Centos 7.x (or RHEL) very simple configuration of a mailserver with postfix, dovecot & mysql (mariaDB) – part 1

(I have written this article in english since I wasn’t able to find any updated guide about this subject in any language).

DISCLAIMER. this is a very basic configuration. Not intended for production environment. Use at your own risk.

I have a small mailserver handling very few domains with mailboxes  for may friends and relatives an it have been working fine for the last 8 years.
But  it is based on the old CentOS 5 + sendmail and I think it is time to upgrade!

So, in order to test the new future configuration, I have performed a  CentOS 7 minimum install  on a virtual machine and tried to configure the  minimum amount of packages to have it working.

Now let’s start!

First of all, good news: on CentOS 7 both the stock postfix and dovecot packages have full mysql support without the need for enabling external repos or recompiling them from the source.

DATABASE CONFIGURATION

Mysql have been replaced by MariaDB that is mainly compatible.

Ask yum to install mariadb and mariadb-server packages.

[root@server03 ~]# yum install mariadb mariadbserver

Start and enable the service

[root@server03 ~]# systemctl start mariadb
[root@server03 ~]# systemctl enable mariadb

(please note the new SystemD commands. You can still use the service command for compatibility, but it will be redirected to systemctl)

Then launch

[root@server03 ~]# mysql_secure_installation

and answer all the questions (change root password….)

Now it is time to create database and tables for our simple installation.

Enter the mysql console:

[root@server03 ~]# mysql -uroot -p
Enter password: 

(enter the root mariaDB password you have set during secure installation process)

Create the database:

MariaDB [(none)]> create database mailserver;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> 

Select database:

MariaDB [(none)]> use mailserver;

Create user table (paste the following SQL):

CREATE TABLE `users` ( `email` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
 `password` varchar(128) NOT NULL,
 `enabled` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1', 
 `username` varchar(45) DEFAULT NULL, 
  PRIMARY KEY (`email`)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

This table will be used by postfix and dovecot to select valid mailboxes and to authenticate matching users.

The fields are self-explanatory.
Just one note: even if Dovecot will use email as username, the field username will be used for SMTP auth (in the next article) since I prefer my ordinary mail users (IMAP, POP) not to be able to send email using the resident SMTP service. Only users with ‘username’ set will be able to do it.

Now you need to create the domains table.

CREATE TABLE
 `domains` ( `domain` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
 `enabled` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1', PRIMARY KEY (`domain`))
  ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 

In this table you will put all the domains you decide to recive mail for.

Now the alias TABLE:

CREATE TABLE `aliases` ( `email` varchar(128) NOT NULL,
`alias` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`enabled` int(11) DEFAULT '1',
 PRIMARY KEY (`email`)) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

This table will contain all your aliases. For example a global address sales@example.com can be routed to both john@example.com, mike@example.com.

Grant privileges to a new user postfix on the whole database.

grant select on mailserver.* to postfix@localhost identified by 'yoursecretpassword'

Add some relevant data in the above tables:

insert into users set email='paperino@vettore.org', password='segretissima', username='paperino';
insert into users set email='pluto@vettore.org', password='segretissima', username='pluto';
insert into domains set domain='vettore.org';
insert into aliases set email='global@vettore.org', alias='pluto@vettore.org, paperino@vettore.org'

This way you have created two mailboxes and a global alias routing to both of them.

Moreover you have just told your server to accept incoming emails for vettore.org domain.

thats’all for the database!

POSTFIX configuration

Postfix already installed and enabled, otherwise:

[root@server03 ~]# yum install postfix
.........
[root@server03 ~]# systemctl enable postfix
[root@server03 ~]# systemctl start postfix

save your configuration

[root@server03 ~]# cd /etc/postfix
[root@server03 ~]# cp main.cf main.cf.orig

Now you can edit your main.cf.

This is a very basic configuration example:

queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
data_directory = /var/lib/postfix
mail_owner = postfix

#replace with your FQDN 
myhostname = server03.vettore.org


#listen on all interfaces (not only localhost)
inet_interfaces = all

#enable IPV6 too
inet_protocols = all

smtpd_helo_required = yes

mydestination=localhost

unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8

in_flow_delay = 3s

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases

mail_spool_directory = /var/spool/mail

#replace with your personal banner
smtpd_banner = $myhostname benvenuto sul server di posta della Famiglia Vettore

debug_peer_level = 2

debugger_command =
         PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
         ddd $daemon_directory/$process_name $process_id & sleep 5

sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix

newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix

mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix

html_directory = no

#place where virtual databases are located
virtual_mailbox_domains = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-domains.cf
virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-users.cf
virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-aliases.cf

#delivery transport: dovecot
virtual_transport=dovecozz
dovecozz_destination_recipient_limit = 1


#user 
virtual_minimum_uid = 150
virtual_uid_maps = static:150
virtual_gid_maps = static:150

Create system user vmail:vmail with an high uid and gid (150 in the above example) so it won’t interfere with ordinary system users. Create a directory to store incoming emails.

[root@server03 ~]# useradd -r -u 150 -g mail -d /var/vmail -s /sbin/nologin -c "Virtual mailbox" vmail
[root@server03 ~]# groupadd -g 150 vmail
[root@server03 ~]# mkdir /var/vmail
[root@server03 ~]# chown vmail:vmail /var/vmail

For a simple configuration a single user can be enough.

Now you have to create database connectors as stated in the above configuration file.

For example /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-domains.cf:

user = postfix
password = yuorsecretpassword
hosts = 127.0.0.1
dbname = mailserver
query = SELECT 1 FROM domains WHERE domain='%s' AND enabled=1 

This is self-explanatory: when postfix look for a domain name it can find here instructions to connect to the database and query it.

You can test your configuration as follows:

[root@server03 ~]# postmap -q yourdomain.com mysql:/etc/postfix/mysqlvirtualdomains.cf

If youdomain.com is in your domains table it willl return 1.

Similarly you can setup the other two connectors.

/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-users.cf :

user = postfix
password = yoursecretpassword
hosts = 127.0.0.1
dbname = mailserver
query = SELECT 1 FROM users where email='%s' and enabled=1 

/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual-aliases.cf

user = postfix
password = yoursecretpassword
hosts = 127.0.0.1
dbname = mailserver
query = SELECT alias FROM aliases WHERE email='%s' AND enabled=1 

Finally, you should tell postfix to use dovecot to deliver local mail.

Add this to your /etc/postfix/master.cf

dovecozz unix - n n - - pipe flags=DRhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver -f ${sender} -d ${recipient}

Service name (‘dovecozz’ in this case) must match the configuration in your main.cf (virtual_transport=dovecozz).

DOVECOT installation and configuration

First of all install the packages, activate and start dovecot the service:

[root@server03 ~]# yum install dovecot dovecot-mysql
....
[root@server03 ~]# systemctl enable dovecot
[root@server03 ~]# systemctl start dovecot

Very few configurations are needed.

In your /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf add the following lines:

mail_location=maildir:/var/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir
mail_uid=vmail
mail_gid=vmail

first_valid_uid = 150
last_valid_uid = 150

The first line is the most important: it tells dovecot how to store incoming emails.

I have choosen this simple schema: for example email to pippo@vettore.org will be stored in:

/var/vmail/vettore.org/pippo/Maildir/

The other configuration lines simply tell dovecot to use the user vmail we have created above.

Similarly to other services the new dovecot configurations follow the new scheme of the single file in the ./conf.d folder.

So you will find the auth conf in

/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf

You have to tell dovecot to use mysql backend. Edit the above file, comment (adding #) all the !include line at the end of the file.

Than add

!include authmysql.conf.ext

This tells dovecot to look in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-mysql.conf.ext for the auth configuration.

This file doesn’t exist so we have to create it.
After that insert the following lines:

passdb {
   driver=sql
   args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
}


userdb  {
        driver=static
        args = uid=150 gid=150 home=/var/vmail/%d/%n allow_all_users=yes
}
  

Please note in the passdb section there is a reference to /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf .

This is the real connector.

We can create the connector as follows:

/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf:

driver=mysql
default_pass_scheme = PLAIN 
connect= host=127.0.0.1 port=3306 dbname=mailserver user=postfix password=yoursecretpassword
password_query = SELECT password, email as user  FROM users where email='%u' AND enabled=1

Please note in the above connector I have stated to use a PLAIN password scheme.

This means your password will be stored in plain text. If U think this can be a security issue you can choose CRAM-MD5, CRYPT or more complex schemes.

Time for test now!

TESTING the configuration

Restart the dovecot and postfix services.

Telnet your server from localhost:

[root@server03 ~]# telnet localhost 25
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 server03.vettore.org benvenuto sul server di posta della Famiglia Vettore
helo pippolo
250 server03.vettore.org
mail from:info@microsoft.com
250 2.1.0 Ok
rcpt to:pluto@vettore.org
250 2.1.5 Ok
data
354 End data with .
subject: test mail from localhost 

This is the body of the mail
.
250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 7630680FF9A7
quit
221 2.0.0 Bye
Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@server03 ~]# 

If everything went fine, you should find something like this at the end of your /var/log/maillog

Sep 10 15:04:03 server03 postfix/smtpd[23520]: connect from localhost[::1]
Sep 10 15:04:34 server03 postfix/smtpd[23520]: 7630680FF9A7: client=localhost[::1]
Sep 10 15:05:06 server03 postfix/cleanup[23530]: 7630680FF9A7: messageid=<20140910130434.7630680FF9A7@server03.vettore.org>
Sep 10 15:05:06 server03 postfix/qmgr[23074]: 7630680FF9A7: from=, size=378, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Sep 10 15:05:09 server03 postfix/smtpd[23520]: disconnect from localhost[::1]
Sep 10 15:05:23 server03 dovecot: lda(pluto@vettore.org): msgid=<20140910130434.7630680FF9A7@server03.vettore.org>: saved mail to INBOX
Sep 10 15:05:23 server03 postfix/pipe[23533]: 7630680FF9A7: to=, relay=dovecozz, delay=59, delays=42/0.02/0/16, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via dovecozz service)
Sep 10 15:05:23 server03 postfix/qmgr[23074]: 7630680FF9A7: removed

You shold find a newly created folders in /var/vmail/vettore.org/pluto/Maildir/ and your incoming mail in /var/vmail/vettore.org/pluto/Maildir/new.

Try the above example replacing the destination with global@vettore.org and check the mail routed to both your alias addresses.

You can try to telnet from a remote host but pay attention to kick or (better) configure your firewallD service. Pay attention: iptables and ip6tables are no longer installed by default!.

The NEXT STEP

In the next articles I will explain how to enable authenticated SMTP with SSL and how to fight SPAM and VIRUSES.

Have fun!