I am not aware of any Dovecot specific book, but maybe a good starting point would be the Dovecot Quick Configuration guide: https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/quick_configuration/
For Postfix, a good starting point could be the VIRTUAL_README and ADDRESS_CLASS_README pages: http://www.postfix.org/VIRTUAL_README.html http://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_CLASS_README.html
I've also heard good things about "The Book of Postfix". Even though it is quite old now, most of the parts/concepts/terminology still apply today. Part of it is also available on Google Books.
Setting up a mail server for the first time can be a bit challenging and time consuming, but once you get a hold of things, it gets much easier :)
Personally, I would take things step by step and not try to install and configure everything all at once.
You could create a local isolated virtual environment with multiple VMs (ex: 1 authoritative DNS server for local testdomain1 and testdomain2, 1 mail server for local testdomain1, 1 mail server for local testdomain2) where you could experiment freely until everything works as expected.
That way you are in control of the entire environment and you can easily debug any issues. Plus, it can be a good learning experience :)
Once messages can be sent between the local test domains without any issues, you could take that configuration and, more or less, apply it to your internet facing mail server.
Hi,
Please recommend a Dovecot book for a newbie... I have a fair amount of Linux PHP hosting experience - LAMP virtual host configurations. I'm new to BIND, Postfix, and Dovecot.
I'm running Ubuntu 20.04lts.
Can send but not receive.
Assuming everything else is set up correctly, did you check your firewall just to make sure that is not blocking incoming connections on your SMTP port?
Cheers,
K.