Mailman and Postfix on different hosts?
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Simple question, would it be possible to run mailman on one host, and the Postfix MTA on another host?
The reason is that I'm configuring a new in/outgoing server that eventually should take over the "old" one, the old should keep the web server functionality, so I'd like to split things up.
If it can be done, any hints on how?
Anders Norrbring Norrbring Consulting
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Anders Norrbring wrote:
Using a different host for outgoing mail is simple. Just set SMTPHOST in mm_cfg.py.
Incoming mail to Mailman is more difficult. This has been discussed before on this list. See <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.018.htp> for searching information.
-- Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
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On 8/30/06, Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> wrote:
You also need to have DELIVERY_MODULE = 'SMTPDirect' But this is likely already set.
In some ways you are using the new machine as a proxy. I found this link to be helpful. http://www.muine.org/~hoang/postfix.html
It is however both for an older version of postfix and for Sun. Still I thought it laid it out clearly.
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Anders Norrbring wrote:
Try the threads starting at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2005-January/041819.html> and <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2005-November/047646.html>
Both of the above were found with <http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amail.python.org+inurl%3Amailman+fetchm...>.
-- Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/85e516d12e7b6c3f7b0dba64b53b17ba.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
On 10/6/06, Anders Norrbring <lists@norrbring.se> wrote:
While this is theoretically possible ('all' the mailman executables need is to be able to access the configuration files and access the qfiles), you're basically just installing mailman on your mail server, with extra, needless, layers of complexity.
The best way, really, to do this is to either (a) use fetchmail, or (b) set up your real mail server to forward the appropriate mail (i.e., the mailman messages) to the MTA on the mailman machine. (a) will be simpler, maybe (I've never actually done that.) (b) seems like a 'better' solution, to me.
--
- Patrick Bogen
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Patrick Bogen skrev:
Hmm.. Forwarding should do it I guess. The goal I'm aiming for is to split off all webserver activity from the mail host.. I guess that's clearly doable, I think the only thing would be to set up the Postfix on the webserver to use a subdomain for the lists, otherwise everything would loop back to the first SMTP. At least in my theory.. :)
--
Anders Norrbring Norrbring Consulting
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At 5:01 PM +0200 10/6/06, Anders Norrbring wrote:
I'm thinking that maybe I can mount the mailman executable directory from the webserver as a NFS share, and then run "as usual".
The Mailman developers have done a lot of work to try to make Mailman as NFS-safe as possible. In theory, you should be able to put the entire /usr/local/mailman directory on NFS and share that from the web server to the mail server, and so long as you properly configure both ends that should "just work".
Of course, any time you put content on NFS and you have two different servers accessing that content, you have a number of additional issues and you have to make sure that NFS is properly configured to support that method of use. In particular, you need to make sure that client-side attribute caching is turned off, among other things.
You also need to keep in mind that being dependant on an NFS server for this kind of operation will introduce a number of new types of failure modes (like everything appears to completely lock up if the NFS server goes away), and that unless you're spending a lot of money for a pretty high-end NFS server this will reduce your throughput and the overall reliability of the system.
-- Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755
Founding Individual Sponsor of LOPSA. See <http://www.lopsa.org/>.
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/746f7519ba02fb0d815e59f305c53fa2.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Anders Norrbring wrote:
Using a different host for outgoing mail is simple. Just set SMTPHOST in mm_cfg.py.
Incoming mail to Mailman is more difficult. This has been discussed before on this list. See <http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq01.018.htp> for searching information.
-- Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1934bae277f699086b4c6f1eaeba2429.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
On 8/30/06, Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> wrote:
You also need to have DELIVERY_MODULE = 'SMTPDirect' But this is likely already set.
In some ways you are using the new machine as a proxy. I found this link to be helpful. http://www.muine.org/~hoang/postfix.html
It is however both for an older version of postfix and for Sun. Still I thought it laid it out clearly.
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/746f7519ba02fb0d815e59f305c53fa2.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Anders Norrbring wrote:
Try the threads starting at <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2005-January/041819.html> and <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2005-November/047646.html>
Both of the above were found with <http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amail.python.org+inurl%3Amailman+fetchm...>.
-- Mark Sapiro <msapiro@value.net> The highway is for gamblers, San Francisco Bay Area, California better use your sense - B. Dylan
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/85e516d12e7b6c3f7b0dba64b53b17ba.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
On 10/6/06, Anders Norrbring <lists@norrbring.se> wrote:
While this is theoretically possible ('all' the mailman executables need is to be able to access the configuration files and access the qfiles), you're basically just installing mailman on your mail server, with extra, needless, layers of complexity.
The best way, really, to do this is to either (a) use fetchmail, or (b) set up your real mail server to forward the appropriate mail (i.e., the mailman messages) to the MTA on the mailman machine. (a) will be simpler, maybe (I've never actually done that.) (b) seems like a 'better' solution, to me.
--
- Patrick Bogen
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/231ff7ea796e0bb40fa66ba917d89113.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Patrick Bogen skrev:
Hmm.. Forwarding should do it I guess. The goal I'm aiming for is to split off all webserver activity from the mail host.. I guess that's clearly doable, I think the only thing would be to set up the Postfix on the webserver to use a subdomain for the lists, otherwise everything would loop back to the first SMTP. At least in my theory.. :)
--
Anders Norrbring Norrbring Consulting
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e6ea3e5ffc3558c74e9f8cbf3f38357a.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
At 5:01 PM +0200 10/6/06, Anders Norrbring wrote:
I'm thinking that maybe I can mount the mailman executable directory from the webserver as a NFS share, and then run "as usual".
The Mailman developers have done a lot of work to try to make Mailman as NFS-safe as possible. In theory, you should be able to put the entire /usr/local/mailman directory on NFS and share that from the web server to the mail server, and so long as you properly configure both ends that should "just work".
Of course, any time you put content on NFS and you have two different servers accessing that content, you have a number of additional issues and you have to make sure that NFS is properly configured to support that method of use. In particular, you need to make sure that client-side attribute caching is turned off, among other things.
You also need to keep in mind that being dependant on an NFS server for this kind of operation will introduce a number of new types of failure modes (like everything appears to completely lock up if the NFS server goes away), and that unless you're spending a lot of money for a pretty high-end NFS server this will reduce your throughput and the overall reliability of the system.
-- Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755
Founding Individual Sponsor of LOPSA. See <http://www.lopsa.org/>.
participants (5)
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Anders Norrbring
-
Brad Knowles
-
Eric Howland
-
Mark Sapiro
-
Patrick Bogen