Help with self hosting email on a Rpi 0.

OrangeSunshine · April 17, 2021

I am planning on following the above guide to host Bitwarden on my pi zero. I'm also going to run pihole in another container.

Recently, I've been trying to deGoogle my life as much as possible. This is mostly due to me wanting to explore alternatives to google services because I feel complacent. As such, I am wanting to host my own email server, but I know little about it. Would it be possible to host a mail server on my pi given what I plan on doing? If so, what programs would you all recommend?

Biohazard777 · April 18, 2021

38 minutes ago, OrangeSunshine said:

my own email server

You will need: Postfix, Dovecot and MariaDB / MySQL (optional SpamAssassin).
You will also need a static IP, domain name, some DNS records and SSL certificate (unless you want your mail to end up in other peoples spam folder).

Linode has some nice tutorials about stuff like this, I suggest you start there:
https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/email-with-postfix-dovecot-and-mysql/

Once you've set it all up , head to: https://www.mail-tester.com/ to see if it is working and what things you should improve in order for your emails not to end up in other peoples spam.

A word of warning, if you are experienced Linux user setting all this up will take an hour or two, if you aren't... well it will take a while.

PS I've set up several mail servers over the years for business use, I would never setup one for personal use. IMHO just isn't worth the effort. Beside the setup you gotta keep in mind that you will have to take care of backups, redundancy, server ( in your case Pi ) availability etc.

WereCatf · April 18, 2021

32 minutes ago, OrangeSunshine said:

Would it be possible to host a mail server on my pi given what I plan on doing?

Yes, it would, but if that email-address was going to be used for login-credentials and such, like e.g. Steam, you really would want a bunch of redundancy as well; daily backups to another location, RAID1, UPS. You also need to check whether your ISP blocks incoming TCP-traffic on port 25, like many of them do: if that port is blocked, you're fucked. You also would still need to buy a domain for yourself.

36 minutes ago, OrangeSunshine said:

If so, what programs would you all recommend?

I don't personally have any recommendations, but I know both Mailcow and iRedMail are reasonably popular.

OrangeSunshine · April 19, 2021

On 4/17/2021 at 8:01 PM, Biohazard777 said:

Linode has some nice tutorials about stuff like this, I suggest you start there:

Thanks for pointing me to the linode guide. That was actually what I was looking for.

On 4/17/2021 at 8:01 PM, Biohazard777 said:

PS I've set up several mail servers over the years for business use, I would never setup one for personal use. IMHO just isn't worth the effort. Beside the setup you gotta keep in mind that you will have to take care of backups, redundancy, server ( in your case Pi ) availability etc.

It certainly seems like a lot of effort, but it is a curiosity thing for me mainly. I just want to improve by doing, ya know.

OrangeSunshine · April 19, 2021

On 4/17/2021 at 8:06 PM, WereCatf said:

You also would still need to buy a domain for yourself.

Could I just use a crappy free domain from somewhere?

WereCatf · April 19, 2021

24 minutes ago, OrangeSunshine said:

Could I just use a crappy free domain from somewhere?

If their DNS-system lets you set all the needed MX- and TXT-fields, yes. I have not used any of those free domain - thingies, so I have no idea how configurable they are. That said, a non-free domain isn't that expensive either, if you get one of the less popular ones, like e.g. I pay about 8€/year for mine -- not exactly an enormous expense.