postfix is an open source mail transfer agent (mta) for delivering email on linux. In this article, we will see how to install and configure postfix on centos linux.
postfix mail server configuration in centos linux step by step
These are the steps to install & configure postfix mail server.
1. update system
open terminal and run the following command to update the ubuntu system.
Also remove any other mail transfer agents (mta) that might conflict with postfix. here is an example to remove sendmail.
2. set hostname and add host
run the following command to set the hostname to your domain/website.
add the hostname and ip address of the system to the /etc/hosts file.
3. install suffix
Install postfix with the following command.
4. start & enable postfix service
run the following commands to start postfix and allow it to run automatically during system reboot.
5. install mailx email client
we need to install the mailx service in order to use postfix. install it with the following command.
6. configure postfix mail server
open the postfix configuration file in a text editor.
replace myhostname, mydomain with your domain and also change the ip address mentioned in mynetworks as per your requirement.
save and close the file. restart the postfix mail server.
7. test postfix mail server
we need to create a linux user to test our setup.
Next, use the telnet command to send an email from your registered user to the newly created user.
If telnet is not installed on your system, install it with the following command.
When you run the telnet command, you will see the following type of output.
indicates that you can successfully connect to the postfix mail server. then run the following command.
you will see the following result.
Then, run the following bold commands to compose and send the email in the terminal. when you issue the exit command, your email will be sent.
If the mail was sent successfully, you can see it in your home directory.
You can view the content of the email with the cat command.
you can see your mail server logs in /var/log/maillog
if you want to check your server’s mail queue, use the mailq command
8. secure mail server
It is recommended to protect your mail server using an ssl certificate. here is a command to create a private key and certificate signing request.
Run the following command to generate a self-signed certificate.
copy the ssl certificate to the /etc/postfix directory.
run the following command to open the postfix configuration file.
add the following lines to update the ssl certificate location in the postfix config file.
save and close the file. restart the postfix server.
here is a simple command to test if secure emails work on your server.
To send email to external users, replace postfixuser@example.com with an external email address.
which completes the postfix mail server configuration. In this article, we have learned how to install, configure & configure postfix mail server and also secure it.
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