Re: [vps-mail] using a Single VPS2 for centralized email

[Abigail Marshall <abigail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MC> Sorry to come in late on this, but i'm trying to weigh the benfits of 
MC> centralized anti-spam and anti-virus scanning for all email by 
MC> putting it on a single VPS2,

MC> Also, have you run against problems of clients wanting pop accounts 
MC> like "bob" and you've already got a 'bob' on the system?

Matt, I'm planning the same thing - to put all mail handling
& filtering on a single VPS. All the people on my system
want mail forwarded to their other email addresses, so they
don't have a clue as to what I call their POP accounts ...
but I can suggest 2 possible solutions to your problem.

1. Assign an appropriate name to the POP account, but also
create an alias, so that you would have email to
bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx delivered to the POP box called bob2 --
Bob would just have to know that the log in for his POP box
is different from the email he uses in his "From" address on
his email program.

2. Have 2 POP boxes - one on the VPS2 and one on the server
where bobsdomain is. Since mail to bobsdomain now goes to
the VPS2, you will need use a different name for the server
with the pop box -- for example, you will create a CNAME and
call it mail1.yourdomain.com. After mail is filtered on the
VPS2 it is delivered to the bob2 POP box - but that has a
procmail directive to forward it to the Bob's POP box on his
own server. His log in and password will not change, but you
will have to tell Bob to change his settings to check
mail1.yourdomain.com (or whatever else you now call the
server for MX purposes). Since the ONLY email coming that
way will be email that has already been filtered on the
VPS2, you don't have to worry about spam and viruses ending
up in Bob's POP box on his own VPS. Bob doesn't need to know
about the VPS2 POP box at all - you can manage everything
via shell.

MC> This would be my first VPS2, so i'd probably move my own account over 
MC> there first and then take my time moving everyone else over.

FWIW, the main reasons I am consolidating email on a single
VPS2 are:

1) It will mean that I only have to worry about
spamassassin & procmail in one place, plus the VPS2 has
clam-av.

2) Because my servers host some high profile websites,
viruses like MyDoom have a tendency to bombard our servers
with bogus email and abortive SMTP processes; this in turn
has a negative impact on server load and will slow web site
performance.  That means that I have to monitor load
constantly - essentially we are getting DOS-type attacks
from time to time.  By putting the incoming sendmail and SMTP
processes on a different server, I shield the web servers
from this sort of traffic -- plus the VPS2 ought to be more
capable of handling the load.

Anyway, it will be my first VPS2 also, so we can be online
buddies and share our triumphs and frustrations as we try to
set it all up. :)

-Abigail

======================================================================
This is <vps-mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>       <http://www.perlcode.org/lists/>
Before posting a question, please search the archives (see above URL).