Building A Reliable Open Source Mail Server for Fedora Core 3
*UPDATED 11/12/04 for Fedora Core 3

This tutorial is one of many available on the Internet. The focus here is on ease of implementation, avoidance of heavy customization (compiling from source, long config files), and software manageability (all RPM based).

This turtorial is the *QUICK* version of previous versions. All software downloading, compiling, and installing is automated via a series of very simple helper scripts. These scripts are specific to the  package distributions below and must be edited to accomodate new software revisions.

Benefits
o no licenses
o open source GNU software
o secure online interface using SSL
o minimal hardware requirements
o server side Spam filtering

Bundled Distribution Software Requirements
o Fedora Core 3 with the following packages:
    o Apache
    o PHP
    o Postfix
    o wget
   
Unbundled Software Requirements
o Apt 0.5.15 (http://www.freshrpms.net)
o Courier IMAP 3.0.8 (http://www.courier-mta.org)
o Maildrop 1.7.0 (http://www.courier-mta.org)
o SpamAssassin 3.0.8 (http://www.spamassassin.org)
o perl-Mail-Spamassassin 3.0.8 (http://www.spamassassin.org
o Anomy Mail Tools 1.69 (http://mailtools.anomy.net/)
o Subjadd (http://www.firstpr.com.au/web-mail)
o Squirrelmail 1.4.3a (http://www.squirrelmail.org)

Remove if already installed
o IMAP
o SpamAssassin
o perl-Mail-Spamassassin

Software Not Used
o LDAP
o MySQL, PostgreSQL

Account Management and Mailboxes
o standard user accounts via the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files

Examples used in this tutorial need to be replaced with the relevant values
o example.com
o 192.168.1.1 
1. Download and Install the APT Package Manager for RPM from http://www.freshrpms.net. 

This package manager ensures easy installation of any needed software and is much faster than up2date/Fedora mirrors.
 
$ su -
# wget http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/3/apt/apt-0.5.15cnc6-1.1.fc3.fr.i386.rpm
# wget http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/3/apt/apt-devel-0.5.15cnc6-1.1.fc3.fr.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh apt*
 
2) Create a user called "rpmbuild" for building packages. 
# useradd -d /home/rpmbuild -m rpmbuild
 
3) Download the RPM install scripts to the rpmbuild user's home directory.
 
# cd /home/rpmbuild
# wget http://www.ufsdump.org/scripts/open-source-mail.tar.gz
# tar zxvf open-source-mail.tar.gz
 
4) Install the RPM development dependencies for all of the RPMS that will be created.
 
# ./install-deps.sh
 
5) As the user "rpmbuild", create the binary RPM packages.
 
# su - rpmbuild
$ ./build-rpms.sh
 
6) As root, install the packages and configuration templates. 
# ./install-rpms.sh
# ./install-configs.sh
7) Configure Postfix and integrate maildrop.
 
# vi /etc/postfix/main.cf
myhostname = example.com
mydomain = example.com
myorigin = $mydomain
inet_interfaces = all
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, $mydomain
home_mailbox = Maildir/
mailbox_command = /usr/bin/maildrop -d "$USER" -f "$SENDER" "$EXTENSION"


# chkconfig postfix on
# service postfix start
 
8) Install and configure Squirrelmail for Courier IMAP
 


# cd /usr/share/squirrelmail/conf
# ./conf.pl

<<snip>

D.  Set pre-defined settings for specific IMAP servers

Command >> D
SquirrelMail Configuration : Read: config.php

<<snip>>

Please select your IMAP server:
    cyrus      = Cyrus IMAP server
    uw         = University of Washington's IMAP server
    exchange   = Microsoft Exchange IMAP server
    courier    = Courier IMAP server
    macosx     = Mac OS X Mailserver
    quit       = Do not change anything
Command >> courier

              imap_server_type = courier
         default_folder_prefix = INBOX.
                  trash_folder = Trash
                   sent_folder = Sent
                  draft_folder = Drafts
            show_prefix_option = false
          default_sub_of_inbox = false
show_contain_subfolders_option = false
            optional_delimiter = .
                 delete_folder = true

Press any key to continue...

<<snip>>

Command >> S

Data saved in config.php
Press enter to continue...

<<snip>>

Command >> q
 
9. Configure Apache

This is a very basic configuration of an Apache webserver using "name based" virtual hosting. These variables are the ONLY
 ones that need to be changed.
 
# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
ServerName 192.168.1.1:80
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    ErrorLog logs/error_log
    CustomLog logs/access_log common
</VirtualHost>

# mkdir /var/www/html/example
# mkdir /var/www/html/example/logs
# touch /var/www/html/example/logs/access_log
# touch /var/www/html/example/logs/error_log
# chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/example/logs/
10. Create a user with the /usr/bin/add_user script.
# add_user jdoe
Setting up the user jdoe...

Is 502 okay? [y or n]: y
The UID 502 will be used for user jdoe.
Use default group? [y or n]: y
The group jdoe will be used with UID jdoe
Would you like to use the default home directory of /home/jdoe? [y or n]: y
The home directory of /home/jdoe will be used for UID jdoe.

Available  Email Domains
*****************

1) localhost
2) example.com
Pick an email domain [example:mydomain.com]: example.com
The domain example.com was selected.
Would you like to setup an email alias [y or n]? y
Enter alias: johnny.doe
The alias johnny.doe@example.com will be added /to/etc/aliases.

Here are your settings.
***********************

Home dir: /home/jdoe
Group: jdoe
UID: 502
Domain: example.com
Email: jdoe@example.com
Email Alias: johnny.doe
 
Are these choices okay? [y or n]: y
User jdoe setup
Changing password for user jdoe.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
Adding aliaes...

Setting up Squirrelmail...
USER jdoe is setup...
11) Logining into Squirrelmail

Point your web browser to https://www.example.com/webmail.

You should be at the Squirrelmail login page. Enter a valid Unix user account and pass. Each user needs to subscribe to both their Spam and Virus folders. This can be done by clicking on "Folders" at the top, selecting both the Spam and Virus folders at the bottom of the page, and clicking on "Subscribe".
 

12) Debug Messages

An approrpiately delivered message should log this entry:

 
# tail -f /var/log/maillog
Mar 17 21:44:09 asaph postfix/smtpd[30781]: connect from gateway4.stpt.com[216.34.200.41]
Mar 17 21:44:10 asaph postfix/smtpd[30781]: 600E33A7F3: client=gateway4.stpt.com[216.34.200.41]
Mar 17 21:44:10 asaph postfix/cleanup[30783]: 600E33A7F3: message-id=<2050.67.154.138.34.1079588774
.squirrel@216.34.200.29>
Mar 17 21:44:10 asaph postfix/smtpd[30781]: disconnect from gateway4.stpt.com[216.34.200.41]
Mar 17 21:44:10 asaph postfix/nqmgr[30707]: 600E33A7F3: from=<test.userlitemail.org>, size=1009,
 nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Mar 17 21:44:10 asaph spamd[30274]: connection from asaph [127.0.0.1] at port 32906 
Mar 17 21:44:11 asaph spamd[30788]: info: setuid to darren succeeded 
Mar 17 21:44:11 asaph spamd[30788]: Creating default_prefs [/home/testuser/.spamassassin/user_prefs] 
Mar 17 21:44:11 asaph spamd[30788]: Created user preferences file: /home/testuser/.spamassassin/user_prefs 
Mar 17 21:44:11 asaph spamd[30788]: processing message <2050.67.154.138.34.1079588774.squirrel@216.34.200.41>
for darren:500. 
Mar 17 21:48:26 asaph postfix/local[30814]: B0F7C3B1F7: to=<test.user@example.com>, relay=local, delay=1,
status=sent ("|/usr/bin/maildrop -d "$USER" -f "$SENDER" "$EXTENSION")

Links and References:

Thanks to Robin Whittle ( rw@firstpr.com.au) for great documentation on all of this!
http://www.firstpr.com.au/web-mail/
http://da.andaka.org/Doku/imapspamfilter.html#maildrop
http://spamassassin.org/sitewide.html
http://ebullient.haaser.com/archives/000210.php
http://buffy.riseup.net/introduction/