Complete Virtual Mail Server/Admin Support Systems

Administration Interface
This document will not rely on any of the applications mentioned in this chapter. They can be installed and used, but a valid system should work without any of these in place. There is one exception however,. The exception exists that postfixadmin will be used to create the initial tables. The reason is simple, postfixadmin could be used to administer the database and if it is not entirely happy about the table layout, things could go wrong. Thus letting postfixadmin create the tables, it is kept happy if ever it is decided to use it.

Apache, PHP and PostgreSQL
Apache, PHP and PostgreSQL are extensive packages. Read the Apache2 wiki about how to setup Apache. PHP also has a wiki dedicated to its installation. It should be made certain that all features expected from PHP and Apache would work before continuing, as they will be important for the usage of webmail and statistics presentation. The core of this setup is and its wiki should be followed to setup PostgreSQL. Alternatively there is also MySQL or LDAP.

Connecting PostgreSQL and Apache (and others) together can happen in several ways, via the network or via a UNIX socket for example. While UNIX sockets are the fastest and slightly more secure, a TCP/IP connection might be desired when connecting across multiple (virtual) servers.

When using UNIX sockets, it is important however, that note that common filesystem permissions are used, and thus apache and postfix may need to be in the postgres group.