Hello kicou somme question about you’re installation
1/ do you run it on production ?
2/ all mailcow composants runs in separate lxc containers ?
3/ do you have benefice of HA in proxmox with mailcow lxc containers ?

Thanks

ok why to choose a lxc container and not a virtual machine on proxmox ?

I guess its MUCH easier to run Mailcow in a Proxmox VM with debian and docker. There is almost no overhead, as Debians footprint is quite small if you install it without GUI.

@esackbauer yes i agree with this and if vm use ceph as starage we could gain HA options

aukfood On Proxmox you don’t need Ceph, you can use either ZFS replications or the inbuilt replication manager

pve.proxmox.com

Storage Replication - Proxmox VE

@esackbauer i don’t try again zfs replications but why not

esackbauer I guess its MUCH easier to run Mailcow in a Proxmox VM with debian and docker. There is almost no overhead, as Debians footprint is quite small if you install it without GUI.

Good day, I’m new to mailcow, so this is my first post/question.

Here’s my setup:
one static IP –> opnsense –> proxmox –> debian 12 as VM –> mailcow-dockerized. The opnsense, proxmox and debian VM are in the same subnet. On the proxmox is running a not containerized server, also in the same subnet. No firewall(s) on the proxmox.

Install of debian 12 went smooth, the VM is up and running. Same with mailcow-dockerized, no problems so far. mailcow is connected to a domain, DNS records are set as described. mailcow is able to send and receive email.

During acme-challenge the static IP is detected, but it stalls with the hostname. No cert is created, BTW the server in the other machine has no problem with let’s encrypt certs. Difference for sure is docker.

I’m not firm with docker. But if I’m guided I’m able to provide any information to work this through. I’ve access to the opnsense and to the network over VPN.

So while reading the intro of mailcow that installations in a VM are supported or possible, where did I miss the point? I tried to get information in opnsense- and proxmox-forum but I must admit, the more I read the more I’m confused. I also read the mailcow docs, but I simply don’t understand where do I have to investigate. Is it the opnsense part or is it the mailcow part, or both?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
regards, stefan

First I’d like to thank for taking the time to reply to my questions.

I understand the easy advice as follows:

1. in opnsense I install the acme plugin and let the opnsense take care for the let’s encrypt certs. I already tested this way, this plugin works.
2. I daily copy, preferably with a cron job, the certs to mailcow - what path/location exactly?
3. the mailcow VM has to be daily rebooted, to recognize the new certs?

@esackbauer

Thank you for describing the way with a reverse proxy. I tried this but honestly, as a part time admin, this is way too complicated for me.

Everything works really pretty well out of the box, if mailcow does not sit in a VM (and probably in lxc container) and behind a firewall like opnsense or pfsense. I tested mailcow at home on a laptop running with arch linux. There’s an asus router in front of the home network. No problem to configure a port forward to the laptop, so everything works as intended.

Anyway, if I take the road kicou suggests, where in mailcow can acme be safely disabled? Is it in the GUI or better with the command line?

stefan21 what path/location exactly?
mailcow VM has to be daily rebooted, to recognize the new certs?

All your questions are already answered in the last link of my previous posting…

To make sure: this one Advanced SSL - mailcow: dockerized documentation

docs.mailcow.email

Advanced SSL - mailcow: dockerized documentation

None

I’ll follow, thank you so far.

Doing this daily seems unnecessary. Certs are good for 90 days with renewal possible after 60.

I run a script on mailcow instance itself to check renewal weekly using dns challenge (cloudflare) as I don’t want any more open ports than absolutely necessary. Dns challenge requires the use of an api key to update the require txt record.

kicou

I managed to fetch certs with opnsense acme-plugin. Already tested, works fine. I also managed to automate the deploy of the cert to mailcow. In the mailcow-docs is said:
"How to use your own certificate¶

Make sure you disable mailcows internal LE client (see above).

To use your own certificates, just save the combined certificate (containing the certificate and intermediate CA/CA if any) to data/assets/ssl/cert.pem and the corresponding key to data/assets/ssl/key.pem"

The copy of the certs from the opnsense is in:

/opt/mailcow-dockerized/data/assets/ssl/FQHN/

• ca.pem
• cert.pem
• fullchain.pem
• key.pem

Will that work?

It won’t. No problem to write a cron job.

Some other questions are popping up:

In the doc I read: "Die mailcow Daten (wie bspw. E-Mails, Userdaten etc.) werden in Docker-Volumes aufbewahrt - geben Sie gut auf diese Volumes acht:

clamd-db-vol-1
crypt-vol-1
mysql-socket-vol-1
mysql-vol-1
postfix-vol-1
redis-vol-1
rspamd-vol-1
sogo-userdata-backup-vol-1
sogo-web-vol-1
solr-vol-1
vmail-index-vol-1
vmail-vol-1

"
O.k. Got it. Are those volumes covered within the backup-script?

While I’m migrating from another email-server, is it possible to upload bulk white/black lists?