Making Nethserver to be an Email server

Hi all,
Trying to get away from microsoft.
Installed Nethserver , made it as a domain controller from the GUI connection to the Server.
Machine is a laptop with one builtin and one USB Ethernet connection.
Red and green link established successfully.
RSAT from Microsoft let me have the access to Admin tools for Domain.
Now i am looking for a tutorial to make my Nethserver a local email server too.
From software centre i installed Email and SOGo as per a How to make an Email server. but that email is very sketchy and assumes the at i am very much familiar with the Nethserver OS( which i am actually not)
i have seen OX exchange software too but couldn’t figure it out that how shall i install it onto my Nethserver as it is asking for a console or terminal window to be opened.
i am tuned to work onto server through Remote Desktop Connection as well, which is not working with with my current environment. ( How can i enable remote desktop connection in Nethserver).
I haven’t purchsed a domain name yet , so my domain is having a local name only.

Please advise

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Hi @wdar
I completely feel with you. Coming from MS Windows it is a shock not to have a graphical desktop environment available. There just isn’t any! So connecting through a remote desktop connection (Typically a VNC connection when it comes down to Linux based computers) you would end up with a nice black terminal screen.
This might be a shock for you but honestly, you don’t need a graphical environment when you have the combination of the webinterface of the NethServer servermanager plus a terminal/SSH interface. Yes you will have to get used to commandline use. But once you get the hang of it, you will find it is such a powerful tool, you don’t want to go back to a graphical environment!
Do start reading… a LOT! Do install NethServer as a virtual machine, for instance in Virtualbox, and start using that terminal Try commands and see what they do. (deliberately) Make mistakes and try to fix them.

Now getting to your internal mailserver. Setting up a mailserver in NethServer is like 3 clicks of work. There are quite some howto’s available in these forums. Try the search function. You can also start with this topic: NethServer for dummies: Email server

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask and enjoy your journey ‘from Windows to Linux’.

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Hi Robb,
Thanks for your support.
i am willing to spend time in learning the command line, but right now i am looking for some detailed tutorial (could be a video ) which would let me make an exchage server , a print server, windows deployment server and an NFS server. I could do this perfectly in windows environment but there i would have to use trial version of softwares as i am doing all this at my own. no one is sponsoring my learning and you see with full time working with a family of 6 people to feed i can’t spend too much time for my learning. :sob::sob::sob:
and most of the “how to do tutorials” i am getting in our forum , assume that i am a learned Linux user. which i am definitely not . May be someday …
Till then i have to look towards seniors who could advise me in the right direction.
Thanks

Waves @wdar… Welcome in the best linux distro home

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Really, the answer to “how do I set up Nethserver as an email server” is “Install the email server package in the server manager.” The rest of what you need to do (or at least should do) has primarily to do with your DNS host, and is described here:
https://wiki.nethserver.org/doku.php?id=email_protection_resources

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@wdar

Hi

I’m doing networking for customers, most are small and medium enterprises (SME).
Most don’t have the time or inhouse knowhow to do this, that’s why the need help from people like me.
A lot of my customers came from Microsofts SBS, some never used Microsoft on their servers.

I use NethServer to cover this. I also use Proxmox virtualization as a base, and also to give me live backups and such.

Basically you’d need NethServer with a few plug-ins, and it will do what you need. Sure, it won’t be called Exchange or Microsoft SQL-Server, but basically the same functionality.

I can help if you need a few tips…

my 2 cents
Andy

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And that is exactly what it is all about: Look at functionality and you will find that NethServer, or any decent piece of opensource software, will exactly deliver that functionality you will need.

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Thanks Andy.
I am looking for tips, and guidance by seniors and spending time on actual machine is no problem for me as i have made myself 3 laptops available to me for solely this purpose. (redundant and cheap laptops, about 8 yrs old but good enough to run Windows 10 even.
I had done my microsoft domain and SCCM exercises on the same hardware, successfully. I am not doing it for my business as i am a taxi driver by my profession and do all these activities to learn in a hope to land in my dream job as an IT Support desk engineer.
Any help and guidance in this regard will be welcomed.

@danb35 , I have enabled the email feature on my NS7 domain controller through GUI administration.
At present, i am not doing the exercise with live domain but a fictious, local domain called w.loc.
Just wanted to see the mails going from one client pc to another client pc in first instance.
i have seen the link you forwarded for Email methods. Will try and see whether it works for my local domain or not.

@robb Thanks for your support m8.

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@wdar

Hi

I’d suggest using virtualization for learning / testing. You can still set up a nativ installed NethServer on any hardware, but for learning or testing, virtualization is the best!
-> Note: It basically doesn’t matter WHAT Virtualization you use. Be it VMWare, Virtualbox or Parallels or even HyperV - they all work and serve the purpose!

The only thing with Virtualization is you have to set the interface to promicsous mode - this is needed specifically by the NethServer included AD, a virtual machine inside of Nethserver (actually a Linux Container).

I’d suggest using the following IPs:
(Note that these are examples, they can be changed…)

Gateway / Router to the Internet: 192.168.100.1
NethServer: 192.168.100.20
AD: 192.168.100.11

(I always use 20 for the main Linux Server, and 11 for the AD, wether it is Windows or Linux)
DHCP Scope for Clients: 192.168.100.201-192.168.100.254

WINS Server is 192.168.100.11 (Your AD!)

-> Now install your Server and wait till it’s finished and reboots. After that, you’ll basically only need your browser!

Finish the Wizard…

Log in to your NethServer with https://192.168.100.20:980

Do any updates (Software Center)

Add in an Account Provider using AD, use the IP Adress as noted above.
your AD will take the name / form of:
ad.domain.tld

Add any groups needed, like this one (used to provide RDP permissions for uswers who need it) remotedesktopusers@domain.tld
(Groups can also be added later on)

Install also File Sharing (Under Software) but without Samba Audit!

Depending on your Hardware, that would take around 1-2 hours at most!

You now have a Linux based AD which can handle several more duties, like Mail, Nextcloud Synching, Proxy… There’s a long list available of what NethServer CAN do. Not everyone needs all features everywhere.

I’ll provide more Tips if wanted and needed!
Just drop a line here where you are, what you’re thinking about or where you’re stuck at!
Your mileage may vary!
:slight_smile:

My 2 cents
Andy

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Will make the setup as advised and will seek further guidance, if stuck.
Till that times. Thanks Andy

Actually SoGo is a really decent replacement for OWA and Active Sync. It’s a set and forget routine. I currently have customers that have converted from SBS to Nethserver and no problems. All you do is create your users in Nethserver and they then have an account in SoGo. In regards to remote desktop, do you mean for the clients? To access like a Terminal Server? If so that’s not really possible, everything is done from the web so you would manage it from that, I have used a PC in the office for one user to connect from home and you can either port forward port 3389 or even better setup the Nethserver as a VPN server. Think of Nethserver as the Small Business server that doesn’t need babysitting, set it up and that’s it

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Finally, i have done the email bit (local network and on hotmail) using Thunderbird Email app. Infact we didn’t have much to do on Nethserver apart from installing “Email, RoundCubeWebMail, Sogo Groupware and Webserver addons” from software centre.
Rest was a bit of configuration in Thunderbird Email client software, which took a bit long for me to find out, but at last i have found it now.
I shall be making a Video Tutorial for this soon, once i am settled with rest of the desired features, i am looking for.
so i class this post as awnsered now and thank all of your for your guidance.
Regards,

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