outsourcing MX - external mail server with existing imSCP installation?

  • 2 of my systems are quite busy (about 10000 email accounts & many Office 365 connections) with permanently high number of processes (500-600) the system load is still ok but it's increase very quickly when there is a lot of traffic via Apache and at the same time too many Dovecot mysql querys ...

    Is there any way to completely outsource the mailserver including database for Dovecot, Roundcube etc. using the listener files?

    How does an external installation work and what is needed?

    Do all customers in the panel have to be switched to external MX and do they all need an MX entry set in IMSCP DNS (I use external nameservers PDNS)?

    Do I have to completely install IMSCP on the external system or which packages do I have to install?

    I guess the hostname would then probably also have to be changed?

    Can anyone share some details on how to outsource the mail server with IMSCP?

  • fulltilt

    Changed the title of the thread from “outsource MX - external mail server with existing imSCP installation?” to “outsourcing MX - external mail server with existing imSCP installation?”.
  • Hello,


    I didn't use the PDNS, but if I would like to move the mailboxes to another server maybe I try this way:


    1, You could install a new server with the same version of iMSCP
    2, you could copy the datas from domains, email,subdomains,... tables.
    3, Change the status of the rows from "ok" to "toadd" and run the request manager. This will generate all domain and emails.
    4, Create a bash script for copy the /var/mail/virtual to the new server and run that.
    5, change the MX records
    6, after some hours you must need to run the rsync again.

    :)

    OS: Debian Buster

    i-MSCP: GIT 1.5.3-maintenance branch

  • Some months ago I outsourced my mailserver too. So I searched for alternatives which maybe handle mails better than I-MSCP does. Soon I found a software called "mailcow". I find it pretty cool as it comes with a lot of features and possibilites to adjust things like anti spam and co. It also gets regular updates (almost daily). Maybe you should check it out.


    To sync old accounts, it has "ImapSync" built in. As I moved I created one sync for each mail account and told it to sync all 20 minutes. So no mail got lost. But there are things like Settings which cannot be transfered (e.g. sieve rules). It also comes with another webmail called SoGo. I personally think it is better but there is a documentation how to add roundcube.


    Feel free to contact me for any questions.


    Links:

    https://mailcow.email/ (demo available)

    https://imapsync.lamiral.info/

    https://sogo.nu/ (demo available)