[Dovecot] Creating an IMAP repo for ~100 users need some advice

[Kaya Saman]

On 03/17/2012 07:36 PM, Sven Hartge wrote:
> Kaya Saman<kayasaman at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> I am currently in the process of setting up an IMAP repository for
>> round 100 users....
>> Currently the user authentication method is being handled via a
>> Windows Domain Controller.
>> The host OS for Dovecot will either be FreeBSD or CentOS.
>> Would Dovecot be able to authenticate to either the DC directly or
>> would we need to go through LDAP??
> Why not join the server to the domain and simply use PAM?
>
> Using ActiveDirectory through LDAP is a bit of a pain so I would avoid
> this if I where you.

Danke Sven :-)

I don't actually have much AD/LDAP integration experience so I will try 
your method!

>> Additionally what would be the best method to store the **mail**
>> information? - as in MySQL database or Maildir format; coinciding with
>> this what is the best backup method in order to be able to do 'dump'
>> backups or restore single emails??
> Storing mails inside SQL? Not supported by dovecot and not very wise,
> IMHO. DBmail does this, but to be honest, I never heard any good
> feedback from admins using that product. From what I have been told, you
> need quite the beefy server to get a decent performance out of DBmail,
> compared to the needs of a "traditional" setup like with dovecot or
> courier-mail, but I digress.
>
> To have a consistent backup, your mail storage should be able to
> snapshot the volume the mail is stored on, so use LVM or an external
> storage unit capable of snapshots.

Hmm..... so FreeBSD coupled together with a ZFS repo for mail should 
take care of 'Snapshot' issues.

>
> Then backup the content of the snapshot using any program you like.
> I use Bacula for long-term offsite storage and a local rsnapshot to keep
> 7 days worth of mail for a quick restore.

To be honest I was considering rsync'ing the dir containing users 
mailboxes to either another storage pool or server.

>
> Whether you are able to restore single mails or the complete storage is
> no property or feature of the mailbox format itself.
>
> Some formats are simpler to handle, like Maildir++, where you just drop
> the file containing a mail into a directory.

You mention Maildir++... is this Maildir format or something new which I 
haven't heard about yet?

>
> Some, like mbox or mdbox are a little bit more complex, but with the
> correct doveadm command you are nevertheless able to restore single
> mails.
>
>
> Grüße,
> Sven.
>

Regards,

Kaya