Managing control information of a mail server in a databaes gives a lot of flexibility compared to raw text files. But let's be honest for a moment. Most reader of this tutorial won't set up a mail server with thousands of users to make money with. They are just curious what it's like to run a mail server and wanted to learn a great deal. Are you like them? Then you probably just want to manage a domain and a handful of users and don't like to edit database rows through SQL statements, right? Don't despair - there are two ready web interfaces to manage your mail server.
ISPwebAdmin
I created this web interface in Python using the Pylons web framework for the Lenny tutorial. And it also works on Debian Squeeze. It may take half an hour to set it up because it's not just a bunch of PHP files to throw on a web server. But it has served me well for two years on a production mail server with 10 domains and 1000 users.
MailAdm
Robert Kuntz is working on MailAdm to replace all other tools. Check out a demo version.
VEA

Felix (last name unknown has written a fancy and lightweight web interface. See his web site that even contains a live demonstration.
Scott Moody's management interface
Scott Moody has contributed another simple web interface consisting of just one PHP file that helps you manage your mail server. Visit his web site if you are interested.
An unnamed contributor claims that Scott's script does not work with Squeeze and provides a fixed script.
mailadmin
Ben Clarke also wrote a free and open source web administration interface. You can find his work at GitHub.

13 Comments
GRsoft mail manager
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Dear Cristopher, is there any chance to use the GRSoft mail manager with this version?
The author seems not to have updated it to the squeeze tutorial and it's been so far the best tool I've encountered for the task. Simple, easy to install and reliable. From my perspective, that piece of software has been an important part of the great ISPmail tutorials, which I have been following for the last three years. Managing addresses, domains and aliases is an important part of the process and Peter Gutwein did and amazing job with his mail manager.
The old version can be found here in case anyone wants to step in and try if it plays well with the squeeze version of this excellent tutorial series.
Sincerely,
Javier Llarens.-
The database schema hasn't
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
The database schema hasn't changed. So if you get GRSoft running it should work out of the box. Could you report back if it works? Then I'll put the link on this page of the tutorial. Thanks.
Try it and post
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Yes, I'll get the upgrade done over the weekend to have time to fix any problem.
I'll get back to post the results (or complain about a sucky weekend -_-) after that.
Javier.-
GRsoft manager working
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Back again to confirm it's working flawlessly, out of the box, with the squeeze version of the tutorial.
Great Work.
Javier.-
last Scott Moody's management interface does not work correctly
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Hi, I like this tutorial and I have often used it.
As frontend I use Scott Moody's management interface since years.
Now I have downloaded last version from the link above and noticed, that there are some code mistakes.
e.g.:
- User Management: password and username/email does not match the mentioned database scheme
- User Management: the name of the database column for username is "email", not "user"
- Alias Management: if you want to change, there is no "destination" field
...
Postfix admin
Submitted by Kiran (not verified) on
Could we use postfix admin? I am just starting off on Linux mail servers. Just been using Ubuntu on my personal machine.
1+ for Postfix Admin
Submitted by Evert (not verified) on
Yes, that would be a good idea! Postfix Admin would be the perfect(?) web interface for this. Unfortunately I lack the appropriate skills to figure out whether this is possible... Anyone?
An other web interface
Submitted by Martin (not verified) on
Thanks for this great manual ;-)
Recently i have discover a new web interface very nice and complete, Modoboa (Open and Free source)
I think that it can be interesting for new users to learn.
http://modoboa.org/
Demo:
http://modoboa.state-of-mind.de/accounts/login/?next=/
It was so strangely open
Submitted by Demarse (not verified) on
It was so strangely open-handed with you to convey extensively just what a number of us might have sold for an e-book in making some profit for themselves, chiefly considering that you could possibly have done it if you desired.
http://www.kaneva.com/blog/369126.blog http://www.yapperz.com/thomasvilhel615/blog/ways-you-can-reduce-stress-at-work/
ISPwebAdmin not working
Submitted by Michael (not verified) on
Hey Christoph,
just wanted to let you know that the way you describe in http://workaround.org/ispmail/lenny/manage-email-accounts did not work for me in squeeze. Paster failed with this Message:
(ispwebadmin)vmail@x:~/ispwebadmin$ paster make-config ispwebadmin run.ini
Distribution already installed:
ispwebadmin 1.0.2 from /var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ispwebadmin-1.0.2-py2.6.egg
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/bin/paster", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('PasteScript==1.7.5', 'console_scripts', 'paster')()
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/command.py", line 104, in run
invoke(command, command_name, options, args[1:])
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/command.py", line 143, in invoke
exit_code = runner.run(args)
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/appinstall.py", line 68, in run
return super(AbstractInstallCommand, self).run(new_args)
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/command.py", line 238, in run
result = self.command()
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/appinstall.py", line 295, in command
self.distro, self.options.ep_group, self.options.ep_name)
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PasteScript-1.7.5-py2.6.egg/paste/script/appinstall.py", line 234, in get_installer
'paste.app_install', ep_name)
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/distribute-0.6.28-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 2311, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/distribute-0.6.28-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 2017, in load
entry = __import__(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['__name__'])
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pylons-0.9.7-py2.6.egg/pylons/__init__.py", line 4, in <module>
from pylons.config import config
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pylons-0.9.7-py2.6.egg/pylons/config.py", line 2, in <module>
from pylons.configuration import *
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pylons-0.9.7-py2.6.egg/pylons/configuration.py", line 25, in <module>
import pylons.legacy
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pylons-0.9.7-py2.6.egg/pylons/legacy.py", line 9, in <module>
import pylons.decorators
File "/var/vmail/ispwebadmin/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pylons-0.9.7-py2.6.egg/pylons/decorators/__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
from webob import UnicodeMultiDict
ImportError: cannot import name UnicodeMultiDict
Unfortunately, that happened after I already installed about 250MB of build tools etc. that came with virtual_env. This is not too bad for me because I might need them eventually, but, you know...
Going to give a shot at the GRSoft and report back whether it worked.
To be honest I'm very unhappy
Submitted by Christoph Haas on
To be honest I'm very unhappy recently with Pylons. Actually it shouldn't break. But apparently the dependent packages have changed underneath and broke several of my Pylons applications.
The solution for your case is described in another comment.
mailadmin
Submitted by Michael (not verified) on
Couldn't get ISPWebAdmin to run.
Fumbled around with modoboa a lot but couldn't get it to work. It has a nice interface but is currently broken due to changes in django, the author is at it.
Finally settled with Ben Clarke's mailadmin, which was surprisingly easy to install, following the instructions. It was the only one I could get to work.
I totally second your
Submitted by Christoph Haas on
I totally second your frustration. ISPmailAdmin was just a tiny side-project for my own use. It's too complicated to be deployed if you just need something simple to manage your domains and mail accounts. And Pylons broke so many times that I'm upset about it. I'd recommend you go with a simpler PHP-based solution, too, unless you have a reason.