postfix Cookbook

Installs and configures postfix for client or outbound relayhost, or to do SASL authentication.

On RHEL-family systems, sendmail will be replaced with postfix.

Maintainers

This cookbook is maintained by the Sous Chefs. The Sous Chefs are a community of Chef cookbook maintainers working together to maintain important cookbooks. If you’d like to know more please visit sous-chefs.org or come chat with us on the Chef Community Slack in #sous-chefs.

Requirements

Platforms

• Ubuntu
• Debian
• RHEL/CentOS/Scientific
• Amazon Linux (as of AMIs created after 4/9/2012)
• FreeBSD

May work on other platforms with or without modification.

Chef

• Chef 12.1+

Cookbooks

• none

Attributes

See attributes/default.rb for default values.

Generic cookbook attributes

• node['postfix']['mail_type'] - Sets the kind of mail configuration. master will set up a server (relayhost).
• node['postfix']['relayhost_role'] - name of a role used for search in the client recipe.
• node['postfix']['relayhost_port'] - listening network port of the relayhost.
• node['postfix']['multi_environment_relay'] - set to true if nodes should not constrain search for the relayhost in their own environment.
• node['postfix']['use_procmail'] - set to true if nodes should use procmail as the delivery agent.
• node['postfix']['use_alias_maps'] - set to true if you want the cookbook to use/configure alias maps
• node['postfix']['use_transport_maps'] - set to true if you want the cookbook to use/configure transport maps
• node['postfix']['use_access_maps'] - set to true if you want the cookbook to use/configure access maps
• node['postfix']['use_virtual_aliases'] - set to true if you want the cookbook to use/configure virtual alias maps
• node['postfix']['use_relay_restrictions_maps'] - set to true if you want the cookbook to use/configure a list of domains to which postfix will allow relay
• node['postfix']['aliases'] - hash of aliases to create with recipe[postfix::aliases], see below under Recipes for more information.
• node['postfix']['transports'] - hash of transports to create with recipe[postfix::transports], see below under Recipes for more information.
• node['postfix']['access'] - hash of access to create with recipe[postfix::access], see below under Recipes for more information.
• node['postfix']['virtual_aliases'] - hash of virtual_aliases to create with recipe[postfix::virtual_aliases], see below under Recipes for more information.
• node['postfix']['main_template_source'] - Cookbook source for main.cf template. Default 'postfix'
• node['postfix']['master_template_source'] - Cookbook source for master.cf template. Default 'postfix'

main.cf and sasl_passwd template attributes

The main.cf template has been simplified to include any attributes in the node['postfix']['main'] data structure. The following attributes are still included with this cookbook to maintain some semblance of backwards compatibility.

This change in namespace to node['postfix']['main'] should allow for greater flexibility, given the large number of configuration variables for the postfix daemon. All of these cookbook attributes correspond to the option of the same name in /etc/postfix/main.cf.

• node['postfix']['main']['biff'] - (yes/no); default no
• node['postfix']['main']['append_dot_mydomain'] - (yes/no); default no
• node['postfix']['main']['myhostname'] - defaults to fqdn from Ohai
• node['postfix']['main']['mydomain'] - defaults to domain from Ohai
• node['postfix']['main']['myorigin'] - defaults to $myhostname
• node['postfix']['main']['mynetworks'] - default is nil, which forces Postfix to default to loopback addresses.
• node['postfix']['main']['inet_interfaces'] - set to loopback-only, or all for server recipe
• node['postfix']['main']['alias_maps'] - set to hash:/etc/aliases
• node['postfix']['main']['mailbox_size_limit'] - set to 0 (disabled)
• node['postfix']['main']['mydestination'] - default fqdn, hostname, localhost.localdomain, localhost
• node['postfix']['main']['smtpd_use_tls'] - (yes/no); default yes. See conditional cert/key attributes.
• node['postfix']['main']['smtpd_tls_cert_file'] - conditional attribute, set to full path of server's x509 certificate.
• node['postfix']['main']['smtpd_tls_key_file'] - conditional attribute, set to full path of server's private key
• node['postfix']['main']['smtpd_tls_CAfile'] - set to platform specific CA bundle
• node['postfix']['main']['smtpd_tls_session_cache_database'] - set to btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_use_tls'] - (yes/no); default yes. See following conditional attributes.
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_tls_CAfile'] - set to platform specific CA bundle
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_tls_session_cache_database'] - set to btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_sasl_auth_enable'] - (yes/no); default no. If enabled, see following conditional attributes.
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_sasl_password_maps'] - Set to hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd template file
• node['postfix']['main']['smtp_sasl_security_options'] - Set to noanonymous
• node['postfix']['main']['relayhost'] - Set to empty string
• node['postfix']['sender_canonical_map_entries'] - (hash with key value pairs); default not configured. Setup generic canonical maps. See man 5 canonical. If has at least one value, then will be enabled in config.
• node['postfix']['smtp_generic_map_entries'] - (hash with key value pairs); default not configured. Setup generic postfix maps. See man 5 generic. If has at least one value, then will be enabled in config.
• node['postfix']['recipient_canonical_map_entries'] - (hash with key value pairs); default not configured. Setup generic canonical maps. See man 5 canonical. If has at least one value, then will be enabled in config.
• node['postfix']['sasl']['smtp_sasl_user_name'] - SASL user to authenticate as. Default empty. You can only use this until the current version. The new syntax is below.
• node['postfix']['sasl']['smtp_sasl_passwd'] - SASL password to use. Default empty. You can only use this until the current version. The new syntax is below.
• node['postfix']['sasl'] = json { "relayhost1" => { 'username' => 'foo', 'password' => 'bar' }, "relayhost2" => { ... } } - You must set the following attribute, otherwise the attribute will default to empty

Example of json role config, for setup *_map_entries:

postfix : {

...

"smtp_generic_map_entries" : { "[email protected]" : "[email protected]", "[email protected]" : "[email protected]" }

}

master.cf template attributes

The master.cf template has been changed to allow full customization of the file content. For purpose of backwards compatibility default attributes generate the same master.cf. But via node['postfix']['master'] data structure in your role for instance it can be completelly rewritten.

Examples of json role config, for customize master.cf:

postfix : {

...

turn some services off or on:

  "master" : {
    "smtps": {
      "active": true
    },
    "old-cyrus": {
      "active": false
    },
    "cyrus": {
      "active": false
    },
    "uucp": {
      "active": false
    },
    "ifmail": {
      "active": false
    },

... define you own service:

    "spamfilter": {
      "comment": "My own spamfilter",
      "active": true,
      "order": 590,
      "type": "unix",
      "unpriv": false,
      "chroot": false,
      "command": "pipe",
      "args": ["flags=Rq user=spamd argv=/usr/bin/spamfilter.sh -oi -f ${sender} ${recipient}"]
    }

...

} }

The possible service hash fields and their meanings: hash key - have to be unique, unless you wish to override default definition.

Field	Mandatory	Description
active	Yes	Boolean. Defines whether or not the service needs to be in master.cf
comment	No	String. If you would like to add a comment line before service line
order	Yes	Integer. Number to define the order of lines in the file
type	Yes	String. Type of the service (inet, unix, fifo)
private	No	Boolean. If present replaced by y or n, otherwise by -
unpriv	No	Boolean. If present replaced by y or n, otherwise by -
chroot	No	Boolean. If present replaced by y or n, otherwise by -
wakeup	No	String. If present value placed in file, otherwise replaced by -
maxproc	No	String. If present value placed in file, otherwise replaced by -
command	Yes	String. The command to be executed.
args	Yes	Array of Strings. Arguments passed to command.

For more information about meaning of the fields consult master (5) manual: http://www.postfix.org/master.5.html

Recipes

default

Installs the postfix package and manages the service and the main configuration files (/etc/postfix/main.cf and /etc/postfix/master.cf). See Usage and Examples to see how to affect behavior of this recipe through configuration. Depending on the node['postfix']['use_alias_maps'], node['postfix']['use_transport_maps'], node['postfix']['use_access_maps'] and node['postfix']['use_virtual_aliases'] attributes the default recipe can call additional recipes to manage additional postfix configuration files

For a more dynamic approach to discovery for the relayhost, see the client and server recipes below.

client

Use this recipe to have nodes automatically search for the mail relay based which node has the node['postfix']['relayhost_role'] role. Sets the node['postfix']['main']['relayhost'] attribute to the first result from the search.

Includes the default recipe to install, configure and start postfix.

Does not work with chef-solo.

sasl_auth

Sets up the system to authenticate with a remote mail relay using SASL authentication.

server

To use Chef Server search to automatically detect a node that is the relayhost, use this recipe in a role that will be relayhost. By default, the role should be "relayhost" but you can change the attribute node['postfix']['relayhost_role'] to modify this.

Note This recipe will set the node['postfix']['mail_type'] to "master" with an override attribute.

maps

General recipe to manage any number of any type postfix lookup tables. You can replace with it recipes like transport or virtual_aliases, but what is more important - you can create any kinds of maps, which has no own recipe, including database lookup maps configuration. maps is a hash keys of which is a lookup table type and value is another hash with filenames as the keys and hash with file content as the value. File content is an any number of key/value pairs which meaning depends on lookup table type. Examlle:

  "override_attributes": {
    "postfix": {
      "maps": {
        "hash": {
          "/etc/postfix/vmailbox": {
            "[email protected]": "ok",
            "[email protected]": "ok",
          },
          "/etc/postfix/virtual": {
            "[email protected]": "[email protected]",
            "[email protected]": "[email protected]",
            "[email protected]": "[email protected]"
          },
          "/etc/postfix/envelope_senders": {
            "@example.com": "[email protected]",
            "@example.net": "[email protected]"
          },
          "/etc/postfix/relay_recipients": {
            "[email protected]": "ok",
            "[email protected]": "ok",
            "[email protected]": "ok",
          }
       },
       "pgsql": {
          "/etc/postfix/pgtest": {
            "hosts": "db.local:2345",
            "user": "postfix",
            "password": "test",
            "dbname": "postdb",
            "query": "SELECT replacement FROM aliases WHERE mailbox = '%s'"
          }
        }
     }
  }

To use these files in your configuration reference them in node['postfix']['main'], for instance:

    "postfix": {
      "main": {
        "smtpd_sender_login_maps": "hash:/etc/postfix/envelope_senders",
        "relay_recipient_maps": "hash:/etc/postfix/relay_recipients",
        "virtual_mailbox_maps": "hash:/etc/postfix/vmailbox",
        "virtual_alias_maps": "hash:/etc/postfix/virtual",
      }
    }

aliases

Manage /etc/aliases with this recipe. Currently only Ubuntu 10.04 platform has a template for the aliases file. Add your aliases template to the templates/default or to the appropriate platform+version directory per the File Specificity rules for templates. Then specify a hash of aliases for the node['postfix']['aliases'] attribute.

Arrays are supported as alias values, since postfix supports comma separated values per alias, simply specify your alias as an array to use this handy feature.

aliases

Manage /etc/aliases with this recipe.

transports

Manage /etc/postfix/transport with this recipe.

access

Manage /etc/postfix/access with this recipe.

virtual_aliases

Manage /etc/postfix/virtual with this recipe.

relay_restrictions

Manage /etc/postfix/relay_restriction with this recipe The postfix option smtpd_relay_restrictions in main.cf will point to this hash map db.

http://wiki.chef.io/display/chef/Templates#Templates-TemplateLocationSpecificity

Usage

On systems that should simply send mail directly to a relay, or out to the internet, use recipe[postfix] and modify the node['postfix']['main']['relayhost'] attribute via a role.

On systems that should be the MX for a domain, set the attributes accordingly and make sure the node['postfix']['mail_type'] attribute is master. See Examples for information on how to use recipe[postfix::server] to do this automatically.

If you need to use SASL authentication to send mail through your ISP (such as on a home network), use postfix::sasl_auth and set the appropriate attributes.

For each of these implementations, see Examples for role usage.

Examples

The example roles below only have the relevant postfix usage. You may have other contents depending on what you're configuring on your systems.

The base role is applied to all nodes in the environment.

name "base"
run_list("recipe[postfix]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "mail_type" => "client",
    "main" => {
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com",
      "relayhost" => "[smtp.example.com]",
      "smtp_use_tls" => "no"
    }
  }
)

The relayhost role is applied to the nodes that are relayhosts. Often this is 2 systems using a CNAME of smtp.example.com.

name "relayhost"
run_list("recipe[postfix::server]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "mail_type" => "master",
    "main" => {
      "mynetworks" => [ "10.3.3.0/24", "127.0.0.0/8" ],
      "inet_interfaces" => "all",
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com"
  }
)

The sasl_relayhost role is applied to the nodes that are relayhosts and require authenticating with SASL. For example this might be on a household network with an ISP that otherwise blocks direct internet access to SMTP.

name "sasl_relayhost"
run_list("recipe[postfix], recipe[postfix::sasl_auth]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "mail_type" => "master",
    "main" => {
      "mynetworks" => "10.3.3.0/24",
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com",
      "relayhost" => "[smtp.comcast.net]:587",
      "smtp_sasl_auth_enable" => "yes"
    },
    "sasl" => {
      "relayhost1" => {
        "username" => "your_password",
        "password" => "your_username"
      },
      "relayhost2" => {
        ...
      },
      ...
    }
  }
)

For an example of using encrypted data bags to encrypt the SASL password, see the following blog post:

• http://jtimberman.github.com/blog/2011/08/06/encrypted-data-bag-for-postfix-sasl-authentication/

Examples using the client & server recipes

If you'd like to use the more dynamic search based approach for discovery, use the server and client recipes. First, create a relayhost role.

name "relayhost"
run_list("recipe[postfix::server]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "main" => {
      "mynetworks" => "10.3.3.0/24",
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com"
    }
  }
)

Then, add the postfix::client recipe to the run list of your base role or equivalent role for postfix clients.

name "base"
run_list("recipe[postfix::client]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "mail_type" => "client",
    "main" => {
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com"
    }
  }
)

If you wish to use a different role name for the relayhost, then also set the attribute in the base role. For example, postfix_master as the role name:

name "postfix_master"
description "a role for postfix master that isn't relayhost"
run_list("recipe[postfix::server]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "main" => {
      "mynetworks" => "10.3.3.0/24",
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com"
    }
  }
)

The base role would look something like this:

name "base"
run_list("recipe[postfix::client]")
override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "relayhost_role" => "postfix_master",
    "mail_type" => "client",
    "main" => {
      "mydomain" => "example.com",
      "myorigin" => "example.com"
    }
  }
)

To use relay restrictions override the relay restrictions attribute in this format:

override_attributes(
  "postfix" => {
    "use_relay_restrictions_maps" => true,
    "relay_restrictions" => {
      "chef.io" => "OK",
      ".chef.io" => "OK",
      "example.com" => "OK"
    }
  }
)

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