Mailscanner initial Setup help

Graham S. Jarvis gsjarvis at pt.lu
Thu Dec 8 19:09:26 UTC 2016


I've "been there" and just running a MailScanner (our spamassassin and clamav) 
on mydomain.tld would be enough - but this rather negates the idea of using a 
central hub......
Setting up mydomain.tld to only accept mail from mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld 
would mean that you have a problem if mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld goes down.
Some senders don't keep trying for 5 days and you'd loose mail if you didn't 
notice and get a (already configured) solution on-line very quickly.
(I've been there too....) :(


For me, one of the advantages of running via MX records is the failover.
Running a separate mail host means that you can plan things so that the end-user 
doesn't notice or loose mail if you move from one host (or ISP) to another.
DNS propagation times can be a real headache for multinational mail sources......

If you don't have to move hosts around that often it's not a problem - make sure 
that your ISP keeps giving you DNS access though.

Whatever you do, you still need a good backup as a way of getting a machine (the 
hub) up and running quickly in case of hardware failure though.


I still have a load of questions about this whole idea because there's the issue 
of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records - which is important if you are 
using the MailScanner "hub" to scan outgoing mail as well......

For me this is still "work in progress" ;)

-Graham-



Manuel Kälin wrote on 2016-12-08 18:02:
> Hi
>
> This could be solved with a 2nd mailscanner as 2nd mx and change mydomain.tld 
> Server that it accepts just from the mailscanner server.
> Or am i missing something?
>
> Manuel
>
>
>     ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -----
>     Von:
>     "MailScanner Discussion" <mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info>
>
>     An:
>     "MailScanner Discussion" <mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info>
>     Cc:
>
>     Gesendet:
>     Thu, 8 Dec 2016 17:38:02 +0100
>     Betreff:
>     Re: Mailscanner initial Setup help
>
>
>     Hello everybody,
>
>     this is exactly how we have our set-up - should we write some
>     documentation and
>     try to get it added to the MailScanner docs on the web site?
>
>     - It's actually more DNS and PostFix/Sendmail set-up issue than
>     MailScanner but
>     I always thought that the MailScanner site would be a good place to
>     centralise
>     this information because it's going to be a "standard" requirement.
>
>     Here's the concept:
>
>     The domain is "mydomain.tld" and this IP_Addr is running a web and e-mail
>     server
>     (etc.,etc., etc.)
>
>     We want to set up a separate host to act as a mail "hub" with MailScanner
>     (spam
>     and virus) which scans the mail before passing it onto "mydomain.tld".
>
>     For the purposes of this exercise let's call this "mailscanner hub" host :
>     "mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld"
>
>     So,
>     In order that mail for mydomain.tld is first sent to
>     "mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld" we have to have access to the DNS - MX
>     records
>     for "mydomain,tld"
>     We set-up two MX records:
>     mydomain.tld MX10 mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld.
>     mydomain.tld MX20 mydomain.tld.
>
>     This makes sure that if there's a problem with our "mailscanner hub" mail
>     still
>     gets through....
>
>     Don't forget that anotherdomain.tld is also going to accept e-mail via
>     it's own
>     MX records AND that mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld should be pointed to by an
>     A-record and should NOT be a CNAME.
>
>     Now, on mailscanner.anotherdomain.tld
>     - we set up the mail server (my experience is with Sendmail and Postfix)
>     - we set up Mailscanner
>     and we test that it all works for mail going to anotherdomain.tld
>
>     Then we set up Sendmail or Postfix to forward non-local mail to "mydomain.tld"
>
>     From experience, the problem with this concept is the spammers who ignore the
>     dns and send directly to the smtp server at "domain.tld".
>     And, this is where someone else could help out with a good solution that
>     doesn't
>     mean installing another mailscanner on "domain.tld"
>
>     Does this sound about right?
>
>     -Graham-
>
>     PS: there are a couple of other tools needed of course - maildrop and
>     MailWatch
>
>
>
>     Manuel Kälin wrote on 2016-12-08 16:13:
>     > Hi
>     >
>     > Yes, we need this second solution with incoming and outgoing direct trom the
>     > final hosts.
>     > Have you set this up with postfix and how did you forward the mails? As
>     files or
>     > something like smarthost?
>     >
>     > Manuel
>     >
>     >
>     > ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -----
>     > Von:
>     > "MailScanner Discussion" <mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info>
>     >
>     > An:
>     > "MailScanner Discussion" <mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info>
>     > Cc:
>     >
>     > Gesendet:
>     > Thu, 8 Dec 2016 10:03:38 -0500
>     > Betreff:
>     > Re: Mailscanner initial Setup help
>     >
>     >
>     > That's my solution as well. All the mail comes in to the central
>     > scanning server and is then forwarded on to the final destinations. The
>     > model where the final delivery servers receive the mail, forward it to a
>     > central scanner, and then receive the results, is much harder to set up.
>     > In the first stage you don't want the server to be the final delivery
>     > host, while in the second you do.
>     >
>     > Peter
>     >
>     >
>     > On 12/08/2016 08:42 AM, Heino Backhaus wrote:
>     > > I think I would prefer to receive the mails with Mailscanner, check them
>     > > and forward them to Server A or B.
>     >
>     >
>     > --
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>     > mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info
>     > http://lists.mailscanner.info/mailman/listinfo/mailscanner
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >
>
>
>     -- 
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>     mailscanner at lists.mailscanner.info
>     http://lists.mailscanner.info/mailman/listinfo/mailscanner
>
>
>
>

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