Configuring Sendmail with smarthost Ubuntu Gutsy
Contents
Important Note
Please note that these manual installation instructions should only be used on Ubuntu distributions, such as Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 server, the distribution the document was written for. If you install Scalix on an unsupported platform, this invalidates your ability to receive Scalix support. Thank you for your understanding and compliance.
This document might be inaccurate and under construction. Do not trust this document.
Configuring Sendmail with smarthost on Ubuntu 7.10 Server (Gutsy Gibbon)
As Ubuntu 7.10 is an unsupported platform there is currently no manual describing the configuration of sendmail (the recommended MTA to be used with Scalix) to be used with a smarthost (smtp relay). As I managed to get Scalix it up and running and I already documented and shared this with the community (here), I thought it would be useful to share my experiences regarding the sendmail configuration as well.
So below you'll find a how-to that describes the configuration of sendmail to be used with Scalix on a Ubuntu 7.10 server.
Sendmail is a remarkably flexible program, supporting many kinds of mail transfer and delivery including the SMTP, which Scalix uses. Sendmail remains the most popular MTA on the Internet. Its popularity is due in part to its position as the standard MTA under most variants of the Unix and Linux operating system. Sendmail can be used with a smarthost to relay SMTP mesages to another host. For example your provider's SMTP server.
A smart host is a type of mail relay server which allows an SMTP server to route e-mail to an intermediate mail server rather than directly to the recipient’s server. Often this smart host requires authentication from the sender to verify that the sender has privileges to have mail forwarded through the smart host. This is an important distinction from an open relay that will forward mail from the sender without authentication.
I used several sources of information on the web. I listed the ones I can remember at the end of the document under Sources.
Configuring a smarthost for sendmail
To configure a smarthost (with authentication) for sendmail, you'll have to create a file called /etc/mail/auth/client-info and modify the file /etc/mail/sendmail.mc.
Let's start with creating the file /etc/mail/auth/client-info. The content in of this file represents your login credentials for the smarthost. It should look like the example below:
AuthInfo:<smarthost> "U:<username>" "I:<account>" "P:<password>"
Where:
- <smarthost>
- <username>
- <account>
- <password>
