Install and Configure a Postfix Mail Server

There are a number of reasons why you would want to set up your own Linux mail server. You are in a company that has needs for a more reliable mail solution than anything the competition has to offer. Your company has a very limited IT budget and can't afford Exchange or the CALs involved. Or, maybe you just want to expand your repertoire of Linux skills. Regardless of why, knowing how to set up a mail server on a Linux machine is an important task any Linux admin should know. And of course, in the spirit of all things Linux, there are a number of ways you can go in order to get that mail server up and running. Over the years I have found Postfix to be one of the easiest to set up and most reliable to deploy in most organizations.
I have deployed Postfix servers in single-user environments and up to three hundred user environments. It works like a champ no matter the size. And in this article I am going to show you how to get that Postfix server up and running in no time flat.
NOTE: For the purposes of this article I will be installing Postfix on an Ubuntu Server (the release is 10.04 but can be applied to 9.10) and I will use the fake domain mail.mymail.com. You will, of course, need to substitute your own domain (which must be a FQDN).

Installation