Best Practice RE Mail Server

RT Users
1

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a
google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward
4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.

For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

  • OPTION A: Re-addressed
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT
    server and forwarded
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is readdressed before going out to the world
    Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
  • OPTION B: Redirect
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT
    server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is redirected to the rest of the world
    Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain,
    but still
  • OPTION C: Direct
    Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
    Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with

What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among
RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

2

Hi,

My suggestion:

  • incoming email to sendmail and aliased by it to something like
    rt_queue_name@rt_server.domain.com (where rt_server.domain.com resolves
    to RT server’s internal net IP).

  • outgoing email sent directly by RT server (don’t forget to set
    $SMTPFrom correctly)

This way, there will be only one server to manage (though you will need
to setup mailgate on RT server once).Em 25-10-2011 16:59, Wes Modes escreveu:

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a
google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward
4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.

For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

  • OPTION A: Re-addressed
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT
    server and forwarded
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is readdressed before going out to the world
    Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
  • OPTION B: Redirect
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT
    server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is redirected to the rest of the world
    Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain,
    but still
  • OPTION C: Direct
    Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
    Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with

What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among
RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA � October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain � November 28 & 29, 2011
3

Thanks for the suggestion.

With this however, doesn’t sendmail have to be running on the Rt Server
anyway to process all the incoming mail and execute RT scripts?

For simplicities sake, I’m leaning more and more toward all mail coming
into and going out from the RT server. What are the disadvantages to
this approach?

WesOn 10/25/2011 1:24 PM, Francisco Jen Ou wrote:

Hi,

My suggestion:

  • incoming email to sendmail and aliased by it to something like
    rt_queue_name@rt_server.domain.com (where rt_server.domain.com resolves
    to RT server’s internal net IP).

  • outgoing email sent directly by RT server (don’t forget to set
    $SMTPFrom correctly)

This way, there will be only one server to manage (though you will need
to setup mailgate on RT server once).

Em 25-10-2011 16:59, Wes Modes escreveu:

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a
google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward
4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.

For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

  • OPTION A: Re-addressed
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT
    server and forwarded
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is readdressed before going out to the world
    Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
  • OPTION B: Redirect
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT
    server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is redirected to the rest of the world
    Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain,
    but still
  • OPTION C: Direct
    Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
    Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with

What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among
RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA � October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain � November 28 & 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28 & 29, 2011
4

Yes, RT server needs its local SMTP (Postfix, Sendmail, Qmail).

If your existing Sendmail is used for no other purposes (like normal
user email), then you can just install and configure SMTP on RT server,
and configure NAT on your firewall so RT server SMTP is visible to world.Em 25-10-2011 20:40, Wes Modes escreveu:

Thanks for the suggestion.

With this however, doesn’t sendmail have to be running on the Rt Server
anyway to process all the incoming mail and execute RT scripts?

For simplicities sake, I’m leaning more and more toward all mail coming
into and going out from the RT server. What are the disadvantages to
this approach?

Wes

On 10/25/2011 1:24 PM, Francisco Jen Ou wrote:

Hi,

My suggestion:

  • incoming email to sendmail and aliased by it to something like
    rt_queue_name@rt_server.domain.com (where rt_server.domain.com resolves
    to RT server’s internal net IP).

  • outgoing email sent directly by RT server (don’t forget to set
    $SMTPFrom correctly)

This way, there will be only one server to manage (though you will need
to setup mailgate on RT server once).

Em 25-10-2011 16:59, Wes Modes escreveu:

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a
google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward
4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.

For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

  • OPTION A: Re-addressed
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT
    server and forwarded
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is readdressed before going out to the world
    Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
  • OPTION B: Redirect
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT
    server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is redirected to the rest of the world
    Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain,
    but still
  • OPTION C: Direct
    Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
    Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with

What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among
RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA � October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain � November 28 & 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28 & 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28 & 29, 2011
5

Wes,

I would let your current outside accessible mail server stay that way and do the configuration to move mail from your sendmail to RT and from RT to sendmail. There are a lot of reasons:

  1. Simplifies the management of your firewall rules and forensic analysis of something happens.

  2. Simplifies your patch management on Internet accessible mail servers.

  3. If you stop managing the mail environment it is still very easy to manage. I.e. you won’t have the new mail administrator messing with your RY server.

  4. It’s relatively easy and it is documented how to setup a mailgate alias on your sendmail server for getting emails into RT. so you are only really worrying about outbound mail using a local sendmail on your RT server.

Honestly the list goes on. After using RT for a very long time and sendmail for a good 10 years and managing security for many enterprises, it’s the only way I would go.

MikeOn Oct 25, 2011, at 2:59 PM, Wes Modes wmodes@ucsc.edu wrote:

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward 4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.
For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

OPTION A: Re-addressed
Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT server and forwarded
Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and is readdressed before going out to the world
Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
OPTION B: Redirect
Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT server
Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and is redirected to the rest of the world
Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain, but still
OPTION C: Direct
Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with
What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA � October 31 & November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain � November 28 & 29, 2011
6

I ended up sticking with our tickets going to our main mail server, and
having fetchmail grab them, deliver them to the local machine, and then
setup sendmail to masquerade the outgoing. That way its not visible to
the outside world, I dont have to manage another server, and if
something happens to the mail server, I dont have to worry about my RT
server.On 10/25/2011 3:47 PM, Francisco Jen Ou wrote:

Yes, RT server needs its local SMTP (Postfix, Sendmail, Qmail).

If your existing Sendmail is used for no other purposes (like normal
user email), then you can just install and configure SMTP on RT server,
and configure NAT on your firewall so RT server SMTP is visible to world.

Em 25-10-2011 20:40, Wes Modes escreveu:

Thanks for the suggestion.

With this however, doesn’t sendmail have to be running on the Rt Server
anyway to process all the incoming mail and execute RT scripts?

For simplicities sake, I’m leaning more and more toward all mail coming
into and going out from the RT server. What are the disadvantages to
this approach?

Wes

On 10/25/2011 1:24 PM, Francisco Jen Ou wrote:

Hi,

My suggestion:

  • incoming email to sendmail and aliased by it to something like
    rt_queue_name@rt_server.domain.com (where rt_server.domain.com resolves
    to RT server’s internal net IP).

  • outgoing email sent directly by RT server (don’t forget to set
    $SMTPFrom correctly)

This way, there will be only one server to manage (though you will need
to setup mailgate on RT server once).

Em 25-10-2011 16:59, Wes Modes escreveu:

I’m pretty sure this has been hashed and rehashed on this list, but a
google search this morning turned up nothing definitive, so I will ask:

I am reconfiguring a twisted RT installation (3.6, but moving toward
4.0). We already have a mail server (sendmail) running on another server.

For incoming and outgoing email I thought of three differrent options:

  • OPTION A: Re-addressed
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is readdressed to RT
    server and forwarded
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is readdressed before going out to the world
    Pro: one mail server to admin; Con: pain to set up,
  • OPTION B: Redirect
    Incoming mail comes into the mail server and is redirected to the RT
    server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes to the mail server and
    is redirected to the rest of the world
    Pro: one mail server, simpler to set up; Con: less of a setup pain,
    but still
  • OPTION C: Direct
    Incoming mail goes straight to the RT server
    Outgoing mail coming from the RT server goes out to the world directly
    Pro: Simple to set up; Con: two mail servers to deal with

What is the best practice (or failing that, Most Common Practice) among
RT administrators?

Wes Modes
University of California,
Santa Cruz

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA � October 31& November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain � November 28& 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31& November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28& 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31& November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28& 29, 2011

RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)

  • Washington DC, USA October 31& November 1, 2011
  • Barcelona, Spain November 28& 29, 2011