Configure Exim & DA

[abletec]

I apologize. I'm an idiot. This is an install of Exim & Dovecot using the DA defaults w/no added customizations.

I'm getting both permissions errors on my /etc/virtual/domains/mydomain/filter file (I may have just figured that out), as well as 535 authentication errors. My experience of setting up email servers is a bit limited, ie, I used Postfix as opposed to Exim in the past, & I'm a bit doubtful as to how to proceed w/Directadmin w/its slightly ideosyncratic setup.

Also, my address scheme isn't correct, ie, if I log into Roundcube as [email protected] the returned address is actually [email protected]. This seems pretty misconfigured, ie, if I'd done something to the configuration I'd willingly blame myself, but this is directly out-of-the-DA-box. I'm truly puzzled. Is it possible to just nuke the DA install & use the standard Ubuntu packages for Exim (or Postfix), Dovecot, & Roundcube w/o screwing up DA?

 

[Richard G]

I apologize. I'm an idiot.

No apologize needed. And running into issues the first time does not make you an idiot either. Especially not if you do things "out of the box" without customizations.

So... what kind of license to you have? Is it a personal license?

Let's call your da-username just username. It's easier for the example. Is that admin? So you get [email protected]? If yes, set your admin email address:

How to change email address from which Directadmin sends emails

I want Directadmin to send emails from [email protected] instead of [email protected]. How can I do it?

help.poralix.com

How did you install with the /auto command behind it?

Check your /etc/exim.conf if it's version 4.5.35 at this moment.

Also, is the [email protected] which is now displayed as username@hostname the main system account or a seperate email address you created?

Is it possible to just nuke the DA install & use the standard Ubuntu packages for Exim (or Postfix), Dovecot, & Roundcube w/o screwing up DA?

No.

 

[abletec]

Thanks for being nice about it all, Richard. I think I'm beginning to see where some of this arises from, and that is the exim.pl script.

I actually got my DA license from my data center, so I believe it's a full as opposed to personal license.

Thanks for the article on changing the administrative email address. I have done that now. I actually did change the admin username, as I was getting a tremendous number of brute force attacks. Changing that & the ssh port cut them down to zip. So I guess in that sense I did do some customization. Sorry--didn't mean to be untruthful. I just meant I didn't do anything w/the email portion of it to muck it up.

I actually didn't use the /auto command at first, because I wanted to wait to install the firewall till I was sure everything else was working properly.

Copied/pasted:
4.5.35


Also, is the [email protected] which is now displayed as username@hostname the main system account or a seperate email address you created?

It's a separate email, & it never gets used.

From a cursory glance, it looks like the exim.pl script looks for the username associated w/the domain. I need to study the script more to see what's up w/it--I just realized now how very customized this all was.

Again, I really appreciate you being nice about it all. I really do feel that this should be dead simple & that I'm an idiot because I'm probly missing something very obvious, but as of yet, I guess I'm still missing it. Now that I have a better understanding about some of the customizations that are occurring, I can forge through the exim.pl script & figure out what I may actually need to change. Studying the intricacies of a shell script was *not* the way I planned to spend the afternoon, but, o, well. Sigh. Thanks again, & have a great evening.

 

[ikkeben]

For easy look to this part to

Overview | Directadmin Docs

DirectAdmin Knowledge Base

docs.directadmin.com

[PLUGIN] CustomBuild 2.0

Hello, Finally I have something to show for you guys! :) I have tried it to make as good as possible. Please let me know your feedback, feature requests, bugs etc. Download link: http://www.custombuild.eu/plugin/custombuild.tar.gz NOTE: CustomBuild 2.0 is needed for plugin to work. I am...

forum.directadmin.com

Then the newer newest docs are here yes somewhat old and new you have to read more there aren't links from older docs to newer , there also not alway's if yes or no that they are old , while most of the time parts also out of old docs works , but advice look first in newest docs

| Directadmin Docs

DirectAdmin Knowledge Base

docs.directadmin.com

For exim then you search there . Try that.

And this for mail...

Perfect E-Mail Setup | Directadmin Docs

DirectAdmin Knowledge Base

docs.directadmin.com

For creating accounts / users / resell ... better not do it with their "normal" emailadresses but separate email used for that part , saves some scam tryout on the normal known emailadresses for those persons.

So if those DA usermail adresses on are only known by DA , the Users and the admins it saves some....


Take care of the DA way how to customize and be update safe , lot of files are for that in custom , extra, included files via the main .conf for the APPS as exim.conf, dovecot ....

If you don't like that way but going your own way , hmmm could be at the end really frustration broken things or not understanding why not it work as wanted.

 

[Richard G]

I actually did change the admin username, as I was getting a tremendous number of brute force attacks.

Oeps. That can cause very odd issues unless done correctly.

Better create a new admin and login as that admin, then disable SSH for the default admin account or delete the original account.
Or better, use the "change username" script.
I don't know how you changed the name.

It's in any way good to move SSH tot a non-default port above 1024 and if possible, use SSH keys to connect, if that works, disable password authentication, as you can always edit the ssh config via your admin account to allow it again.

I didn't change any admin account, but we do not have any SSH running on default ports. That already put the attacks to 0 too, but there always will be attacks on mail, the DA login port, phpmyadmin or whatever.

The exim.pl file is normally updated with exim.conf so you should be at version 31 if all is correct. Please do not edit or change this as this will be overwritten and customisations there could cause major issues.

If you know what you're doing, I would advise you to not use the plugin for custombuild, but work via SSH. Because using custombuild via SSH and updating that way, will also show you the output and errors right away. Some things even can't be done before the plugin is updated, while it can be done via SSH.

I don't know what exactly went wrong, but normally with an out of the box basic installation, newly created email addresses never become accountname@hostname adresses.

Since you did change the admin name, sometimes this trick works:

cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
./build update
./build exim
./build exim_conf
./build dovecot
./build dovecot_conf
./build rewrite_confs

as you can see it's a rebuild of Exim and Dovecot with its configurations and an apache rewrite config. This often fixes things.

Maybe after this there is no need anymore to learn the exim.pl file, at least we never did.
Also some of the docs ikkeben pointed to could be of help.

As for the help, you're welcome, hope you get it fixed soon, let us know if you encounter any questions.
A great evening for you too!

 

[ikkeben]

FYI i have a love<> hate relation with the Custombuild plugin it is easy yup, sometimes ...