GNet Solutions » GNU/Linux Administration

Installing the Mail Server¶

It is a good idea to synchronize the system clock with an NTP (network time protocol) server over the Internet. Simply run:

apt-get -y install ntp ntpdate

Install postfix, dovecot and MySQL with:

apt-get -y install postfix postfix-mysql postfix-doc mysql-client mysql-server openssl getmail4 rkhunter binutils dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d

Enter the new password for mysql when requested by the installer and answer the next questions as decsribed below:

General type of configuration? <-- Internet site
Mail name? <-- mail.mydomain.com

To install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV run:

apt-get -y install amavisd-new spamassassin clamav clamav-daemon zoo unzip bzip2 arj nomarch lzop cabextract apt-listchanges libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-sasl-perl clamav-docs daemon libio-string-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libnet-ident-perl zip libnet-dns-perl

If you want to use mailinglists on your server, then install mailman. This step is optional.
mailman requires a apache webserver, so if you dont want to run a apache instance on your mailserver, then dont install mailman.

apt-get -y install mailman

The apt installer for mailman will ask you then to select the languages for the mailing list. Enable all languages that you want to use for mailman. Next create the "mailman" mailinglist.

newlist mailman

Enter the email address and new password for the mailinglist administrator. Thats the last step of the mailman install.
The next command to install php has to be executed on every server, independently if you installed mailman or not.

Then install the commandline version of PHP to be able to run PHP-based shell scripts for ISPConfig:

apt-get -y install php5-cli php5-mysql php5-mcrypt mcrypt

Install fail2ban: This is optional but recommended, because the ISPConfig monitor tries to show the log:

apt-get install fail2ban

To make fail2ban monitor PureFTPd and Dovecot, create the file /etc/fail2ban/jail.local:

vi /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

[dovecot-pop3imap]

enabled = true
filter = dovecot-pop3imap
action = iptables-multiport[name=dovecot-pop3imap, port="pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps", protocol=tcp]
logpath = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 5

Then create the following filter file:

vi /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/dovecot-pop3imap.conf

[Definition]
failregex = (?: pop3-login|imap-login): .*(?:Authentication failure|Aborted login \(auth failed|Aborted login \(tried to use disabled|Disconnected \(auth failed|Aborted login \(\d+ authentication attempts).*rip=(?P<host>\S*),.*
ignoreregex =

Restart fail2ban afterwards:

service fail2ban restart

Install ISPConfig 3*on this server¶

To get the download URL of the latest ISPConfig 3 stable release, please visit the ISPConfig website: http://www.ispconfig.org/ispconfig-3/download/

Download the latest ISPConfig 3** stable release:

cd /tmp
wget http://www.ispconfig.org/downloads/ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
tar xfz ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
cd ispconfig3_install/install/

Then start the install script:

php -q install.php

Select language (en,de) [en]: <-- en
Installation mode (standard,expert) [standard]: <-- expert
Full qualified hostname (FQDN) of the server, eg server1.example.com [mail.example.com]: <-- mail.example.com
MySQL server hostname [localhost]: <-- localhost
MySQL root username [root]: <-- root
MySQL root password []: <-- Enter your MySQL root password here
MySQL database to create [dbispconfig]: <-- dbispconfig
MySQL charset [utf8]: <-- utf8
Shall this server join an existing ISPConfig multiserver setup (y,n) [n]: <-- y
MySQL master server hostname []: <-- web.example.com
MySQL master server root username [root]: <-- root
MySQL master server root password []: <-- Enter the root password of the master server here
MySQL master server database name [dbispconfig]: <-- dbispconfig
Configure Mail (y,n) [y]: <-- y

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- US (Enter the ISO country code where you live here)
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <-- Idaho (Enter the state where you live here)
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <-- Boise (Enter the city here)
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <-- ENTER
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <-- ENTER
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: <-- ENTER
Email Address []: <-- ENTER

Configure Jailkit (y,n) [y]: <-- n
Configure FTP Server (y,n) [y]: <-- n
Configure DNS Server (y,n) [y]: <-- n
Configure Apache Server (y,n) [y]: <-- n
Configure Firewall Server (y,n) [y]: <-- y
Install ISPConfig Web-Interface (y,n) [y]: <-- n

Remove the ISPConfig interface link in the /var/www directory:

rm -f /var/www/ispconfig

Clean up the install directories:

rm -rf /tmp/ispconfig3_install/install
rm -f /tmp/ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz