Introduction:
In the world of email marketing and transactional emails, having a reliable and efficient email server is crucial. Postal is an open-source email server solution that provides a robust platform for sending and tracking emails at scale. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up Postal on an Ubuntu 20.04 server.
Prerequisites:
Before getting started, make sure you have the following:
- A VPS or dedicated server running Ubuntu 20.04.
- SSH access to the server with sudo privileges.
- Basic knowledge of Linux command-line interface.
Step 1: Update System Packages:
Begin by updating the package index and upgrading existing packages to their latest versions, using below command:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Step 2: Install Dependencies:
Postal requires several dependencies packages which let apt use packages over HTTPS: Install them using:
apt -y install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
Step 3: Add the GPG key for Docker Repository:
Then add the GPG key for the official Docker repository to your system, the following commands:
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Step 4: Add the Docker repository to APT sources:
add the docker to apt sources , run the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal stable"
Step 5: Again Update System Packages:
update the package database with the Docker packages from the newly added repo:
sudo apt update
Step 6: Install Docker:
Finally, install Docker, run below command:
sudo apt install docker-ce
Docker should now be installed, the daemon started, and the process enabled to start on boot. Check that it’s running
sudo systemctl status docker
Step 7: Installing Docker Compose and Permissions:
At the time of this writing, the most current stable version is 1.27.4
The following command will download the 1.27.4 release and save the executable file at /usr/local/bin/docker-compose, which will make this software globally accessible as docker-compose, run the following command:
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Next, set the correct permissions so that the docker-compose command is executable:
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Install basic utility programs required for POSTAL:
apt install git curl jq -y
Step 8: Install postal:
Clone the Postal repository from GitHub, install the required Ruby version, and install Postal:
git clone https://postalserver.io/start/install /opt/postal/install
sudo ln -s /opt/postal/install/bin/postal /usr/bin/postal
Step 9: Installing MariaDB on Docker:
To install MariaDB, copy and paste the below to your terminal, remember to update the password:
docker run -d \--name postal-mariadb \-p 127.0.0.1:3306:3306 \--restart always \-e MARIADB_DATABASE=postal \-e MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=YOUR_DATABASE_PASSWORD \mariadb
Step 10: Installing RabbitMQ on Docker:
To install RabbitMQ, copy and paste the below to your terminal, remember to update the password.
docker run -d \--name postal-rabbitmq \-p 127.0.0.1:5672:5672 \--restart always \-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=postal \-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=YOUR_MQ_PASSWORD \-e RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_VHOST=postal \rabbitmq:3.8
Step 11: Configure Postal and User create:
Create the Postal configuration file and initialize the database and user create:
postal bootstrap postal.yourdomain.com
nano /opt/postal/config/postal.yml
At the minimum, have the following settings:
web:
# The host that the management interface will be available on
host: postal.example.com
# The protocol that requests to the management interface should happen on
protocol: https
main_db:
# Specify the connection details for your MySQL database
host: localhost
username: postal
password: StrongPassword
database: postal
message_db:
# Specify the connection details for your MySQL server that will be house the
# message databases for mail servers.
host: localhost
username: postal
password: StrongPassword
prefix: postal
rabbitmq:
# Specify the connection details for your RabbitMQ server.
host: 127.0.0.1
username: postal
password: StrongPassword
vhost: postal
dns:
# Specifies the DNS record that you have configured. Refer to the documentation at
# https://github.com/atech/postal/wiki/Domains-&-DNS-Configuration for further
# information about these.
mx_records:
- mx.postal.example.com
smtp_server_hostname: postal.example.com
spf_include: spf.postal.example.com
return_path: rp.postal.example.com
route_domain: routes.postal.example.com
track_domain: track.postal.example.com
smtp:
# Specify an SMTP server that can be used to send messages from the Postal management
# system to users. You can configure this to use a Postal mail server once the
# your installation has been set up.
host: 127.0.0.1
port: 2525
username: # Complete when Postal is running and you can
password: # generate the credentials within the interface.
from_name: Postal
from_address: [email protected]postal initialize
postal make-user
Follow the prompts to configure settings such as database connection and Redis connection.
Step 11: Start Postal:
Start the Postal server and worker processes:
sudo systemctl start postal
Step 12: Installing Caddy on Docker:
To install Caddy, copy and paste the below to your terminal.
docker run -d \
--name postal-caddy \
--restart always \
--network host \
-v /opt/postal/config/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile \
-v /opt/postal/caddy-data:/data \
caddy
Step 13: Access Postal:
You can now access Postal via your domain name or server IP address. Open your web browser and navigate to http://your-domain.com or http://your-server-ip.
Conclusion:
Setting up Postal on Ubuntu 20.04 is a straightforward process that can be accomplished in just a few steps. By following this guide, you can have a powerful email server up and running in no time, ready to handle your email delivery needs with ease and efficiency. If you encounter any issues, as on contact [email protected]