SUNScholar/Prepare Ubuntu/S07

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 NEXT - STEP 8

Step 7. Install the Postfix mail server

DSpace needs to send emails in order to facilitate submission workflows etc.

Ideally before setting this up, you should speak to your campus email administrator.

Local Server Postfix Installation

First we purge any old email system that may exist. 

sudo dpkg --purge exim4

Step 7.1: Install the software

Install the postfix mail server as follows (The "smarthost" is your campus email sending server, read the wiki page below for alternatives):

When asked for type of setup, select "Internet with smarthost". See links below for more detail before continuing. 

sudo apt-get install postfix

Step 7.2: Setup default mailname

Now we edit the servers "mailname" by typing as follows: 

sudo nano /etc/mailname

Add one line only which should be the hostname (URL) of your server, for example: scholar.sun.ac.za.

Optional

The following are not required and are optional.

Setup the email aliases

Now we need to forward any email sent to local accounts on the server to email accounts of persons responsible for the repository.

The "root" and "dspace user" email address forwarding are setup as follows.

Type the following. 

sudo nano /etc/aliases

Add aliases as per example below: 

# Added by installer for initial user
root:   me@my.edu.ac.za
dspace: me@my.edu.ac.za

Change the me@my.edu.ac.za to your email address.

To activate the new aliases type the following: 

sudo newaliases

Send a test email to root

Install the command line mailer program as follows: 

sudo apt-get install mailutils

Now we can send a test email to the root user by typing as follows: 

mail -s "Test Email from root" root

Press the "Enter" key and type some message content. Press CTL+D twice and then Enter to send the mail.

Check the following log for any delivery errors as follows: 

sudo tail -n 20 /var/log/mail.log

If there are no delivery errors then your mail server is setup.

Well done.

Alternative Sender Email Gateway Choices

You can use any email server to facilitate email messaging, however if your campus does not have an email server then you can use gmail as an email gateway. See below for more details.

Using offsite Gmail server gateway

If you do not have a campus email server to use, then try using GMail as your email gateway server. See the link below for instructions. 

http://blog.stuartlewis.com/2009/09/05/using-gmail-with-dspace

Please note: For this to work, you will have to make sure the local repository server has unrestricted access to the GMail server via your campus firewall and that all the relevant ports are open on your local server.

Gmail Help

Using onsite campus email server gateway

Using the campus email server we setup "Postfix" as a "smarthost" which uses the campus email server as the actual MTA (mail transfer agent) to relay email.

See local Postfix installation steps below for instructions.

Also see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Postfix for further help.

Advanced Postfix Configuration

If you are satisfied with the installation of Postfix using the step above, you may skip this step. Otherwise continue below.

To review the Postfix main.cf file, type as follows: 

sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Tip: It is always a good idea to maximise the open nano window so that the copy and paste of long lines does not wrap around.

See below for an example of the config file: 

# See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete version


# Debian specific:  Specifying a file name will cause the first
# line of that file to be used as the name.  The Debian default
# is /etc/mailname.
#myorigin = /etc/mailname

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
biff = no

# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h

readme_directory = no

# TLS parameters
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/%hostname%.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/certs/%hostname%.key
smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache

# See /usr/share/doc/postfix/TLS_README.gz in the postfix-doc package for
# information on enabling SSL in the smtp client.

myhostname = %hostname%
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
myorigin = /etc/mailname
mydestination = %hostname% localhost
relayhost = %relay-hostname%
mynetworks = %my-subnet% 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
  1. Change the %hostname% to the hostname of your server.
  2. Change the %relay-hostname% to the hostname of your campus email server which sends and delivers email.
  3. Add the subnet of your campus TCP/IP network %my-subnet% to the mynetworks parameter.
  4. Ensure mydestination = %hostname% localhost to prevent your mail server becoming a spam email relay.

Talk to the campus system administrator about these settings.

Also see: http://www.postfix.org/SMTPD_ACCESS_README.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnet_Mask.

The postfix server can be re-configured by typing the following: 

sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

References

Below is a screenshot of the yearly postifx mail queue

Sunscholar-postfix mailqueue-year.png 

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