Mail Server Configuration in Linux

A mail server is a computer that stores all your emails, sends and receives emails like a Gmail server and Yahoo server. You can create your mail server and email account without using Google, Yahoo, or Hotmail services. The following procedure will help you create a mail server using Postfix and SquirrelMail as the webmail client on the Linux system, and also, understand the mail server configuration in Linux.

Step-1: Install Apache & PHP7

The mail server configuration in Linux using the postfix and squirrelMail.
For using the SquirrelMail server, you need to install the packages Apache2 and PHP7.
Open the terminal on the screen and enter the below commands.
$ sudo apt-get update –y
$ sudo apt-get upgrade –y
$ sudo apt-get install apache2 php7

Step-2: Install Postfix mail server

Input the command and press Enter to install Postfix.
$ sudo apt-get install postfix
Under the ‘General type’ tab, select Internet Site.
Enter a system name and select OK. Then, run the command below to restart Postfix mail server.
$ sudo service postfix restart

Step-3: Install Dovecot

You need to install Dovecot, which is the MDA (Mail Delivery Agent).

$ sudo apt-get install dovecot-imapd dovecot

Then enter the command to restart Dovecot.

$ sudo service dovecot restart

Step-4: Install SquirrelMail

Here, we are using the email server SquirrelMail for mail server configuration in Linux. To Install it on the Linux system, download the SquirrelMail package and then run the following commands.
$ unzip squirrelmail-webmail-1.4.22.zip
$ sudo mv squirrelmail –webmail-1.4.22 /var/www/html /
$ sudo chown –R www-data :www/html/squirrelmail-webmail-1.4.22/
$ sudo chown 755 -R /var/www/html/squirrelmail-webmail-1.4.22/
$ sudo mv /var/html/squirrelmail-webmail-1.4.22/ /var/www/html/squirrelmail

Step-5: Configure SquirrelMail server

Enter the command line to configure the mail server.
$ sudo perl /var/html/squirrelmail/config/conf.pl
Input “2” to modify the server settings and then enter “1” to change the domain name.
Return to the main menu by entering “R” and pressing Enter, next, type “4” to edit the general options.
Enter the code of ‘Allow server-side sorting’ and then enter “true” to change the setting.
Following that, type “S” and press Enter to save the settings.
After completing the mail server configuration in Linux your server is ready now. You can access it from the link ‘domain.com/squirrelmail’ and enter a username and password to log in to the email.