[Dovecot] postfix and dovecot on different systems - sasl request

[thomas polnik]

Hello,

until now I have use postfix and dovecot on the same server. Now I 
want/must split this both systems (server1 - postfix, server2 - dovecot).

I used dovecot auth system for postfix

## snip ##

smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot
smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth

## snap ##

but this does not work, if dovecot is not running on the same server.


I did not find any information in postfix/dovecot documentation, how I
could solve this problem smart.

My only idea, but it looks like quick and dirty solution:

On the postfix system a small dovecot systems runs only for postfix sasl
via /var/spool/postfix/private/auth. (Or I use saslauthd with sql or imap)

The postfix system (on server 1) delivers mails via transport map to the
dovecot system. On the dovecot system postfix delivers
this mails i.e. via
## snip ##
dovecot   unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
     flags=DRhu user=vmail:vmail argv=/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver -d
${recipient}
## snip ##

to the mail boxes.

Are there other ways, how I could solve this problem?

My wish configuration:
postfix sends the auth request via tcp/ip to the dovecot auth system and 
not via a socket.

I use postfix 2.6 and dovecot 1.2.6.

Best regards,
thomas polnik.