I have a mailing list that has been running under Mailman. Another
fellow has been hosting the mailing list for me. I would like to begin
doing so myself. I have a computer available for the task. What Linux
version will work best? What will I need to do to set up mailman?
Mike Hughes - Minister Wilmington church of Christ
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On May 1, 2009, at 2:37 PM, Mike Hughes wrote:
I have a mailing list that has been running under Mailman. Another
fellow has been hosting the mailing list for me. I would like to
begin doing so myself. I have a computer available for the task.
What Linux version will work best?
Use whatever version of Linux (or other Unix) you are most comfortable
administering. Because it will be an Internet facing server, you (or
someone) will have to keep up with security updates. Note that you
can run Mailman on OS X, which you appear to have some familiarity
with. Any modern Unix-like system will do, but choose something that
you will be able to maintain.
What will I need to do to set up mailman?
You personally or someone else working with you will need to
understand mail transport and what it means to be running a machine
that receives and sends mail to the Internet.
With apologies for sounding patronizing, but the fact that you asked
the question above makes me doubt that you currently have that
understanding. But that's okay as long as you are willing to learn.
But there is much more to learn than just installing and configuring a
couple of software packages. Getting your DNS records configured so
that your mailserver doesn't look like a source of spam takes work and
thought.
This stuff is great fun to learn, but have someone close at hand who
you can consult with and who can look over your shoulder and offer
advice.
If your question was what other packages does mailman depend on, that
information is in the installation guide. But basically you will need
Apache (other webservers will work, but all of the examples that
you'll see for things use Apache),
python,
an MTA, (I use postfix; I like exim a whole lot, and sendmail
remains very popular).
cron (or on OS X, launchd.).
You will probably want to have spam filtering as well, SpamAssassin is
a popular choice. If you want to add virus checking of mail, then
something like clamav is a good choice.
Your server will need
A static public IP address.
Proper DNS PTR and A records (getting the proper PTR records can be
a frustrating experience).
DNS MX record
Best wishes,
-j
-- Jeffrey Goldberg http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/
Jeffrey Goldberg writes:
On May 1, 2009, at 2:37 PM, Mike Hughes wrote:
I have a mailing list that has been running under Mailman. Another
fellow has been hosting the mailing list for me. I would like to
begin doing so myself. I have a computer available for the task.
What Linux version will work best?Use whatever version of Linux (or other Unix) you are most comfortable
administering. Because it will be an Internet facing server, you (or
someone) will have to keep up with security updates. Note that you
can run Mailman on OS X, which you appear to have some familiarity
with. Any modern Unix-like system will do, but choose something that
you will be able to maintain.
Note that most "modern Unix-like systems" provide a Mailman package. However, they all make changes to its configuration. If you have a user group for your system of choice, and know that some of the members run Mailman from the package, you should consider using the system's package. It will "fit in" to the system better, in some sense. However, generic resources like the Mailman INSTALL document will not apply to your setup in that case, so you do become dependent on help from those specialized to the system you use.
OTOH, if you expect that you will be getting most help from this list and random friends off the 'net, you probably should install Mailman from source. It's not hard, there's an excellent FAQ, and a couple dozen people giving pretty much 24x7 coverage on this list.
The MTA should be installed from the system's package. I find both sendmail and exim to be arcane. Postfix is plenty powerful and relatively straightforward to configure. (All three are excellent products, of course.) All are available for your OS of choice.
Your server will need
A static public IP address. Proper DNS PTR and A records (getting the proper PTR records can be
a frustrating experience). DNS MX record
What he said. Also, you may need to open some doors to the server through your firewall, ports 80 (for the web interfaces) and 25 (SMTP, for mail).
On Sun, May 03, 2009 at 03:06:20PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
The MTA should be installed from the system's package. I find both sendmail and exim to be arcane.
If you're planning on using Debian and Exim, note that the packagers of Pkg-exim4 really have done some rather "strange" things to it (or as I usually put it "really fucked up a perfectly fine MTA, compared with the BSD packagers"), so do read the readmes, although, if you've got the inclination, I'd suggest steering clear of pkg-exim4, and compiling your own.
Rolling out your own exim4.conf/config file may help alieviate some of (what I'd call) the muppetry, but still there are other "brokennesses", which can often be fixed by adding things to the "Debian-exim" group, and set-gid'ing.
(we all have our prejudices, and preferences: I just really hate what the Debian packagers have done).
-- ``... it was not appropriate for the jury to make a statistical evaluation of separate items of evidence by applying mathematical formulae such as the Bayes Theorem, as such an exercise would encroach upon the jury's task of weighing up all the evidence together.'' (R v. Adams)
The esteemed Mike Hughes has said:
I have a mailing list that has been running under Mailman. Another
fellow has been hosting the mailing list for me. I would like to begin
doing so myself. I have a computer available for the task. What Linux
version will work best? What will I need to do to set up mailman?Mike Hughes - Minister  Wilmington church of Christ
I think you need answers to two questions here, and the first is more significant than the second.
Are you prepared to set up what is essentially an in-house ISP connected directly to the Internet backbone?
Can you do Unix/Linux system administration from the command line?
As to which Linux system is best, I'd say that there are several that are, in the end, about equal. As I recall, several of them offer an already-compiled mailman package which you can install. You will also need a Python, a Mail Transfer Agent (Postfix, Qmail, sendmail), an Apache WEB server, and should have at least a local caching DNS server (bind) in addition to Mailman.
Services you will need from an upstream internet backbone provider are:
- At least one fixed IP with an unfiltered feed both ways for at least ports 25 (SMTP mail) and 80 (Web).
- Registered domain name with DNS A, MX, and PTR records for your IP. Your upstream feed will have to set up the PTR record.
You'll need to set up local security. A bare as-installed Linux/Unix system on the Internet backbone is like parking a new Mercedes in Chicago, unlocked, with the keys in it. Easiest solution is to use a hardware firewall between your Linux box and the backbone feed. A major factor in your setup will be dealing with spam mail, which is primarily done in firewall and MTA configuration.
You'll also need to consider hardware availability and reliability, and failure recovery. That means having backup resources.
Now, to give you a ferinstance, I run an independent Mailman server as
a post-retirement "hobby" site from a bedroom in my house. The
primary server is a Sun SPARC running Solaris, connected to the
backbone through a Fortigate 60 firewall. MTA is sendmail, Web server
is Apache and I have a caching DNS on the same box, using program
resourced that come in the Solaris distribution. My Python and
Mailman installation are local builds from (locally modified) source.
Traffic is about 150 e-mails/day to 1500 users. I've been online
with this setup for about three years.
For backup, I take daily incremental backups onto tape, and have a second Sun box with the same setup which gets refreshed weekly, so that it can be brought online in minutes if the primary server fails.
My upstream feed provider is a small local outfit. It's a plus for them to have a pro-adminstered Solaris site on their net, so getting IP's, PTR records, and an unfiltered feed was pretty straightforward and quick. Your Mileage May Vary on that one. I did have to pass what was essentially an employment interview on my administration skills.
I figure on spending about an hour a day reading logs, looking for trouble, doing list administration, etc. That's ongoing overhead; any time spent upgrading hardware or software, diagnosing and solving problems, etc. is additional.
Hank
participants (5)
-
Adam McGreggor -
Hank van Cleef -
Jeffrey Goldberg -
Mike Hughes -
Stephen J. Turnbull