2002.01_Suse Email Server Iii.pdf

FEATURE

SUSE EMAIL

SERVER III

Why me?

What is it that the SuSE eMail Server has to offer

you? Apart from the absolute reliability of Linux

software and the present day fact that there are not

many viruses that will attack it, there is also the

extremely user friendly Web-based interface that you

can use to perform all of the many tasks required

from a mail server on a daily basis in a busy

commercial or academic environment.

The eMail server supports all of the usual Internet

standards such as IMAP, LDAP, POP3, TLS and SASL.

All common email clients can be administered from

the workstation that’s connected to the server, which

provides a central administration point for a

commercial organisation. Dedicated workgroups and

all of the things that you might associate with

proprietary software are available. Internal and

external lists can also be set up and administered.

What SuSE Linux UK Ltd has done is take some

free software and written some high quality software

to compliment it. The end result is that the user only

has to click on a Web page and fill in some easy to

understand values for user and group configurations.

SuSE has also populated the boxed product with

some excellent manuals. The first part of the

installation manual is easy to understand: If you can

install a Microsoft product then you can use YasT2

and install the eMail server. Many commercial and

even Government organisations that we have spoken

to have said that they want this kind of commercial

product and they are willing to pay good money for

it. Quite a few of them also say that proprietary

software is becoming prohibitively expensive due to

the cost of licences. They also say that Linux is a

viable alternative and they want more of it.

The eMail Server III that was reviewed for this

magazine was tested on i386 hardware, which is the

kind of hardware you can find in most small

companies worldwide. A 450MHz AMD K6-2 CPU

and 128Mb of 100MHz RAM was the hardware used

SuSE have recently

produced a very

glossy and highly

desirable range of

commercial products

which neatly undercut

the prices of most

other similar

products. Richard

Ibbotson takes a long

hard look at the latest

SuSE eMail Server

Issue 16 • 2002

LINUX MAGAZINE

EMAIL SERVER

FEATURE

Apache configuration.

User account control

to install the server into the i386 architecture. The

installation was over in less than ten minutes and

after fifteen minutes an IBM notebook was

connected to the networked server so that

administration and configuration of the new accounts

could begin.

Configuration of a single account took only a few

minutes and we noticed that the server and the Web

browser that we were using both moved like

lightning across the screen. This was also tested

across the Internet with an ISDN link and little or no

loss of speed was experienced. Most commercial

organisations use digital communications and so

there should not be a problem with remote

administration and configuration.

Configuring Fetchmail from the frontend.

Reasons to use?

How does it work and what makes it better than

some of the others? To be honest it may not be

better than some of the others, but there are a lot of

people out there who do not want to hack a

command line in the middle of a busy schedule or be

involved in administering several hundred machines

that crash all of the time. Let’s face it: we’ve all had

that problem at one time or another with internal or

remote computers that need that demon tweak or an

account adding/removing on the one day of the year

when everything else has gone wrong.

To use the eMail server for the purposes of

configuration and administration, all you need is a

Java-enabled Web browser on any machine in your

own internal network. You can also connect to the

same machine with SSH if you prefer command line.

The eMail server is basically a cut-down version of the

ordinary SuSE distribution and so any secure session

that you might wish to establish over an internal

network or across an untrusted network is possible

with the eMail server. This means that an SSL

connection can be made with Samba as well, if you

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Issue 16 • 2002

FEATURE

Expert mode Postfix configuration

want to do that. Apache configuration can be done

with the addition of a CA.

After the initial login the user or admin person is

pointed by the graphical interface towards the first

time configuration of a single user or complete

group. There is also provision for browser-based

configuration of postfix, procmail and fetchmail. If

you have hacked these on the command line as

much as I have then you’ll probably prefer a graphical

approach.

The actual Web forms that you are asked to

complete vary in complexity and sophistication. If you

are confused by first time configuration the manual

should help you out and if that doesn’t work then

support by fax or email is easily obtained. The first

part of the manual gives easy to understand graphical

instructions on how to install. The later pages

(starting at chapter five) explain the simple task of

logging in as an administrator and configuration. This

part also shows pictures of what you can see on the

screen so there shouldn’t be any problems. There are

also complete descriptions of how to use various mail

applications with the eMail server and how to

configure those as well. Finally there is a section on

how to use the Arkeia backup software to make a

copy of your mail folders so that nothing is lost in the

event of a disaster. Arkeia is the software that is

included on the installation CD that comes in the box

so that you can make your backups.

As well as the installation manual there is also a

cut down version of the original SuSE manual. Those

of us who know about this will be aware that the

SuSE manual is one of the best books about Linux

that has been produced. If you don’t like paper you

will find that you can install the same documents into

your own local hard drive for further reading from

the CD. If you are short on disk space you can also

connect via the Internet to the SuSE site where you

will find the same documentation as well as the SuSE

support and hardware database. A second CD

contains the source code for the eMail server. So, if

you are a developer or if you just want to change the

way that the eMail server runs on your network you

can do that.

Creating a new user

account to receive

What about viruses?

Amavis is included with the CD. There is a very good

SuSE security team who are paid to look after you

and a security list if you wish to discuss any security

issues. You can get the kind of support for virus and

other security issues that will make sure that your

server will run for a very long time without

interruptions and without intruders. If you don’t like

Amavis you will find email virus scanners out there on

the Internet, which are commercial in nature and you

will have to pay for them.

If you want a reliable and virus-free mail server

then the SuSE eMail server is for you. You can find

more info about the eMail server by visiting the

useful links.

The author

Richard is the Chairman and organiser for Sheffield

Linux User’s Group. You can view their web site at

www.sheflug.co.uk

Postfix mail queue

Issue 16 • 2002

LINUX MAGAZINE

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