Set up Guide for iRedMail
Stage 1: System Accommodation
To set up iRedMail on your computer, you need to firstly get the operating
accomodation ready for the server. The first item to check is uninstalling mail related
components such as MySQL, OpenLDAP, Postfix, Dovecot, Amavisd. Then, you
should prepare at least 2 GB of memory for running a low traffic production server.
For the iRedMail server, spam/virus scanning will be the most memory consuming
part. At last, make sure that no other users/group: 2000, 2001, 2002 are suing 3
UID/GID.
Stage 2: Preparation
For the second stage, you need to do some preparation work to make sure the system
works. Firstly, you need to set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) host name by
checking current hostname [$ hostname -f ] : mx.example.com. But for
RHEL/CentOS/Scientific Linux 6 system, the hostname is defined in
/etc/sysconfig/network: HOSTNAME=mx.example.com. So you will need to using IP
address mapping : 127.0.0.1 mx.example.com mx localhost localhost.localdomain
change to the localhost. Then, make sure to verify the FQDN hostname.If it wasn’t
changed, please reboot server to make it work.
Stage 3 Download iRedMail
Visit the download page to get the latest stable release of iRedMail. You should copy
the link address to get it in the terminal. Then upload iRedMail to your mail server via
ftp or scp or whatever method you can use, login to the server to install iRedMail.
Further instruction will be abased on the assumption that you uploaded it to
/root/iRedMail-x.y.z.tar.bz2. Next, you need to change the directory to the root, and
lastly use code above to uncompress the iRedMail tarball.
Stage 4: Installing iRedMail
After completing the former stages, you computer should be ready to install the
iRedMail. To start with, you will need to answer a few simple questions given by the
iRedMail installer. Answers will be given as Yes/No. And answering these questions
are mandatory for a complete setup of the iRedMail server. We’ll now be ready to
start iRedMail installer, by putting the directory name and using the code # cd
/root/iRedMail-x.y.z/ # bash iRedMail.sh.
The starting page of installation will be welcome and thank-you message. Click Yes to
continue. Then you will be asked to select the location where all mailboxes will be
stored. The default is
/var/vmail/.
Note that you should choose backend (the one you are most familiar with will be the
most recommended) for mail account storage. All mail accounts will be manageable
with iRedAdmin, our web-based iRedMail admin panel.
The second option for mail account storage will be the OpenLDAP. To use this option,
you will need to set the LDAP suffix.
And the third option is to store mail accounts in MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL. Upon
choosing this option, you will be given a randomly generated strong password by
iRedMail installer.
Then make sure to add your first mail domain name and set password of admin
account of your first mail domain. Lastly, you will need to choose optional
components.
After completing all of above questions, you will need to review and confirm the
answers before start the installation. You will need to do no more than typing y or Y
to initiate automatic installation and configuration of required packages.
Stage 5: After Installation
You should pay attention to the user’s password. A weak password is usually the most
common attacking spot for spammers. We strongly recommend you use a strong
password. Read the file /root/iRedMail-x.y.z/iRedMail.tips first, because it
contains:URLs, usernames and passwords of web-based applications and location of
mail service related software configuration files. Setup DNS records for your mail
server and know how to configure your mail clients. It’s highly recommended to get a
SSL cert to avoid annoying warning message in web browser or mail clients when
accessing mailbox via HTTPS/IMAPS/POP3/SMTPS. Let’s Encrypt offers FREE
SSL certificate. If you need to bulk create mail users, check our document for
OpenLDAP and MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL. If you’re running a busy mail server,
we have some suggestions for better performance.
- After you post your artifact to a group member’s blog, each person should write a personal reflection that addresses the following questions:
So the top three trade-offs from using iRedMail are privacy, security and its open source. Firstly, iRedMail could save all the emails, and personal information is local computer and can avoid inspections from the third party. Therefore, the privacy part is where I could justify on using iRedMail over emails from big companies or third companies, those inspect on my personal data and the content of all messages or conversation I had.
Also in the security wise, because it let me have the individual server for email domain, I could easily secure the connections without much of knowledge in server handling or security handling. With the strong passwords and encrypted passwords, the email accounts are more secure than the third party email accounts, which can be easily accessed by others or hackers.
And in third, because it is the open source, although it has more professional tools if I pay yearly licensed, it can easily get the updates manually and directly with the service. With the open source, it can easily inspect and fix the bugs from the Linux or Shells that I could trust.
As I use the ND Gmail accounts for a long time, my data and personal information have collected too much at the account so that I am very afraid of its possibility of inspected, getting hacked by others or other harmful actions. And at the same time, I am having current experience in getting more spam emails as I use it. And finally, my past experience in Gmails taught me that my emails could be expired and difficult to find or organized in the future. However, from using iRedMail, it lets me organize the emails with SQL and databases, and also back up in my computers with encryption. I actually do not have the moral standing to complain about encroachment in using third party services. Using the third party service is like living or borrowing rooms of others in real life, where I can be naturally insecure from the owner of the house. Specifically, when I borrow the room for free, I believe there is less possibility and guarantee that I will have more private space and be secured. Third party emails provide the email services mostly for free and borrow their own server for free also. Third party services and companies are not the types of donors who donate the best service to people for free. There is always a give and a take in the business. So I believe it is users’ responsibility to be more careful about containing their personal and important information in public services.
Because until now, I mostly used the email accounts provided from institutions and communities, I haven’t thought of using the private cloud services. Among the personal cloud services, iRedMail had the best trade-offs from using it. However, one and only concern about using the personal server email is that, although I use iRedMail, there are most people who are using the third party emails. Because emails are mostly conversation with one another, I am worried there will be still a possibility of security, privacy, and other inspection issues in having conversations with others using the third- party emails. These issues will only be solved when everyone uses the own personal email server.
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