[Mailman-Users] Q : Has anyone successfully deployed Mailman over a Plesk-based Linux system ?

[Jacques Setton]

> 3) There is a diagram posted on Parallels' Knowledge Base => Page 3 of 
> an MTA Presentation (source URL :
> http://kb.parallels.com/Attachments/kcs-15646/MTA_presentation.pdf) 
> which highlights the alternative use of 'plesk_virtual', 'mailman' or
'relay'
> modules to process/deliver mails to their appropriate destinations.

>>And the Postfix section of this presentation clearly shows the use of a
'mailman' 
>>transport which uses the module /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/postfix-mailman
(almost 
>>certainly a version of postfix_to_mailman.py or similar) to deliver to
Mailman.

This could be possible, but I don't have background information details that
would support such assumption.

>> The issue appears to be that you are configuring Mailman lists in a
Postfix virtual 
>> domain which is using the plesk-virtual transport which is apparently not
compatible 
>> with normal Postfix virtual alias domains.

Again, this could be possible... But my reading of Parallels' MTA functional
diagram is that the three mechanisms should be able to co-exist :
1. ' postfix-local ' to process the local regular mails reaching $mydomain.
2. ' postfix-mailman' to process lists related mails reaching $mydomain.
3. 'smtp-relay' to process mails destined to a (remote) location referenced
in $nexthop.
But as we can see from the tests carried out further below, it doesn't seem
to operate in such manner, thus highlighting the incompatibility you
mentioned. 


> 5) The above settings specify the target 'argv=' routines as being 
> either 'postfix-local' or 'postfix-mailman', both located in 
> '/usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/' directory. I checked and confirm that they are 
> there as expected. In addition, this is fully in-line with the MTA
Presentation
> diagram referred to in point 3 above...   
>  
>   

>> Perhaps you should try removing all the Mailman specific aliases and 
>> virtual-mailman stuff and configuring postfix_to_mailman instead.

a) When I remove 'virtual-mailman' and mailman 'aliases', I get the
following error when mailing to 'testlist-request' with, for example, 'help'
in the subject line :
	__________________________________
	Mar 25 19:39:45 vps39345 postfix/smtpd[12263]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT
from unknown[212.227.17.24]: 550 5.1.1 
	<testlist-request at domain.info>: Recipient address rejected: User
unknown in virtual mailbox table; from=<jsetton at waycast.fr> 
	to=<testlist-request at domain.info> proto=ESMTP
helo=<moutng.kundenserver.de>
	Mar 25 19:39:45 vps39345 postfix/smtpd[12263]: disconnect from
unknown[212.227.17.24]
	Mar 25 19:39:45 vps39345 /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/psa-pc-remote[1763]:
Message aborted.
	__________________________________

b) When I set ' virtual_transport = mailman', all messages addressed to
'teslist' are still rerouted to 'admin at domain.fr' ! 
In addition, standard - i.e. non lists-related - mail messaging stops to
function, which is annoying as we have other applications (with associated
mail accounts) running on the same server.
For information, this server has 3 domains attached to it : domain.net,
domain.org and domain.info, the latter being the one we lately for Mailman
lists handling.  

One last detail : these tests were carried out with the Postfix 'transport'
/ 'transport.db' files containing the following added relationships :
  ' vps12345.ovh.net     mailman: '
  ' domain.info                mailman: '
These files were then used to define the transport maps parameter ins
'main.cf', as follows :
'transport_maps = , hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/transport,
hash:/etc/postfix/transport' .
On the other hand, the 'master.cf' configuration file remained unchanged. 

> Based on the previous comments, if we removed all the Mailman specific 
> aliases, etc. I believe that the system wouldn't work better and would 
> probably even generate errors (due to the missing 'p-to-m.py' file). 
> My feeling is that the problem results more from a possible wrong 
> parameter setup in the remainder of 'master.cf' or possibly in 
> 'main.cf' configuration files, but I wouldn't be able to determine 
> where... Would you agree with this assessment ?

>> No. I think if you remove the Mailman specific aliases, etc and configure

>> your transport maps to use the 'mailman' transport for your list domain, 
>> it will work.

As seen above, it didn't really work satisfactorily. As a result, I have
decided to abandon the use of Plesk-based server, having spent significant
time searching for a solution without finding one.
I am therefore moving ahead with the investigation of the other non-Plesk
VPS package I mentioned earlier on.

Anyway, many thanks Mark for your assistance so far. I feel sorry that it
didn't work in the end...

- - - 
 Jacques Setton
 jsetton at waycast.com