Install and Configure Postfix as a Local SMTP Relay on Ubuntu

What are we doing?

Deploying Postfix with Mailutils to setup a send-only SMTP server on Ubuntu server

Why?

Applications hosted on our server will be able to send us notifications, password reset emails etc

Method

Update repositories and install mailutils

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mailutils

Hopefully you’re sure about this. When prompted, press

y

Big shiny screen. I guess there’s only one way forward

Screen Shot 2015-12-25 at 17.42.25

Accept the default ‘internet site’

Screen Shot 2015-12-25 at 17.42.30

Enter your FQDN

Screen Shot 2015-12-25 at 17.44.26

Lets change a few things in the Postfix config

sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Look for the line inet_interfaces = all and change it to

inet_interfaces = YOUR_SERVER_IP

This will allow us to send mail from any server on our subnet. If you plan to build everything on one machine, changing this line to inet_interfaces = localhost will allow only the local machine to send mail

ctrl + X then y to save

Restart postfix for changes to take effect

service postfix restart

Send a test email

echo "email body" | mail -s "Email subject" [email protected]

Don’t worry about receiving mail from root@mail, you will be able to specify a send from email address from your application.

Happy mailing!

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