VMailMgr HOWTO
Bruce Guenter <bruceg@em.ca>, Dan Kuykendall <dan@kuyk
endall.org>
v1.1, 23 April 2000
This document explains how to setup VMailMgr support pop3 virtual
domain services in conjunction with Qmail.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 What is VMailMgr and why should I use it?
1.2 New versions
1.3 Comments
1.4 History
1.5 Version History
1.6 Copyrights and Trademarks
1.7 Acknowledgements and Thanks
2. Installation
2.1 Get the files Visit the VMailMgr website
2.2 Install with RPMS
2.2.1 Compiling SRC.RPM's
2.2.2 Installing RPM's
2.3 Install with source
3. Setup
3.1 Setting Up a Virtual Domain
3.2 Using one IP address for mutiple domains
3.2.1 Logging in as a virtual user?
3.3 Catch all misdirected mail?
3.4 Setup VMailMgr IMAP support?
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1. Introduction
VMailMgr (short for Virtual MAIL ManaGeR) is a package of programs
designed to manage multiple domains of mail addresses and mailboxes on
a single host. It co-operates with qmail for mail delivery and program
control.
1.1. What is VMailMgr and why should I use it?
VMailMgr is:
A series of utilities for managing virtual domains which include a
password checking interface for qmail which replaces the usual
checkpassword, and an authentication module for Courier IMAP, that
provide access to the virtual mailboxes by one of three methods:
· IP-based virtual server access (invisible to the POP3 user)
· username-based access (username-virtualuser)
· hostname-based access (virtualuser@virtual.host or
virtualuser:virtual.host)
You should use it if:
You prefer to have each domain controlled by a seperate username,
allowing the use of system quotas and better security
1.2. New versions
The newest version of this can be found on my homepage
<http://www.clearrivertech.com/linux/HOWTO> as SGML source, as HTML
and as TEXT. Other versions may be found in different formats at the
LDP homepage <http://www.linuxdoc.org/>. A copy can also be found on
the VMailMgr homepage <http://em.ca/~bruceg/vmailmgr/> in its HTML
version as well as in the VMailMgr source package as both SGML source
and as HTML.
1.3. Comments
Comments on this HOWTO should be directed to the VMailMgr mailing
list. To subscribe, send an email to vmailmgr@lists.em.ca
<mailto:vmailmgr@lists.em.ca>.
1.4. History
This document was started by Bruce Guenter and reworked by Dan
Kuykendall.
1.5. Version History
Old Version
· Created by Bruce, wasn't in SGML HOWTO format.
v1.0 (April 20, 2000)
· Built proper SGML version.
· Included the FAQ.
· Other minor additions.
v1.1 (April 23, 2000)
· Split the FAQ to a seperate file, but included some important info
from the FAQ.
· Updated the Courier-IMAP support section.
· Switched the license to the GNU FDL.
· Other minor additions.
1.6. Copyrights and Trademarks
Copyright (c) Dan Kuykendall. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by
the Free Software Foundation
A copy of the license is available at GNU Free Documentation License
<http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.txt>.
1.7. Acknowledgements and Thanks
Thanks to Bruce Guenter for VMailMgr and the core of this HOWTO.
Thanks to Mike Bell, who always seems to have the answers to my
questions. Finally, thanks to all those on the vmailmgr@lists.em.ca
<mailto:vmailmgr@lists.em.ca> mailing list who have helped me, or
asked the same stuff so many times that I had to write this to stop
the repeat questions.
2. Installation
2.1. Visit the VMailMgr websiteurlnam
<http://em.ca/~bruceg/vmailmgr/> to get the package. Get the files
If you get the binary RPMS you will need at least the vmailmgr and
vmailmgr-daemon packages.
2.2. Install with RPMS
2.2.1. Compiling SRC.RPM's
Simply compile the src.rpm file with the `rpm --rebuild` command.
-Example-
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rpm -ivh vmailmgr-0.96.6-1.src.rpm
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2.2.2. Installing RPM's
After compiling the source rpms, the binaries will be located in
`/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/` or something similar.
Simply run the following command for each package
rpm -ivh <location>/<package.i386.rpm>
-Example-
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rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/vmailmgr-0.96.6-1.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/VMailMgr-daemon-0.96.6-1.i386.rpm
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2.3. Install with source
If you dont ue RPMS you can install from source.
Run the following command
(As non-root user)
tar zxf <package.tar.gz>
cd <newly created dir>
./configure
make
(As root)
make install
-Example-
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(As non-root user)
tar zxf vmailmgr-0.96.6.tar.gz
cd vmailmgr-0.96.6
./configure
make
(As root)
make install
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That should do it.
3. Setup
3.1. Setting Up a Virtual Domain
The following steps are necessary to set up a virtual domain with
vmailmgr (assuming vmailmgr has been compiled and installed). As an
example, we'll set up a virtual user `me@mydomain.org`, with aliases
of `myself@mydomain.org` and `myname@mydomain.org`.
1. Set up a DNS entry for the domain. I won't cover this here, as it
is dependant on far too many other things. I will mention that to
make IP based virtual domains work a PTR record which matches an
entry in virtualdomains is nessesary, for example, if nslookup
10.56.33.122 returns mail.mydomain.com, `virtualdomains` needs an
entry like `mail.mydomain.com:myuser`
For the example, we'll assume that the mail exchanger for
mydomain.org is already set up to point to your computer.
2. Set up a base user for the domain. Create a user, with a name of
your choosing. Since the maildirs for all the users in the virtual
domain will be stored under this user's home directory, make sure
you set the user up in a partition or disk that is appropriate for
such storage. The tools that you should use to accomplish this step
vary greatly between different systems. For our example, I'll add a
user `myuser`.
3. Configure qmail to recognize the domain. To do this, you need to
modify two of qmail's configuration files in `/var/qmail/control`
`rcpthosts` and `virtualdomains`.
· To `rcpthosts` : add the line `mydomain.org`.
· To `virtualdomains` : add the line `mydomain.org:myuser`.
If you wish to have mail to `anything.mydomain.org` be delivered in
the same way, add the following
· To `rcpthosts` : add the line `.mydomain.org`.
· To `virtualdomains` : add the line `.mydomain.org:myuser`.
4. Configure qmail-popup/qmail-pop3d to use `checkvpw` as the password
checker. This step is dependant on how you have installed qmail.
· Replace `checkpassword` in the command you use to invoke qmail-
popup/qmail-pop3d (either in `/etc/inet.conf` or in a `tcpserver`
command) with `checkvpw`.
· And/Or at the prompt type: `echo checkvpw >
/var/qmail/control/checkpassword`
5. Add users or aliases to the domain. Either change user to the user
you just created (for example, type `su - myuser`) or log in (with
either telnet or at the console) as the new user, and use the
included programs to add users and aliases.
For our example, we would
· type: `vadduser me` (which prompts for a password)
· type: `vaddalias me myself`
· and type: `vaddalias me myname`
After you have completed all these steps, you will need to kill and
restart `qmail-send` to make it read the new `virtualdomains`
table.
If you are using `inetd` to launch `qmail-popup`, `kill -HUP` the
`inetd` process as well.
3.2. Using one IP address for mutiple domains
3.2.1. Logging in as a virtual user?
There are two ways to log in without using multiple IP addresses.
1. The first way is to log in as `userSEPvirtual.domain.org`, where
`user` is the mailbox name of the virtual user, SEP is one of `@`
or `:` (by default, this is configurable in the `/etc/vmailmgr/'
directory), and `virtual.domain.org' is the virtual domain's name,
as listed in `/var/qmail/control/virtualdomains'.
2. The second way is to use the internal form of the mailbox name --
that is, `baseuser-user', where `user' is the same as above, and
`baseuser' is the username of the managing user.
Example: `/var/qmail/control/virtualdomains' contains
testdomain.org:testuser
User `myuser' exists, and has set up a virtual mailbox with the name
`me'. The `separators' variable in `/etc/vmailmgr/' contains `@:'.
This virtual user could log in as `me@mydomain.com', `me:mydomain.cm',
or `myuser-me'.
3.3. Catch all misdirected mail?
In the `vmailmgr/' configuration directory, there is an entry called
`default-username'. If mail to a virtual domain does not match any
users or aliases in that domain, it is delivered to the name listed in
this configuration item if it exists (which defaults to `+'). To make
this deliver to you, simply type:
vaddalias me +
3.4. Setup VMailMgr IMAP support?
VMailMgr supports Courier-IMAP, but Courier-IMAP does not auto detect
VMailMgr. This means that some minor work is required for making the
two work together.
· You must copy `/usr/local/bin/authvmailmgr` to `/usr/lib/courier-
imap/libexec/authlib/authvmailmgr`.
· Then modify the `AUTHMODULES` statement in `/usr/lib/courier-
imap/etc/imapd.config` and add `authvmailmgr` as the first
authentication module.
