database is in place we can create the map files to tell Postfix how to communicate with it.

 mkdir /etc/postfix/maps
 nano /etc/postfix/maps/alias.cf

Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword):

 user=mail
 password=mailuserpassword
 dbname=mail
 table=alias
 select_field=destination
 where_field=source
 hosts=127.0.0.1
 additional_conditions=and enabled = 1

 nano /etc/postfix/maps/domain.cf

Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword):

 user = mail
 password = mailuserpassword
 dbname = mail
 table = domain
 select_field = domain
 where_field = domain
 hosts = 127.0.0.1
 additional_conditions = and enabled = 1

We create file name user.cf

 nano /etc/postfix/maps/user.cf

Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword):

 user = mail
 password = mailuserpassword
 dbname = mail
 table = user
 select_field = CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/')
 where_field = email
 hosts = 127.0.0.1
 additional_conditions = and enabled = 1

Set restrictive read permissions as these files contain the MySQL mail user’s password.

 chmod 700 /etc/postfix/maps/*
 chown postfix:postfix /etc/postfix/maps/*

SASL

The final part of configuring Postfix is to configure the authentication mechanism. SASL is a authentication layer that provides the ability to receive a user’s credentials in a variety of formats.

 mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd
 mkdir /etc/postfix/sasl
 adduser postfix sasl
 nano /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf

Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword):

 pwcheck_method: saslauthd
 auxprop_plugin: sql
 mech_list: plain login
 sql_engine: mysql
 sql_hostnames: 127.0.0.1
 sql_user: mail
 sql_passwd: mailuserpassword
 sql_database: mail
 sql_select: SELECT password FROM user WHERE email='%u@%r' AND enabled = 1
 

Change file permission:

 chmod -R 700 /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf
 
 mv /etc/default/saslauthd{,.default}
 nano /etc/default/saslauthd

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 START=yes
 DESC="SASL Authentication Daemon"
 NAME="saslauthd"
 MECHANISMS="pam"
 MECH_OPTIONS=""
 THREADS=5
 OPTIONS="-r -c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd"

 nano /etc/pam.d/smtp

Copy/paste the following (change all instances of mailuserpassword):

 auth    required   pam_mysql.so user=mail passwd=mailuserpassword host=127.0.0.1 db=mail table=user usercolumn=email passwdcolumn=password crypt=1
 account sufficient pam_mysql.so user=mail passwd=mailuserpassword host=127.0.0.1 db=mail table=user usercolumn=email passwdcolumn=password crypt=1

Change file permission:

 chmod 700 /etc/pam.d/smtp

Courier

Now let’s configure Courier. I like to provide both IMAP and POP3 support, although personally I only use IMAP. In addition, we’ll be provide SSL support for securing authentication requests.

 mv /etc/courier/authdaemonrc{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/authdaemonrc

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 authmodulelist="authmysql"
 authmodulelistorig="authuserdb authpam authpgsql authldap authmysql authcustom authpipe"
 daemons=5
 authdaemonvar=/var/run/courier/authdaemon
 DEBUG_LOGIN=0
 DEFAULTOPTIONS=""
 LOGGEROPTS=""

 mv /etc/courier/authmysqlrc{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/authmysqlrc

Copy/paste the following (change mailuserpassword):

 MYSQL_SERVER localhost
 MYSQL_USERNAME mail
 MYSQL_PASSWORD mailuserpassword
 MYSQL_PORT 0
 MYSQL_DATABASE mail
 MYSQL_USER_TABLE user
 MYSQL_CRYPT_PWFIELD password
 MYSQL_UID_FIELD 5000
 MYSQL_GID_FIELD 5000
 MYSQL_LOGIN_FIELD email
 MYSQL_HOME_FIELD "/var/spool/mail/virtual"
 MYSQL_MAILDIR_FIELD CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/')
 MYSQL_NAME_FIELD name
 MYSQL_QUOTA_FIELD quota

 mv /etc/courier/imapd{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/imapd

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 ADDRESS=0
 PORT=143
 MAXDAEMONS=40
 MAXPERIP=20
 PIDFILE=/var/run/courier/imapd.pid
 TCPDOPTS="-nodnslookup -noidentlookup"
 LOGGEROPTS="-name=imapd"
 IMAP_CAPABILITY="IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE"
 IMAP_KEYWORDS=1
 IMAP_ACL=1
 IMAP_CAPABILITY_ORIG="IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA AUTH=CRAM-MD5 AUTH=CRAM-SHA1 AUTH=CRAM-SHA256 IDLE"
 IMAP_PROXY=0
 IMAP_PROXY_FOREIGN=0
 IMAP_IDLE_TIMEOUT=60
 IMAP_MAILBOX_SANITY_CHECK=0
 IMAP_CAPABILITY_TLS="$IMAP_CAPABILITY AUTH=PLAIN"
 IMAP_CAPABILITY_TLS_ORIG="$IMAP_CAPABILITY_ORIG AUTH=PLAIN"
 IMAP_DISABLETHREADSORT=0
 IMAP_CHECK_ALL_FOLDERS=0
 IMAP_OBSOLETE_CLIENT=0
 IMAP_UMASK=022
 IMAP_ULIMITD=65536
 IMAP_USELOCKS=1
 IMAP_SHAREDINDEXFILE=/etc/courier/shared/index
 IMAP_ENHANCEDIDLE=0
 IMAP_TRASHFOLDERNAME=Trash
 IMAP_EMPTYTRASH=Trash:7
 IMAP_MOVE_EXPUNGE_TO_TRASH=0
 SENDMAIL=/usr/sbin/sendmail
 HEADERFROM=X-IMAP-Sender
 IMAPDSTART=YES
 MAILDIRPATH=Maildir

 mv /etc/courier/imapd-ssl{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/imapd-ssl

Copy/paste the following (change mail.yourdomain.com):

 SSLPORT=993
 SSLADDRESS=0
 SSLPIDFILE=/var/run/courier/imapd-ssl.pid
 SSLLOGGEROPTS="-name=imapd-ssl"
 IMAPDSSLSTART=YES
 IMAPDSTARTTLS=YES
 IMAP_TLS_REQUIRED=0
 COURIERTLS=/usr/bin/couriertls
 TLS_KX_LIST=ALL
 TLS_COMPRESSION=ALL
 TLS_CERTS=X509
 TLS_CERTFILE=/etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.pem
 TLS_TRUSTCERTS=/etc/ssl/certs
 TLS_VERIFYPEER=NONE
 TLS_CACHEFILE=/var/lib/courier/couriersslcache
 TLS_CACHESIZE=524288
 MAILDIRPATH=Maildir

 mv /etc/courier/pop3d{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/pop3d

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 PIDFILE=/var/run/courier/pop3d.pid
 MAXDAEMONS=40
 MAXPERIP=4
 POP3AUTH="LOGIN"
 POP3AUTH_ORIG="PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5 CRAM-SHA1 CRAM-SHA256"
 POP3AUTH_TLS="LOGIN PLAIN"
 POP3AUTH_TLS_ORIG="LOGIN PLAIN"
 POP3_PROXY=0
 PORT=110
 ADDRESS=0
 TCPDOPTS="-nodnslookup -noidentlookup"
 LOGGEROPTS="-name=pop3d"
 POP3DSTART=YES
 MAILDIRPATH=Maildir

 mv /etc/courier/pop3d-ssl{,.default}
 nano /etc/courier/pop3d-ssl

Copy/paste the following (change mail.yourdomain.com):

 SSLPORT=995
 SSLADDRESS=0
 SSLPIDFILE=/var/run/courier/pop3d-ssl.pid
 SSLLOGGEROPTS="-name=pop3d-ssl"
 POP3DSSLSTART=YES
 POP3_STARTTLS=YES
 POP3_TLS_REQUIRED=0
 COURIERTLS=/usr/bin/couriertls
 TLS_STARTTLS_PROTOCOL=TLS1
 TLS_KX_LIST=ALL
 TLS_COMPRESSION=ALL
 TLS_CERTS=X509
 TLS_CERTFILE=/etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.pem
 TLS_TRUSTCERTS=/etc/ssl/certs
 TLS_VERIFYPEER=NONE
 TLS_CACHEFILE=/var/lib/courier/couriersslcache
 TLS_CACHESIZE=524288
 MAILDIRPATH=Maildir

SSL

We need to create SSL certificates for Courier to use when authenticating using SSL/TLS. You can either purchase these (to prevent "invalid" certificate warnings) or generate a self-signed certificate which is just as secure, and free.

You will be prompted to input some information about the certificates you create. You can enter any information you want here except Common Name (CN) which must be your mailname (e.g. mail.yourdomain.com).

Run the following (change mail.yourdomain.com):

1. Remove default certificates

 rm -f /etc/courier/imapd.cnf
 rm -f /etc/courier/imapd.pem
 rm -f /etc/courier/pop3d.cnf
 rm -f /etc/courier/pop3d.pem

1. Generate a new PEM certificate (valid for 10 years)

 openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout "/etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.pem" -out "/etc/ssl/private/mail.example.com.pem" -nodes -days 3650

1. Generate a new CRT certificate (valid for 10 years)

 openssl req -new -outform PEM -out "/etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.crt" -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout "/etc/ssl/private/mail.example.com.key" -keyform PEM -days 3650 -x509

 chmod 640 /etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.*
 chgrp ssl-cert /etc/ssl/private/mail.yourdomain.com.*

Amavis

Next we’ll configure Amavis, the software that ties together SpamAssassin and ClamAV with Postfix.

 adduser clamav amavis
 cat /dev/null > /etc/amavis/conf.d/15-content-filter-mode
 nano /etc/amavis/conf.d/15-content-filter-mode

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 use strict;
 
 @bypass_virus_checks_maps = (
    \%bypass_virus_checks, \@bypass_virus_checks_acl, \$bypass_virus_checks_re);
 
 @bypass_spam_checks_maps = (
    \%bypass_spam_checks, \@bypass_spam_checks_acl, \$bypass_spam_checks_re);
 
 1;

 cat /dev/null > /etc/amavis/conf.d/50-user
 nano /etc/amavis/conf.d/50-user

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 use strict;
 
 @local_domains_acl = qw(.);
 $log_level = 1;
 $syslog_priority = 'info';
 $sa_kill_level_deflt = 6.5;
 $final_spam_destiny = D_DISCARD;
 $pax = 'pax';
 
 1;

 mv /etc/default/spamassassin{,.default}
 nano /etc/default/spamassassin

Copy/paste the following (no changes required):

 ENABLED=1
 OPTIONS="--create-prefs --max-children 5 --helper-home-dir"
 PIDFILE="/var/run/spamd.pid"
 CRON=0

ClamAV

ClamAV will scan e-mails for viruses before delivering it to your inbox.

Now, let's configure our ClamAV:

 dpkg-reconfigure clamav-freshclam

Choose OK

Choose daemon

Choose a mirror closest to you

Enter your proxy, if required. Usually you will leave this blank

By default, ClamAV updates every hour. That’s excessive. Bring that down to once a day

Choose No

Now restart everything

 /etc/init.d/saslauthd restart
 /etc/init.d/postfix restart
 /etc/init.d/courier-authdaemon restart
 /etc/init.d/courier-imap restart
 /etc/init.d/courier-imap-ssl restart

Testing

Now Postfix is running properly. So it should accept connections on port 25(SMTP port), and send email anywhere in the world.

So let's try telnet to our server via port 25 and send a test email:

 $ telnet mail.yourdomain.com 25
 
 Trying mail.yourdomain.com...
 
 Connected to mail.yourdomain.com.
 Escape character is '^]'.
 220 mail.yourdomain.com ESMTP Postfix
 HELO localhost
 250 mail.yourdomain.com
 MAIL FROM: <admin@yourdomain.com>
 250 2.1.0 Ok
 RCPT TO: <info@yourdomain.com>
 250 2.1.5 Ok
 DATA
 354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
 Subject: Test email
 
 Testmail to ensure Postfix is working.
 .
 250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 6705C20E32
 QUIT
 221 2.0.0 Bye
 
 Connection closed by foreign host.

So this proving that our email is working properly.

But is some cases, you may encounter something like this during test sending email to another domain:

 $ telnet mail.yourdomain.com 25
 
 Trying mail.yourdomain.com...
 
 Connected to mail.yourdomain.com.
 Escape character is '^]'.
 220 mail.yourdomain.com ESMTP Postfix
 HELO localhost
 250 mail.yourdomain.com
 MAIL FROM: <admin@yourdomain.com>
 250 2.1.0 Ok
 RCPT TO: <test@gmail.com>
 454 4.7.1 <test@gmail.com>: Relay access denied
 QUIT
 221 2.0.0 Bye
 
 Connection closed by foreign host.

This may cause by misconfiguration during the setup or your server has blocked the port 25.

Do check your firewall and allow connection to and from port 25.

Errors will usually show up in /var/log/mail.log or /var/log/mail.err

Roundcube

Download Roundcube file from http://roundcube.net/download :

 wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/roundcubemail/roundcubemail/0.9.2/roundcubemail-0.9.2.tar.gz
 tar xvfz roundcubemail-0.9.2.tar.gz
 cd roundcubemail-0.9.2
 mv roundcubemail-0.9.2 mail

It is recommended to make the document root and the Roundcube files in it writable by the nginx daemon which is running as user www-data and group www-data:

 chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mail

Make now these folders writable using these commands:

 sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/webmail/temp
 sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www/webmail/logs

If you haven't already created a MySQL database for Roundcube (including a MySQL Roundcube user), you can do that as follows:

 mysqladmin -u root -p create roundcube
 
 mysql -u root -p
 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON roundcube.* TO 'roundcube_admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'roundcube_password';
 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON roundcube.* TO 'roundcube_admin'@'localhost.localdomain' IDENTIFIED BY 'roundcube_password';
 FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
 quit;

Now we can launch the web-based Roundcube installer by going to http://yourdomain/mail/installer/

Scroll down and click on START INSTALLATION

On the next page the installer checks if your environment fulfills all prerequisites.

If everyting is ok, scroll down and click on NEXT

On the next page you can configure. Most default settings should be ok. Scroll down to the Database setup section and fill in the details for the Roundcube MySQL database that we've previously created

Then go to the IMAP Settings section and fill in the details of your IMAP server. If it is located on the same server, fill in localhost in the default_host field. If you want to use IMAPS (port 993), prepend the hostname with ssl:// and change the default_port field to 993

Under SMTP Settings fill in your SMTP server (localhost if it's on the same host). If the SMTP server uses the same login details as your IMAP server, please check Use the current IMAP username and password for SMTP authentication

If all other settings are ok (as I mentioned before, the default settings in all other sections should be fine), click on the CREATE CONFIG button

On the next page you will see two configuration files (main.inc.php and db.inc.php). Copy the contents and create both files in the config directory (/var/www/mail/config/ in this case):

 nano /var/www/mail/config/main.inc.php
 nano /var/www/mail/config/db.inc.php

After you have created both files, click on CONTINUE

On the next page, click on the Initialize database button to make the installer create the Roundcube MySQL database

Finally (this is optional) you have the possibility to test your SMTP and IMAP login

After the installation has finished, you should delete the Roundcube installer directory:

 rm -rf /var/www/mail/installer/

Now you can go to http://yourdomain.com/mail/ and use Roundcube to log into your email account

This is how Roundcube looks

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