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Integrate mlmmj mailing list manager in iRedMail (MySQL/MariaDB backends)

Summary

In iRedMail-0.9.8, we integrate mlmmj - a simple and slim mailing list manager. It uses very few resources, and requires no daemons, easy to install, configure and manage. if offers a great set of features, including:

• Archive
• Subject prefix
• Subscribers only posting
• Moderators only posting
• Moderation functionality
• Custom headers / footer
• Fully automated bounce handling
• Complete requeueing functionality
• Regular expression access control
• Delivery Status Notification (RFC1891) support
• Rich, customisable texts for automated operations
• and more

iRedMail team also developes a simple RESTful API server called mlmmjadmin to help manage mailing lists, it also offers script tool to manage mailing lists from command line.

We will show you how to integrate both mlmmj and mlmmjadmin in this tutorial.

Backup SQL database first

Although we don't modify any existing SQL data in this tutorial, but it's a good idea to backup it now before you adding any new mailing lists.

Please run command bash /var/vmail/backup/backup_mysql.sh to backup SQL databases.

Create required system account

mlmmj will be ran as user mlmmj and group mlmmj, all mailing list data will be stored under its home directory /var/vmail/mlmmj:

On Linux or OpenBSD:

groupadd mlmmj
useradd -m -d /var/vmail/mlmmj -s /sbin/nologin mlmmj
chown -R mlmmj:mlmmj /var/vmail/mlmmj
chmod -R 0700 /var/vmail/mlmmj

On FreeBSD:

pw groupadd mlmmj
pw useradd -m -g mlmmj -s /sbin/nologin -d /var/vmail/mlmmj mlmmj
chown -R mlmmj:mlmmj /var/vmail/mlmmj
chmod -R 0700 /var/vmail/mlmmj

Update SQL tables in vmail database

We need some updates in vmail SQL database:

• new SQL table maillists: used to store profile of mailing list.
• new SQL column forwardings.is_maillist
• new SQL column domain.maillists: used to set per-domain limit of mailing list accounts. This column is mostly used by iRedAdmin-Pro.

Now apply the SQL changes with SQL commands below:

cd /tmp
wget https://bitbucket.org/zhb/iredmail/raw/default/extra/update/0.9.8/mlmmj.mysql
mysql vmail < mlmmj.mysql

Postfix integration

• Please add lines below in Postfix config file /etc/postfix/master.cf:

  Attention

  • Command /usr/bin/mlmmj-amime-receive doesn't exist yet, we will create it later.
  • On FreeBSD and OpenBSD, it should be /usr/local/usr/bin/mlmmj-amime-receive instead.

# ${nexthop} is '%d/%u' in transport ('mlmmj:%d/%u')
mlmmj   unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
    flags=ORhu user=mlmmj argv=/usr/bin/mlmmj-amime-receive -L /var/vmail/mlmmj/${nexthop}

• Add line below in Postfix config file /etc/postfix/main.cf:

mlmmj_destination_recipient_limit = 1

• Open Postfix config file /etc/postfix/main.cf, update existing parameter transport_maps, add new sql lookup like below. We will create required sql lookup file later.

transport_maps =
    proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql/transport_maps_user.cf
    proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql/transport_maps_maillist.cf   # <- Add this line
    ...

• Now create file /etc/postfix/mysql/mlmmj_maillists_maps.cf:

user        = vmail
password    = qsescZvV03f6YUtTMN2bQTejmjatzz
hosts       = 127.0.0.1
port        = 3306
dbname      = vmail
query       = SELECT maillists.transport FROM maillists,domain WHERE maillists.address='%s' AND maillists.active=1 AND maillists.domain = domain.domain AND domain.active=1

• Run commands below to create file /usr/bin/mlmmj-amime-receive (Linux) or /usr/local/bin/mlmmj-amime-receive (Linux/FreeBSD):

On Linux:

cd /usr/bin/
wget https://bitbucket.org/zhb/iredmail/raw/default/iRedMail/samples/mlmmj/mlmmj-amime-receive
chown mlmmj:mlmmj mlmj-amime-receive
chmod 0550 mlmmj-amime-receive
perl -pi -e 's#PH_CMD_MLMMJ_RECEIVE#/usr/bin/mlmmj-receive#g' mlmmj-amime-receive
perl -pi -e 's#PH_CMD_ALTERMIME#/usr/bin/altermime#g' mlmmj-amime-receive

On FreeBSD or OpenBSD:

cd /usr/local/bin/
wget https://bitbucket.org/zhb/iredmail/raw/default/iRedMail/samples/mlmmj/mlmmj-amime-receive
chown mlmmj:mlmmj mlmj-amime-receive
chmod 0550 mlmmj-amime-receive
perl -pi -e 's#PH_CMD_MLMMJ_RECEIVE#/usr/local/bin/mlmmj-receive#g' mlmmj-amime-receive
perl -pi -e 's#PH_CMD_ALTERMIME#/usr/local/bin/altermime#g' mlmmj-amime-receive

Amavisd Integration

We need Amavisd to listen on one more port 10027, it will be used to scan spam/virus for emails posted to mailing list.

• Please open Amavisd config file, find parameter $inet_socket_port, add new port number 10027 in the list, like below:
  • On RHEL/CentOS, it's /etc/amavisd/amavisd.conf.
  • On Debian/Ubuntu, it's /etc/amavis/conf.d/50-user.
  • On OpenBSD, it's /etc/amavisd.conf.
  • On FreeBSD, it's /usr/local/etc/amavisd.conf.

$inet_socket_port = [10024, 10026, 10027, 9998];

• Add lines below in Amavisd config file. It creates a new policy bank called MLMMJ for emails submitted by mlmmj from port 10027. The purpose is signing DKIM key on outgoing emails sent by mailing list, but disable spam/virus/banned/bad-header checks, because emails sent to mailing list will be scanned either on port 10024 (incoming email from external senders) or 10026 (outgoing email sent by smtp authenticated users).

$interface_policy{'10027'} = 'MLMMJ';
$policy_bank{'MLMMJ'} = {
    originating => 1,           # declare that mail was submitted by our smtp client
    allow_disclaimers => 0,     # mailing list should use footer text instead.
    enable_dkim_signing => 1,   # sign DKIm signature
    smtpd_discard_ehlo_keywords => ['8BITMIME'],
    terminate_dsn_on_notify_success => 0,  # don't remove NOTIFY=SUCCESS option
    bypass_spam_checks_maps => [1],     # don't check spam
    bypass_virus_checks_maps => [1],    # don't check virus
    bypass_banned_checks_maps => [1],   # don't check banned file names and types
    bypass_header_checks_maps => [1],   # don't check bad header
};

Now restart Amavisd and Postfix servivce, mlmmj mailing list manager is now fully integrated.

We will setup mlmmjadmin program to make managing mailing lists easier.

Setup mlmmjadmin: RESTful API server used to manage mlmmj mailing lists

• Download the latest mlmmjadmin release: https://github.com/iredmail/mlmmjadmin/releases, and upload to iRedMail server. We assume it's uploaded to /root/ directory.

  Attention

  We use mlmmjadmin-1.0 for example below.

• Extract downloaded mlmmjadmin package to /opt/ directory, and create a symbol link:

tar xjf /root/mlmmjadmin-1.0.tar.bz2 -C /opt
ln -s /opt/mlmmjadmin-1.0 /opt/mlmmjadmin

• Generate config file by copying sample file, settings.py.sample:

cd /opt/mlmmjadmin
cp settings.py.sample settings.py
chown mlmmj:mlmmj settings.py
chmod 0400 settings.py

• Generate a random, long string as API auth token, it will be used by your API client. For example:

$ echo $RANDOM | md5sum
43a89b7aa34354089e629ed9f9be0b3b

• Add this string in /opt/mlmmjadmin/settings.py, parameter api_auth_tokens like below:

api_auth_tokens = ['43a89b7aa34354089e629ed9f9be0b3b']

You can add as many token as you want for different API clients. For example:

api_auth_tokens = ['43a89b7aa34354089e629ed9f9be0b3b', '703ed37b20243d7c51c56ce6cd90e94c']

• if you manage mail accounts WITH iRedAdmin-Pro, please set values of parameters backend_api and backend_cli in /opt/mlmmjadmin/settings.py like below:

backend_api = 'bk_none'
backend_cli = 'bk_iredmail_sql'

• if you do NOT manage mail accounts with iRedAdmin-Pro, please set values of parameters backend_api and backend_cli in /opt/mlmmjadmin/settings.py like below:

backend_api = 'bk_iredmail_sql'
backend_cli = 'bk_iredmail_sql'

• Add extra required parameters in /opt/mlmmjadmin/settings.py, so that mlmmjadmin can connect to SQL server and manage mailing lists.

  Attention

  You can find SQL server address, port, database name, SQL username and password in iRedAdmin config file, the SQL user must have both read and write privileges to manage vmail database. iRedMail server usually use SQL user vmailadmin for this purpose.

iredmail_sql_db_type = 'mysql'
iredmail_sql_db_server = '127.0.0.1'
iredmail_sql_db_port = 3306
iredmail_sql_db_name = 'vmail'
iredmail_sql_db_user = 'vmailadmin'
iredmail_sql_db_password = '<password>'

• Copy rc/systemd scripts for service control:

#
# For RHEL/CentOS
#
cp /opt/mlmmjadmin/rc_scripts/systemd/rhel.service /lib/systemd/system/mlmmjadmin.service
chmod 0644 /lib/systemd/system/mlmmjadmin.service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable mlmmjadmin

#
# For Debian 9 and Ubuntu 16.04 which uses systemd
#
cp /opt/mlmmjadmin/rc_scripts/systemd/debian.service /lib/systemd/system/mlmmjadmin.service
chmod 0644 /lib/systemd/system/mlmmjadmin.service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable mlmmjadmin

#
# For FreeBSD
#
cp /opt/mlmmjadmin/rc_scripts/mlmmjadmin.freebsd /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mlmmjadmin
chmod 0755 /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mlmmjadmin
echo 'mlmmjadmin_enable=YES' >> /etc/rc.conf.local

#
# For OpenBSD
#
cp /opt/mlmmjadmin/rc_scripts/mlmmjadmin.openbsd /etc/rc.d/mlmmjadmin
chmod 0755 /etc/rc.d/mlmmjadmin
rcctl enable mlmmjadmin

• Create directory used to store mlmmjadmin log file. mlmmjadmin is configured to log to syslog directly.

#
# For RHEL/CentOS
#
mkdir /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chown root:root /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chmod 0755 /var/log/mlmmjadmin

#
# For Debian/Ubuntu
#
mkdir /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chown syslog:adm /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chmod 0755 /var/log/mlmmjadmin

#
# For OpenBSD/FreeBSD
#
mkdir /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chown root:wheel /var/log/mlmmjadmin
chmod 0755 /var/log/mlmmjadmin

• Update syslog daemon config file to log mlmmjadmin to dedicated log file:

For Linux

cp /opt/mlmmjadmin/samples/rsyslog/mlmmjadmin.conf /etc/rsyslog.d/
service rsyslog restart

For OpenBSD, please append below lines in /etc/syslog.conf:

!!mlmmjadmin
local5.*            /var/log/mlmmjadmin/mlmmjadmin.log

For FreeBSD, please append below lines in /etc/syslog.conf:

!mlmmjadmin
local5.*            /var/log/mlmmjadmin/mlmmjadmin.log

• Now it's ok to start mlmmjadmin service:

#
# On Linux/FreeBSD:
#
service mlmmjadmin restart

#
# On OpenBSD
#
rcctl start mlmmjadmin

Manage mailing lists with mlmmjadmin command line tool

mlmmjadmin ships script tools/maillist_admin.py to help you manage mailing lists. You can find this script under directory /opt/mlmmjadmin/tools/.

• Create a new mailing list account with additional setting:

python maillist_admin.py create list@domain.com only_subscriber_can_post=yes disable_archive=no

• Get settings of an existing mailing list account

python maillist_admin.py info list@domain.com

• Update an existing mailing list account

python maillist_admin.py update list@domain.com only_moderator_can_post=yes disable_subscription=yes

• Delete an existing mailing list account

python maillist_admin.py delete list@domain.com archive=yes

• List all subscribers:

python maillist_admin.py subscribers list@domain.com

• Show subscribed lists of a given subscriber:

python maillist_admin.py subscribed subscriber@domain.com

• Check whether mailing list has given subscriber:

python maillist_admin.py has_subscriber list@domain.com subscriber@gmail.com

References

• iRedMail: http://www.iredmail.org
• Mlmmj: http://mlmmj.org/
  • Tunable parameters: http://mlmmj.org/docs/tunables/
  • Postfix integration: http://mlmmj.org/docs/readme-postfix/
• mlmmjadmin: RESTful API server used to manage mlmmj mailing lists. Developed and maintained by iRedMail team. https://github.com/iredmail/mlmmjadmin