Setup mail server (mailcow)

Introduction

In this tutorial you will setup your own Mailserver running on an Ubuntu Server in the HHS VM Client Panel.
With Mailcow you can host your own Mailserver with your custom domain. Mailcow also provides a way to sync your Contacts and Calender.

Official documentation: https://mailcow.github.io/mailcow-dockerized-docs/
Project Website: https://mailcow.email
GitHub: https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized
Forum: https://mailcow.farm

Prerequisites

• You need a domain name
• A bit of knowledge of how Docker works

Step 1 - Create a new HHS Cloud server

• Login to your cloud dashboard from [https://vps.hyperhost.solutions:4083/#act=listvs&)
• Create new project and name it whatever you want
• Choose your server location it's up to you
• Click Add Server and select Ubuntu 18.04 from Image
• Choose the resources you need from Type
• Click on the field User Data enter this #include https://get.docker.com (this will install docker)

• Select your SSH-Key

  • You can read this article to know how to generate SSH key
• Write your server hostname in name input (mail.example.com)
• Click Create & Buy Now

Step 2 - Setup DNS

Basically you want to create a new DNS record called mail.example.com and add your server IPv4 (A record) and IPv6 (AAAA record) to it.
Then you can setup your domains MX record to point to your mail.example.com subdomain that you just created.
You also need to setup an autodiscover.example.com and autoconfig.example.com subdomain, both should be of the type CNAME and point to mail.example.com

Your DNS configuration should look like this:

# Name              Type       Value
mail                IN A       10.0.0.1
mail                IN AAAA    2001:db8:1234::1
autodiscover        IN CNAME   mail
autoconfig          IN CNAME   mail

@                   IN MX 10   mail

More Info

Step 3 - Install updates on the server (Optional)

Wait a few seconds for the server to startup and then connect to it using SSH and your private key. Now you should install available updates on your server by running:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 4 - Install Docker Compose

Now you need to install Docker compose you can do this by running:

curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/docker/compose/releases/latest" | awk -F '"' '/tag_name/{print $4}')/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Step 5 - Clone the Mailcow Repository

Now we are going to clone the Mailcow GitHub repository, so first you need to cd to /opt with:

cd /opt
once your are in /opt you can run:
git clone https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized

Step 6 - Creating the config

Change directory to /opt/mailcow-dockerized with cd /opt/mailcow-dockerized and run ./generate_config.sh this will generate the config. Now you have to enter your domain name (something like mail.example.com)

Step 7 - Pull the Docker containers

We are nearly done. Now you have to run docker-compose pull to pull the docker images.

Step 8 - Start Mailcow

In order to start Mailcow run docker-compose up -d

Step 9 - Setup a reverse DNS entry

Go to the Client Are VM Manangement console and click on your, select the server you just created and go to the Reverse DNS Tab, select Edit Reverse DNS, then enter your domain (mail.example.com). The same needs to be done for your IPv6 address, simply type ::1 into the field where the IP is and then again enter your domain name (mail.example.com).

Step 10 - Login and change your password

Now you can open mail.example.com in your browser and login using the default login
username: admin
password: moohoo

Please change your password :)

Step 11 - Add your domain to Mailcow

Now you can add your domain to Mailcow, simply go to Configuration -> Mail setup. Add your domain under the tap Domain.

Step 12 - Setup DKIM

Now when you go back to Configuration -> Configuration & Details you can setup DKIM. In the Configuration tap select DKIM in the sidebar. It should be at the top, scroll down till you see the mask where you can enter your domain. Simply click Select domains with missing keys shortcut to have your domain name filled in. Now select a 2048 key and click on Add. Once the key is added you can copy the public key and create a DNS TXT entry called dkim._domainkey with the content you just copied.

Step 13 - Create a mailbox

When you go back to Configuration -> Mail setup you can create a mailbox and log into SOGo by accessing it under https://mail.example.com/SOGo

Step 14 - Update Mailcow

Of course a mail server needs care and you should update it from time to time. Updating Mailcow is super easy simply run ./update.sh and follow the instructions :)