I run my own mail server at work for largely one reason – no restriction on the mail storage space. Our Corporate IT sets a limit on ~ 2-year worth of emails archive you’re allowed to keep and some set number of GB’s you are allocated. This is simply not enough for me. Having worked at Sun for 12 years, I have had emails all the way back to ’95. Occasionally, I went back to find an old email and surprised my colleagues how “deep” of a memory I had. In order to do this (probably due to my hoarding and/or control instinct), I must have my own mail server. Good thing is that Solaris is pretty good at relaying emails. I only have to worry about servicing the IMAP clients – my laptop, my PC at home and etc.
Here are what I do (regularly, due to frequent change of servers) to set up an IMAP server on my work server running Solaris 10:
1) Download and install the University of Washing IMAP server package from sunfreeware.com.
2) Download and install the opensll package sunfreeware.com.
3) In order to run secure SSL socket, you’d need to create an self-assigned SSL certificate:
> /usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out imapd.pem -keyout imapd.pem -days 3650
4) cp imapd.pem /usr/local/ssl/certs
5) To add to svc servces, so the port 993 gets used for imaps:
edit /etc/services add the following line in addition to “imap 143/tcp”:
imaps 993/tcp
6) Due to the new Solaris SMF (Service Management Facilities), you’ll need to have IMAP added to the service. The easiest way to do this without constructing an esoteric svc manifest file, is to edit /etc/inet.conf and add the following line:
imaps stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/sbin/imapd imapd
7) Run the following command to convert to manifest file (/var/svc/manifest/network/imaps-tcp.xml):
inetconv
8 ) Start the svc by running the following command:
svcadm enable /network/imaps/tcp
Done. Not too bad but wouldn’t it be nice if the installation takes care of all these steps in one shot?
I did exactly the above steps, funny thing is I can connect an outlook client to both 143 and 993
no problem, but when I telnet to 143 and try to
log in command line it always gives me a authentication No login error? Any ideas???
[email protected]
Thanks
This is normal. My IMAP server behaves the same way. It says, “Connecting To tsai86.sfbay…Could not open connection to the host, on port 143: Connect failed”
Why do you need to access the IMAP server through telnet?
We are trying to use it for the Oracle Workflow
mailer, and Oracle tech support wants me to go
through these manual command line steps to determine it will work when configuring it through
the Oracle mailer tool.
I am following your documentation.
3. > openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out imapd.pem -keyout imapd.pem -days 3650
I got confuse with this script. My question is were do i save this line? which command do i need to type this command line.
5. I also want to know if how i saved the # 5 line of your documentation is ok on /etc/services
(imap 143/tcp:993/tcp)
7) Run the following command to convert to manifest file (/var/svc/manifest/network/imaps-tcp.xml):
inetconv. Can you please show me the right format on how to this command: (/var/svc/manifest/network/imaps-tcp.xml)
I am new to solaris. But the will to learn is what gives me day by day. I have a sun server running on solaris 10 at home, that i use to train.
3. > openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out imapd.pem -keyout imapd.pem -days 3650
I got confuse with this script. My question is were do i save this line? which command do i need to type this command line.
==> Type this command line at the shell:
/usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out imapd.pem -keyout imapd.pem -days 3650
5. I also want to know if how i saved the # 5 line of your documentation is ok on /etc/services
(imap 143/tcp:993/tcp)
==> Edit with vi or text editor.
7) Run the following command to convert to manifest file (/var/svc/manifest/network/imaps-tcp.xml):
inetconv. Can you please show me the right format on how to this command: (/var/svc/manifest/network/imaps-tcp.xml)
==> Just type “/usr/sbin/inetconv” at a shell
Hey you are the best!! believe what i’m saying wow!!.
I was able to connect. So the is question. In other to make this make more sense to me. So tell me is it like i can send email. Just like i can on my yahoo account. It there a way I can connect my yahoo account to my imap?
You the Best ADMIN!!
This is an IMAP server, not client. A mail server, if connected directly to the Internet (with its own hostname and fixed IP address) can be used to send and receive emails, working with email clients. I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve by “connecting yahoo account.”
What i meant was can i send email to someone with a yahoo or gmail account
The email server is capable of sending emails to anyone with an email account. It can be used to spam others as well. Of course, the consequence is that it may eventually get blacklisted by the spam filters.
Please the issue i am having is entry my pop password, for the first time. For Some reasons I don’t know my password. I have entered, every password I could think off. Still unable to login, Please help.
Any ideal!!
Sorry, I’m not sure I can help you. Suggest you google for solutions or check out documents.
I had downloaded, installed a imap server on sol 10. But i dunno how i can test or configured it. How can i try on this email server?
In order to create ssl certificate, I execute the command that you stated above…
“/usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -out imapd.pem -keyout imapd.pem -days 3650”
but I faced a problem and system respones
/usr/local/ssl/bin/openssl: cannot execute
.So may I know how to solve this problem??? Thz a lot
You probably need to install openssl package. Check out the package requirements for the IMAP. The problem with most Linux/Unix installations is that there are so many pre-requisites that must be installed beforehand.
Awesome blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you recommend starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option?
There are so many choices out there that I’m totally confused ..
Any tips? Kudos!
I recommend to start with a free platform first and get warmed up to blog regularly before going with the paid option.