Hi folks, I am in the process of building a mail server environment, and I would like to include TMDA as part of the system. Following are the planned components, along with versions:
Mac OS X Server 10.2.6 on dual-processor Xserve Apache 2.0.47 / PHP 4.3.2 / Perl 5.8 XAMS 0.0.13 [see: http://www.xams.org/] Exim 4.20 Courier IMAP/POP 2.0.0 MailScanner 4.22-5 SpamAssassin 2.50 TMDA 0.81 tmda-cgi 0.10 tmda-ofmipd (if needed) While most of the above components should be familiar, some of you may not be aware of XAMS. As described on the xams.org site, it is "an application suite for managing e-mail accounts for multiple domains in a virtual hosting environment, using a simple set of web pages coded in PHP." Other information about XAMS, which may be useful as background reference when I get to my eventual questions below, includes: XAMS capabilities * Manage any number of domains, mailboxes and aliases. * Delegate the management of domains to resellers. * Impose quotas on mailbox sizes on a per-domain and per-mailbox basis. * Users can change their own mailbox passwords and other settings. XAMS infrastructure * XAMS manages domains and accounts in a MySQL database, entirely separate from your Unix system environment. * Ties together and integrates with Exim and Courier IMAP/POP to make a coherent virtual hosting solution for e-mail * Mail is written to /private/var/mail/_SITENAME_/_USERNAME_/MESSAGEID Currently, all of the above pieces are in place except for TMDA and tmda-cgi. For the last week, I have been lurking on the TMDA list, reading all the documentation/FAQ/etc on the TMDA site, and initiating multiple dialogues with the XAMS lead developers. My goal is to integrate TMDA into the rest of the system, assuming that is possible. Going over the TMDA install process, I came up with several issues I see as far as getting TMDA to work in the XAMS environment. There are likely to be others that I have missed. I would sincerely appreciate any and all input. 1. The main issue I see is that the XAMS maildir looks a bit different than a standard maildir: it inserts the site name in between /mail/ and /_USERNAME_/. The TMDA "Pre-Configuration" and "Server Configuration" section talks about a lot of files that are stored in ~/.tmda/, but I get the feeling that putting /.tmda/config and .forward files in the /private/var/mail/My Virtual Host Site/myuser/ directory isn't going to mesh with the way that either TMDA or XAMS operates. If you feel this assumption is wrong or if you need more information to answer this, please let me know. 2. Assuming my intuition above is correct, is there any flexibility on the part of TMDA as to where the relevant configuration data (whitelists, blacklists, user prefs, etc.) can be stored? Is it possible to somehow store TMDA's information in a custom directory? [Tangent: While XAMS stores most of its virtual user data in MySQL, this data is also replicated to a localdomains.cdb file to avoid excessive MySQL lookups (and to prevent DoS vulnerability). Unfortunately, the 24 byte/record limit probably precludes using the CDB to store TMDA whitelist and other configuration information.] 3. Integrating MailScanner into the XAMS set-up looks like this... Exim receives mail and puts it in /var/spool/exim_incoming. MailScanner checks this queue every few milliseconds and processes its anti-virus/SpamAssassin options on mail it finds there before putting "clean" mail into var/spool/exim_outgoing. Another Exim process then takes this outgoing mail and delivers it. (The first Exim process listens on port 25 and only puts mail into the exim_incoming queue, while the second Exim process doesn't listen on port 25 and only delivers mail.) How will this set-up affect the installation instructions for TMDA? Assuming the above TMDA config data issues can be solved, are there any other changes that need to be made to get TMDA to work in an XAMS/MailScanner environment using two Exim processes as described above? I am new to both XAMS and TMDA, so in many ways I kind of feel like an English-speaking interpreter in between a Japanese fellow and a Chinese fellow: I don't understand how either XAMS or TMDA operates well enough to determine what changes need to be made on which ends. While getting these two to play nicely may or may not be a difficult task, they really are both terrific solutions, and it would be great if we (XAMS developers, TMDA developers, and I) could work together to make the two products interoperate successfully. [I apologize for the length of this message. The intent was to be considerate and provide as much detail as possible, but perhaps I went overboard. ;) ] I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Sincere thanks in advance, Justin _____________________________________________ tmda-users mailing list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://tmda.net/lists/listinfo/tmda-users
