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Set up local bounce processing » History » Revision 1

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Jon Goldberg, 05/06/2015 12:47 PM


Set up local bounce processing

If you're setting up CiviMail, you'll need a bounce processing account on a system that supports subaddressing. GMail/Google Apps works for this - Exchange and Office 365 do not. So it's often desirable to set up your own server for bounce processing - it takes very little overhead, so you can run it on the same VPS that runs CiviCRM.

  • Install Postfix: apt-get install postfix. Select all the standard options.
  • Make sure your DNS A and PTR records are set up properly! You should also have an MX record, though you can get away with not having it if the domain's A record points to the server.
  • Install Dovecot. In theory this is unnecessary - you can specify a mailbox on localhost - but I've had less trouble with this approach. In Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install dovecot-imapd. You can skip SSL since it's all over localhost.
  • Create a user whose name will be the e-mail address. E.g. for , useradd -m civi-bounces -s /sbin/nologin.
  • Drop this file into /etc/dovecot/conf.d/99-mysettings.conf to configure dovecot.
    protocols = imap
    disable_plaintext_auth=no
    mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/spool/mail/%u
    
  • Check /etc/postfix/main.cf to ensure that mydestination includes the domain you want to deliver mail to (e.g. "mysite.org").
  • You should now be able to use this account for IMAP! Punch a temporary hole in your firewall at port 143 to access it from outside and connect Thunderbird to the account. Send a test message, of course.
  • Configure the Bounce Processing account in CiviCRM as you would any other IMAP-based account.

Updated by Jon Goldberg almost 9 years ago · 1 revisions

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