Necessary Clouflare Cache exceptions should be mentioned...

Mulder

…in the installation instructions (prepare your system)!

This would prevent users from despairing when they cannot save anything in the admin backend (as just happened to me).

I almost uninstalled Mailcow again until I got the idea that the Cloudflare cache might be to blame.

Hope this helps!

esackbauer

I do not see the advantage of caching the admin backend globally or mailcow in general,
Have you tried ActiveSync connections and SOGo via Cloudflare cache? That might also break…

And if you are using cloudflare tunnels, those are not working for non-http connections like IMAP or SMTP which are essential for a mail server, unless you pay for the enterprise version which is like 5000 USD per month.

Mulder

esackbauer Sorry for the late reply, but I just found the community notification in the spam folder (of the still old email system aka Gmail…)! The main advantage of Cloudflare caching is to save system resources. Even though the setup email server is currently exclusively dedicated to Mailcow, there’s more and more artificial traffic these days, even to servers not meant for the public.

So far, everything is working perfectly (also IMAP connection via mobile Thunderbird etc.), even with Cloudflare cache switched on (unless for the backend pages excepted from caching, as they’re not accessible by the public anyway).

[unknown] What happened was that with Cloudflare cache (and Cache Reserve) turned on, the Mailcow backend got cached and setting changes weren’t visible in the backend, so seemingly there’s no “don’t cache” header or so in the Mailcow and potentially SOGo backends that tells Cloudflare to not cache these areas (or maybe my caching settings are too strict, but they work very well in favor of fast and well-functioning websites).

If most users won’t be affected even with Cloudflare caching on - great! Just some users might be affected and thus grateful for being informed about a potential conflict with caching.

disgustipated

Do you have more details on what you encountered? I’m using cloudflare and have not set anything special like this that I can recall.

esackbauer

Mulder The main advantage of Cloudflare caching is to save system resources.

I wonder how many users you have, like thousand or more? I run a 2 core 6 GB RAM VM with 10 users which is most of the time at 2-4% CPU load.

Mulder there’s more and more artificial traffic these days, even to servers not meant for the public.

Why do I not see this traffic, or experience CPU load issues?

disgustipated

Ah, I see, youre using the cache reserve, I’m just using the free standard cache, so some minimal things are cached.

Mulder

esackbauer Why do I not see this traffic, or experience CPU load issues?

I looked for a server that meets the minimum requirements mentioned in Mailcow. In a Youtube tutorial I had seen that they do not necessarily have to be met, but I didn’t want to go for the cheapest possible server, anyway, as my experience with those weren’t too good in recent years. Still, the traffic isn’t unlimited with the kind of server I got for emails, so I wanted to be on the safe side with caching not completely disabled 😉

esackbauer I wonder how many users you have, like thousand or more? I run a 2 core 6 GB RAM VM with 10 users which is most of the time at 2-4% CPU load.

Don’t know 😉 I saw it in the statistics of a live website (other server), where users from suspicious countries skyrocketed with artificial values like 0 seconds on site (according to Google, I’m not the only website owner observing this - surely having to do with AI, even though I try to block them).

Regarding the email server I haven’t installed or checked statistics so far (as there is nothing to see for users, and logins are protected with 2FA). But shortly after installation the login form was set to Chinese, which was a clear sign, that already shortly after installation first “users” (bots) from China were inspecting the email server 😉

esackbauer

You dont need to set the login page to chinese, to have chinese visitors 😉

Mulder

esackbauer

😃 I didn’t set it to Chinese, due to being in a hurry I simply didn’t explain good enough what had happened…

zx1100e1

What about the fact that by enabling cloudflare cache, you’ve effectively enabled cloudflare to decrypt, scan, analyze, index, teach ai models on and more on traffic it’s caching for your domain. The whole reason for self hosting is to reduce our digital foot print in someone else’s computer.

One could argue a vps is also in the cloud - someone else’s computer. Sure, but you have full control over the vps. Vps host operator could obtain decryption keys and other security details by pulling them from memory, even if storage itself is encrypted. There’s is that risk. I imagine any vps caught doing that would have a mob of angry customers.

It’s all about comfort levels. There’s things a vps/cloud is great for, but when it comes to any PII content, that’s better stored more locally.