Install iRedMail on FreeBSD

If you want to install iRedMail inside FreeBSD Jail, please use this installation guide instead: Install iRedMail inside FreeBSD Jail (with ezjail)

System Requirements

Warning

iRedMail is designed to be deployed on a FRESH server system, which means your server does NOT have mail related components installed, e.g. MySQL, OpenLDAP, Postfix, Dovecot, Amavisd, etc. iRedMail will install and configure them for you automatically. Otherwise it may override your existing files/configurations althought it will backup files before modifying, and it may not be working as expected.

To install iRedMail on FreeBSD, you need:

Note: All packages will be installed from ports tree.

Preparations

Set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) hostname on your server

No matter your server is a testing machine or production server, it's strongly recommended to set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) hostname.

Enter command hostname -f to view the current hostname:

# hostname -f
mx.example.com

On FreeBSD, hostname is set in two files: /etc/rc.conf, /etc/hosts.

# Part of File: /etc/rc.conf
hostname="mx.example.com"
# Part of file: /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   mx.example.com mx localhost localhost.localdomain

Verify the FQDN hostname. If it wasn't changed, please reboot server to make it work.

# hostname -f
mx.example.com

Update ports tree via portsnap

# portsnap fetch extract update

Install package bash-static, it's required by iRedMail

# -- For FreeBSD 9 or earlier releases --
# pkg_add -r bash-static

# -- For FreeBSD 10 or later releases --
# pkg install bash-static

Download the latest release of iRedMail

# cd /root/
# tar xjf iRedMail-x.y.z.tar.bz2

Start iRedMail installer

It's now ready to start iRedMail installer, it will ask you several simple questions, that's all required to setup a full-featured mail server.

# cd /root/iRedMail-x.y.z/
# bash iRedMail.sh

Note to Chinese users

Our domain name iredmail.org has been blocked in mainland China for years (since Jun 04, 2011), please run command below to finish the installation:

IREDMAIL_MIRROR='http://173.254.22.21' bash iRedMail.sh

Screenshots of installation:

Note

There's no big difference between available backends, so it's strongly recommended to choose the one you're familiar with for easier management and maintenance after installation.

To MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL users

If you choose to store mail accounts in MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL, iRedMail installer will generate a random, strong password for you. You can find it in file iRedMail.tips.

Note: This account is an admin account and a mail user. That means you can login to webmail and admin panel (iRedAdmin) with this account, login username is full email address.

After answered above questions, iRedMail installer will ask you to review and confirm to start installation. It will install and configure required packages automatically. Type y or Y and press Enter to start.

Important things you MUST know after installation

Warning

The weakest part of a mail server is user's weak password. Spammers don't want to hack your server, they just want to send spam from your server. Please ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS force users to use a strong password.

Access webmail and other web applications

After installation successfully completed, you can access web-based programs if you choose to install them. Replace your_server below by your real server hostname or IP address.

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