On 6/28/23 16:24, joe a wrote:
While doing preliminary work to retiring a legacy proprietary email system, my own, looking at maybe setting up an IMAP server, just for the fun of it.
On a fresh openSuse 15.4 I see none installed by default and when I go sniffing about in YAST, i find several flavors available for install:
dovecot dovecot23 imap (and sundry)
Funny I was just ready about 3 body problems . . .
Checking 15.4 repos and dovecot and dovecot23 are both dovecot 2.3. The only difference is dovecot -> 2.3-3.3.1 dovecot23 -> 2.3.15-58.3 As far as your imap server goes, all you need is postfix and dovecot, it is a combination that is hard to beat. It will do everything you need (and much more) If your new to the config of both and handling server certificates, there is a bit of learning to do. Anymore, you basically need a registered domain to reliably be able to send mail and not have it rejected. For almost 2-decades a self-signed cert would do -- no longer. You also need reverse-lookup on your domain functioning for remote mail hosts to accept your mail (in about 80% of the cases). Free certs from "Let's Encrypt" work wonderfully. The certbot program makes requesting and renewing certificates a breeze. (you need a functioning web-server, as the mail and web-server will use the same cert for TLS/SSL, etc..) Once setup, renewing a cert every 90 days is as simple as "certbot renew". (which can be automated) You must have both ports 80 and 443 (http and https) functioning for certbot to do it's confirmation and cert update. The rest is just plain old postfix and dovecot config. The postfix config in main.cf and master.cf can be a bit daunting -- but the postfix docs and site are quite good. Your dovecot.conf will be about 15 lines, and is painless by comparison. Your web-server config is about equal to postfix in the size of the bump that will develop on your forehead after beating your head into the wall until the information all makes sense -- don't worry it will once you make friends with all the jargon used describing mail hosts, transports and delivery agents... :) I've run postfix/dovecot for about 20 years, UW imap before that. No comparison, dovecot is the better of the two. Lots of good howtos out there, but always refer to the postfix and dovecot sites for final authority on any setting. As far as the web-server goes, I've always used Apache. Though I have several boxes running nginx -- which is quite capable -- supposedly simpler config (don't buy it) For complex setups with virtual domains, etc.., the nginx config is on-par with the Apache config in level of detail required. But, I've got nothing bad to say about nginx -- I kind of like it, but I'm not nearly as fluent with the config and handing its equivalent of BASIC and DIGEST authentications. Apache is just like a comfortable old-coat, it's the one you reach for each time you are in need... Good luck! Drop back if you have openSUSE specific config issues (SSL setup on Apache used to be a bit unique -- due to historical YAST approach, but lately it's pretty much plain-Jane: See https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/reference/html/book-reference/ch... ) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.