{"id":17,"date":"2010-09-03T10:42:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T22:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.templesoft.co.nz\/blog\/?p=17"},"modified":"2026-04-08T08:19:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:19:32","slug":"17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/templesoft.co.nz\/journal\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"Setting up a mail server using Postfix on Ubuntu 10.04"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction.<\/h2>\n

Background.<\/h3>\n

I had already build a VoIP system using CentOS (another Unix-like OS) as a base with trixbox CE providing the VoIP telephony. It was a fun project and for all the same reasons I wanted to do something similar for our messaging. I naturally (or some may argue un-naturally) started thinking about Microsoft Exchange, but was put off by the cost and all the additional features that I might not use! Then I remembered reading something about Postfix and thought “I can setup a VoIP system, surely it can’t be too hard to setup a mail server on a *nix<\/em> box?” It also seemed like I nice way to create a rounded “communication” solution for our organisation encompassing telephony and email (my thoughts immediately turned to shared calendaring too).<\/p>\n

With the availability of devices like the iPhone and iPad (yes, I’m a fan-boy!), it meant that I could create a mail platform that could be accessed “anywhere”, “anytime” on “any device” (and by any device read: iPad or iPhone ?). This was a plus for management, who wouldn’t need to be restricted to carrying around a laptop and 3G modem in order to access emails!<\/p>\n

So I started searching on the internet for a cookbook that would outline the steps and one of the first I came across (and ultimately stayed with) was Ivar Abrahamsen’s step-by-step guide at flurdy.com. It’s a fantastic guide that outlines things very clearly with details on “how” and “why” each step is taken.<\/p>\n

This HOWTO is effectively a duplicate (and to some degree a subset) of flurdy’s guide, with some of my own changes\/omissions based on my own situation and experiences during the install. It was also to some degree intended for my own reference in case I needed to recover my server one day. All credit goes to Ivar Abrahamsen without whom I’d never have got my server off the ground. I didn’t plan on using my server in the cloud so I removed the references to ec2.<\/p>\n

So why would you build your own mail server? There are a number of advantages to having your own mail server, and a cursory check of the MX records of a number of organisations I deal with revealed that almost everyone was doing it! Reason 1: I didn’t want to be left out!! More selfishly, it was a way to gain total control over the server, and with my “portable mail” plan relying on IMAP it meant I couldn’t have an ISP reigning me back on disk space!!<\/p>\n

I did have concerns about being a target for spammers and hackers, so it was a relief to see the sections in flurdy’s guide that dealt with spam and antivirus as well as the encryption of the traffic – another plus if the aforementioned management decided to access their mail, using webmail from a internet caf\u00e9 while on holiday!<\/p>\n

Base OS Distribution<\/h3>\n

This HOWTO is based on Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) 64-bit and its Debian base which uses apt-get (aptitude) to download and install its packages.<\/p>\n

Why 10.04 and what is LTS? Lucid Lynx (10.04) is an LTS (Long Term Support<\/em>) release. It (the server version) will be supported with security updates until April 2015. The long life cycle will hopefully mean a more stable platform, enhanced support and more time before we have to consider upgrading.<\/p>\n

Hardware configuration<\/p>\n

You know what they say about assumptions… Unfortunately I didn’t do enough research when picking my server hardware, and just went for the highest spec machine I could afford. Little did I know there would be issues around driver support for the RAID controller and GRUB’s inability to recognise GPT partitions for disks larger than 2TB! There are workarounds, but I had other options…<\/p>\n

Here’s the specifications of the server I used for this exercise:<\/p>\n