Skip to main content

How to set up Postfix as email MTA to send outbound emails on Ubuntu

It is usually nightmere getting outbound emails working on your Linux installation however usually following below instructions should get it working for you easily.

Assumptions:
  • It is a Ubuntu/Debian 11.04 or similar desktop or server install, including other variences such as Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu etc.
  • You only want to send outbound emails originated from this computer.
  • You do not have a SMTP relay for sending or receiving emails.
  • Smarthost is used for message delivery without any need of SMTP relays.

Install Postfix MTA and MailX programs
sudo apt-get install postfix mailutils

Configure Postfix
sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

Read given options and select OK
  1. General type of mail configuration select "Satellite System".
  2. System Mail Name "yourFQCN.com", you can select a FQDN and doesn't have to be on this server.
  3. SMTP relay host - Make it blank by deleting smtp.localdomain
  4. Root and postmaster mail recipient - enter your Ubuntu username to receive or forward these emails
  5. Other destinations to accept mail for - do not add your FQDN here otherwise mails will be received here and not forwarded
  6. Force synchronous updates on mail queue - Yes
  7. Local networks - leave it to 127.0.0.0/8 unless you are using this as relay for your workgroup
  8. Use procmail for local delivery? - No
  9. Mailbox size limit - Leave it to 0 which is no limit
  10. Local address extension character - Leave it to + unless your destination email addresses contain it
  11. Internet protocol to use - ipv4 unless you are on ipv6
You should see Postfix setting configuration and reloading it.

Forward your local user emails to external email address
For a normal Linux user use following to forward emails
echo me@mydomain.com > ~/.forward
This will foward all emails received for your local Linux user to your external email address

Forward root emails to your local Linux User
sudo su -
echo myuser > /root/.forward

Test outbound email
Send an email to external real email address.
echo test | mail -s "This is a test email sent from my Ubuntu to external email address" me@mydomain.com

Send an email to your Linux user account or root and see if fowarding works. 
echo test |mail -s "test mail sent to your Linux Account" <LinuxUsername>

Troubleshooting
If you configure a host or mail name that is not FQDN your ISP may not like it and not forward messages on. In order to fix this you will have to do following.

Add following to /etc/postfix/main.cf file and restart Postfix.
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic
Add following to /etc/postfix/generic.
@yourhostormailname you@yourisp.com
Run following command
sudo postfix postmap /etc/postfix/generic

Check status of emails sent out.
sudo mailq
Hopefully this should make you feel happy.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Copy files and folders using SCP with spaces in path

Copying data from one system to other with file or folder names that contain spaces in path can be achieved using this guide. In this case I am copying data from Macbook to Windows 10 computer. In order to copy the data easily it is better to use bash commands. Windows computer can support WSL (Windows subsystem for Linux) and you can run one of few linux distributions to use shell commands. I have Ubuntu set up within my Windows 10 using WSL. If you do not have WSL, you can set it up using my guide here . The copy can be performed in two ways: 1) Using SCP Source (MacOs) path: /home/Users/username/Documents/data extract from 2020/ First of all you add escape sequence to the path so it will become:  /home/Users/me/Documents/data\ extract\ from\ 2020/ . While this works on local system for SCP you'll have to double the escape sequences by replacing \ with \\, as below. Figure out your source computer IP address using "ifconfig" command. Now using scp command on target syst
Read more

TrueCrypt on macOS X Mojave 10.14

If you have updated your macOS recently to Mojave otherwise known as verison 10.14 you may not be able to install the last version of Truecrypt in order to access your old volumes encrypted with Truecrypt software. This article will guide you to get this working on your MacOS v10.14 (Mjoave) . Download the package from  https://truecrypt.ch/downloads/  or  https://www.truecrypt71a.com/downloads/ . Find downloaded package using Finder in your HDD/Users/username/Downloads folder and will look like  TrueCrypt 7.1a Mac OS X.dmg . Open file location in Finder and open or double click on  TrueCrypt 7.1a Mac OS X.dmg . This will mount Truecrypt 7.1a and will have Truecrypt 7.1a.mpkg in it. Drag the package T rueCrypt 7.1a.mpkg and drop in your Downloads folder. From Locations in Finder you can eject your TrueCrypt mount. Now go to your Downloads location, find the file  TrueCrypt 7.1a.mpkg , right click and select Show Package Contents . Find the file Contents/distribution.di
Read more

Tools you need before you start using Terraform for orchestration infrastructure in cloud

Terraform one of the famous open source tool used for planning, deploying and maintaining infrastructure as a code and the beauty of this tool is that it works across various cloud service providers. Even though I personally like the AWS Cloudformation, it is AWS only and most probably it will always remain limited to Amazon Web Services. It has few advantages over other tools when using with AWS and will be the first to have new AWS features incorporated before other tools and APIs catch up. However if you are not limiting yourself to AWS only or have hybrid environment you may want to use a 3rd party tool compatible for all cloud infrastructures. Terraform being one of them is youngest client only tool and this article will help you setting up your desktop environment and give you understanding of how it works before you can start to code. Prerequisites: Computer running Windows, Linux, Solaris or MacOS operating system. Downloads: Download Terraform directly from the crea
Read more