Installing and configuring Postfix Admin

Here we'll describe what to do to install the Postfix Admin package and what to do to solve the bugs we encountered.

First you need to download the software package from the Postfix Admin site, I'm using and basing these instructions on version 2.1.0. Don't use the installation guide that comes with the installation package as some of the steps you have already performed and might conflict with other parts of the installation.

Extract the package into the directory /var/www/httpd, that is if you used the installation package from Server Logistics we've discussed earlier. Otherwise extract it in the document root for your apache installation.

For ease of use you can rename the directory postfixadmin-2.1.0 to just postfixadmin or create a symbolic link to that directory as follows:

ln -s /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0 /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin

Because you will enter the database user and password in the configuration files located in this directory it will be a lot safer if you change ownership and the permissions.

chown -R www:www /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0

cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0
chmod 640 *.php *.css
cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0/admin/
chmod 640 *.php .ht*
cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0/images/
chmod 640 *.gif *.png
cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin- 2.1.0/languages/
chmod 640 *.lang
cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0/templates/
chmod 640 *.tpl
cd /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin-2.1.0/users/
chmod 640 *.php

When you've done this you are ready to create the configuration file. Copy the file config.inc.php.sample in the directory /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin to config.inc.php to get a starting point. Then edit the file config.inc.php and change following items:

// the location of the files:
$CONF['postfix_admin_url'] = '/postfixadmin/admin';
$CONF['postfix_admin_path'] = '/var/www/httpd/postfixadmin/admin';

// how to connect to the database
$CONF['database_type'] = 'mysql';
$CONF['database_host'] = 'localhost';
$CONF['database_user'] = 'postfixadmin';
$CONF['database_password'] = 'postfixadmin';
$CONF['database_name'] = 'postfix';
$CONF['database_prefix'] = '';

// your administrator e-mail address
$CONF['admin_email'] = 'postmaster@yourmaindomain.tld';

// The default aliases that need to be created for all domains.
$CONF['default_aliases'] = array (
'abuse' => 'abuse@yourmaindomain.tld' ,
'hostmaster' => 'hostmaster@yourmaindomain.tld',
'postmaster' => 'postmaster@yourmaindomain.tld',
'webmaster' => 'webmaster@yourmaindomain.tld'
);

// to get a mailbox structure like /domain/user
$CONF['domain_path'] = 'YES';
$CONF['domain_in_mailbox'] = 'NO';

Next, to secure the overall admin module you need to edit the file .htaccess in the directory /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin/admin. Change the line

AuthUserFile /usr/local/www/<domain.tld>/admin/.htpasswd
into this:
AuthUserFile /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin/admin/.htpasswd

You need to do the final step by starting up your favourite browser and point it to http://localhost/postfixadmin/. Click on the setup link for the final step, it will do a test and checkup. After you got it working remove the setup.php file from the directory /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin or rename it to keep your server safe.

You can then go into http://localhost/postfixadmin/admin/ to administrate your users and domain admins. Please note that the default user and password for this is admin/admin and that that is defined in the .htpasswd file in the directory /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin/admin. To change the default password you can go into the directory /var/www/httpd/postfixadmin/admin as root and type the following command:

htpasswd -c .htpasswd admin

You then will be asked to type the new password twice, if you did that correctly the password has changed.

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