Slightly OT: virtual hosting

[Jason Balicki]

Hello all,

First of all, if this is too OT, let me know (preferably
with a suggestion as where to take the discussion --
this is the only list I know of that has a good size
community of mail admins that use all sorts of different
MTA setups.)

I've been a faithful MailScanner user for years now,
and I love the package.

However, I'm trying to consolidate several separate
mail servers that I maintain under one roof (so
to speak) and it seems like every virtual hosting
solution has severe drawbacks.

The options are limitless, but here's what I've
considered so far:

Webmin+Virtualmin (and the associated mailscanner
webmin component).  I like this, and I've had it
partially set up, but the one drawback that I see
is that I have to give people funky pop/imap logins,
and for some reason I find that quite distasteful.

The same as above, but without Webmin.  Same
drawbacks, plus I'd have to maintain the
virtual user table by hand.

qmail+vpopper+clamav+spamassassin.  This would allow
me to use sane usernames, but 1) I've heard it's
a pain to get running (small, but my frustration
level is high enough now :) and 2) I'd be ditching
MailScanner.  I know I could run Mailscanner on
a separate box, but I'd be doubling the number
of servers needed, plus I don't know if I could
get the MailScanner box to drop unknown users.

Well, that's about all I've seriously considered
at this point.

I'd like to continue to use MailScanner, as I like
the all in one anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities,
as well as the wonderful community, but it looks like
I may have to switch out, and I'm not liking that
possibility.

Some other considerations:

1) someone else may have to administer this at some
point.

2) I may add more domains, especially since I'll have
the infrastructure in place.

3) I have absolutely no budget right now.  I have
a few spare desktops that I can sacrifice to be
servers, but new hardware is not an option right
now.  (My boss won't even let me convert the 5
desktop-cased servers into rackmounts right now,
even though I have a nearly empty relay-rack.)

If you're running a virtual hosting solution, what
are you using?  Are you happy with it?  If not what
would you change?  Is there anything I've missed
that I should be considering?

Also, I'm most familiar with Linux based solutions,
but I'm not opposed to *bsd.  However, I've tried
to standardize on WhiteBox Enterprise Linux (where
I can) to make things easy on myself.

Thanks a lot for any input.  If you think this isn't
a good discussion for the list, please email me
directly.

--J(K)

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