An improved mail server stack in Jaunty: Dovecot and Postfix integration

A session during last UDS was dedicated to improving the mail server stack available in Ubuntu Server. One of the item that came out of the discussion was a better integration between postfix and dovecot. Ante Karamatic worked on implementing it for Jaunty and his results have been uploaded.

To test it all you need is a jaunty system and install the dovecot-postfix package. Once the installation has completed the following configuration will be available:

SASL authentication for smtp services

Postfix is automatically configured to use Dovecot’s SASL authentifcation daemon. Remote SMTP clients can be authenticated to the Postfix SMTP server using the Dovecot user database. The same credentials (username/password, kerberos) can be used for accessing imap, pop3 and smtp services.

Dovecot deliver as the default Local Delivery Agent

postfix will use Dovecot’s deliver command to distribute incoming email to the end user’s mailbox using the Maildir format. Combining Dovecot deliver support for sieve scripts and the managesieve service enabled by default a complete server-side mail filtering solution is available out of the box.

Tls for smtp  services

Tls is made available for smtp and smtpd services provided by postfix while imap and pop3 are available via ssl. Security hasn’t been left out of the picture.

So if you’re interested in a integrated mail stack providing a combination of smtp, imap, pop3 and managesieve services the Jaunty Jackalope will suit you. Have a look at it, test it and with one simple command:

apt-get install dovecot-postfix

Let know the Ubuntu Server teamabout your suggestions and comments.

10 Responses to “An improved mail server stack in Jaunty: Dovecot and Postfix integration”


  1. 1 .fosk. Friday, 13 February 2009 at 7:39 pm

    Great news!

    Keep up rocking with the work you (the whole ubuntu server team) are doing on ubuntu server.

    Linux really needs a simple way of installing different servers (mail, file, web, etc…).

    Cheers!

  2. 2 Ante Saturday, 14 February 2009 at 4:13 pm

    There are some known issues with current version (postfix certificate paths have typos and there’s a missing argument in postfix’s main.cf), so early adopters should wait couple of days untill new upload hits repository.

  3. 3 Matt Tuesday, 16 June 2009 at 12:17 am

    Anyone happen to know if this package will work in Debian 5?

    • 4 Erik Monday, 28 September 2009 at 6:08 am

      Sounds like a great improvement, as evidenced by the enormous howto s I’ve tried to follow to setup a mail server.
      None of the tutorials worked so far, so I’ve installed the dovecot-postfix package, but I’m wondering what to do next. The main things I am trying to figure out are:
      how to add email accounts
      what ports need to be forwarded (I have 25 forwarded right now)
      what setting to use to connect a client and check the mail

      I have an mx record on my domain pointing to my ip, and port 25 forwarded. I’m trying to figure out what to do next. Do you have any advice or howto that I can follow that uses the dovecot-postfix package method?

      Thank you so much in advance.

      • 5 Lukas Monday, 5 October 2009 at 10:33 pm

        Erik, I was just wondering if you got your email figured out. If you haven’t yet maybe we could team up and try to work it out, I’m pretty much in the same place as you!

      • 6 Erik Tuesday, 6 October 2009 at 6:10 am

        Hi Lukas, I got it partially working. I can check the account with imap and thunderbird and send email to myself, but I can’t seem to get email to or from the real world. That may be a problem with my ISP though. You may have better luck then me in the end.
        Do you have a Ubuntu forums account? If so, that would be the ideal place to try and get something working, I’m SoftwareExplorer at ubuntu forums and you could leave a comment on my page or pm me.

  4. 7 ria Tuesday, 29 September 2009 at 10:20 am

    I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading about the mail server. Nice information


  1. 1 An improved mail server stack in Jaunty: Dovecot and Postfix integration | Ubuntu-News - Your one stop for news about Debian Trackback on Saturday, 14 February 2009 at 5:41 pm
  2. 2 Server de e-mail mult mai ușor cu Ubuntu | Gratis: Anunturi Gratis, Filme Gratis, Jocuri Gratis, Muzica Gratis Trackback on Sunday, 1 March 2009 at 5:14 pm
  3. 3 Ubuntu Podcast Episode #20 | Ubuntu Podcast Trackback on Sunday, 1 March 2009 at 9:59 pm

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