[NTLUG:Discuss] Mail Server software ( was Single UID Mailbox for qmail use imap? )

Tue Dec 18 18:22:22 CST 2001

I use postfix as the mail server.
Cyrus as the POP3/IMAP server
sasl ( that talks to my mysql server )
IMP ( w/Apache ( that also authenticates to the same server/table as my mail
system ) )

I've used this combination for several years. Users can use SMTP AUTH
via postfix to send mail. They authenticate against the same sql database
that they authenticate with when they check their mail. They can also use
IMP to access their IMAP mail via the web. Again... using the same
sql/tables
to authenticate with.

> I want to see if I follow your config. There would be a NFS server, with
the
> MTA, and IMAP/POP servers all mounting the same NFS Server.  There could
be
> one or two MTA's, and a whole bunch of IMAP/POP servers.  You could either
> front end this with perdition or DNS round robin type of approach, right?
> Each of the mail servers (SMTP,IMAP,POP) are NFS clients?  Interesting.

yep. that's what I'd like. Don't think that I'll ever see that with Cyrus,
but you
can always hope.;) Cyrus uses several db type files that keep track of
different
things. These can be mirrored between systems, but it's not as simple as a
couple of flat file mail files.

> My failover config is in a shared storage type of configuration, which is
very
> rare in linux. Actually my config is on Solaris with a bunch of over
priced
> hardware and software.

My experience lies mainly with Intel and cheep hardware. I'm using rsync to
mirror the mail files every hour. I was looking at some raid-like network
file systems but can't remember why I decided that it wouldn't work. That
would have been slick.

jack

----- Original Message -----
From: "greg hewett" <greg at hewetts.com>
To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 5:40 PM
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Single UID Mailbox for qmail use imap?

> m m,
>
> Just to add to Jack's comments, you do not have to authenticate to a mysql
> database server.  You can also authenticate to an berkeley database on the
> server called /etc/sasldb, which will only authenticate sasl enabled
services,
> and I think that postfix is on that list.  If you want to authenticate
> outgoing mail, then you could use the same auth db (in theory).
>
> Also, Jack, I am not sure what you mean about cyrus being harder to
failover.
> I do not mean to go further into a rabbit hole, but I am running
cyrus-imapd
> in a failover configuration, and I do not see how the way that the mail is
> stored on the server would affect the ability to be easy to fail-over or
not.
> Unless you are talking about store the mail on an NFS server or filer,
which I
> would think would be nuts.
>
> I want to see if I follow your config. There would be a NFS server, with
the
> MTA, and IMAP/POP servers all mounting the same NFS Server.  There could
be
> one or two MTA's, and a whole bunch of IMAP/POP servers.  You could either
> front end this with perdition or DNS round robin type of approach, right?
> Each of the mail servers (SMTP,IMAP,POP) are NFS clients?  Interesting.
>
> My failover config is in a shared storage type of configuration, which is
very
> rare in linux. Actually my config is on Solaris with a bunch of over
priced
> hardware and software.
>
> Greg
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2001 at 04:38:20PM -0600, Jack Snodgrass wrote:
> > Unless I missed somethig about Qmail, it's just a mail program like
> > sendmail or postfix. It just receives the mail.
> >
> > The server that your users connect to to get mail ( via POP or IMAP )
> > is different.
> >
> > I use Cyrus-Imap to do IMAP and POP. It runs a 'closed' mail store.
> > No user access is allowed to the mail files. Users's ( the way I have it
> > set up ) are authenticated via a mysql server. There are several ways
> > to set it up so that you don't need to have real users setup in the
> > /etc/passwd file.
> >
> > Other IMAP servers that I've heard about are Courier IMAP and
> > the UofW IMAP server. I think that both of those use 'user space'
> > type mail stores so you do need to have users set up on the system
> > to access their mail. ( I could be wrong about this ) One advantage
> > that both of these have over Cyrus is that they allow you to have mail
> > on a NFS ( or probably SAMBA ) remote file system. The way that
> > Cyrus does it's mail ( and indexes ) you can't do this. This makes it
> > a bit harder ( or impossible ) to set up a distributed or a failover
type
> > system.
> >
> > jack
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "m m" <llliiilll at hotmail.com>
> > To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 10:22 PM
> > Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Single UID Mailbox for qmail use imap?
> >
> >
> > > Hi all:
> > >
> > > Is there any one has the experience set up imap account/boxes for
Qmail to
> > > provide email services for hundreds, even several hundreds of
thousands of
> > > people (email addresses, and POP3 boxes) using a single system UID
(i.e.
> > > each account does not need a separate system /etc/passwd style
account).
> > >
> > > I know it can be done by use pop3 server, I like to know hot to setup
it
> > by
> > > use imap server.
> > >
> > > thanks
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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