[Reply-To set, as this is only peripheral to Postfix]
Just E. Mail wrote, On 5/10/09 11:17 AM:
This question is going to be difficult for many to answer, but please help. I am trying to setup a Master/Client server setup to run Postfix. The MASTER server has Postfix & PostgreSQL Client installed on it. The Master machine is at the backend with PostgreSQL Server installed on it. All emails will be held on the backend PostgreSQL Server, which is only accessible from the Postfix/PostgreSQL Server. I hope you get the picture. I am trying to determine whether I use 'dbmail' or 'dovecot'? I am new to both of these applications & they both seems interesting. I am a
I'm late for your weekend deadline, but in case you haven't figured it out: this is not just like comparing apples to oranges, but like asking a group of butchers for advice on whether to drink wine or beer...
If you are determined to store your mail in a Postgres database, Dovecot is not an option. Dbmail can do that, and it is by far the most prominent free software that is able to use a generic RDBMS as a mailstore for POP and IMAP access.
NEWBIE so it is important to know which one of these two application is easy to install, setup, maintain & feature rich. It will be nice to see URL of a site or Screen shots to see how each of them look. I am sure I am leaving few things out. Please help. I am working on the weekend.
I can't speak to a direct comparison, as I haven't looked closely at dbmail 2.x. However, there are some things you should understand:
1. Neither dovecot nor dbmail provide much in the way of "look" because they are both NOT user-facing. I expect that both have had add-on GUI administration tools built for them (such as modules for Webmin) but in both cases you are essentially looking at fairly traditional Unix/Linux server software that is configured and administered from a command line.
2. There are reasons that dbmail is just about the only software using generic RDBMS's to store mail. Others have tried that (including Oracle) and met disappointment in the market. The tasks that a RDBMS (i.e. Postgres, MySQL, Oracle, etc.) is optimized for are tasks that are rarely needed for email, and the data structure of email fits poorly into traditional RDBMS models. Everyone's needs are different of course, so maybe you really do need your mail in Postgres, but you should understand that by making that choice you are probably giving up performance and flexibility in some common use cases for email. You should also be aware of the fact that "how should I store messages?" is one of the questions that many mail admins have to address repeatedly, not because they answer it wrong, but because the right answer depends on what a particular population of users want from their mailboxes today.
3. If you decide not to store mail in Postgres, dovecot probably is your best bet for what it does. There are other choices, but they are not particularly compelling for an environment where a "newbie" admin is likely to be working. Put more bluntly: if you are in a situation where Cyrus would really make sense, you probably need to hire someone with experience.
