Postfix is an open-source mail transfer agent (MTA) designed to route and deliver email. It was developed by Wietse Venema at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center and released in 1998. Postfix is known for its robustness, security, and performance, making it a popular choice for both small and large-scale email systems.

The architecture of Postfix is modular, consisting of various independent components that handle different aspects of mail processing. This design allows for greater reliability and maintainability, as individual components can operate independently without affecting the overall system’s functionality. The primary components include the master process, SMTP server and client, queue manager, local delivery agent, and various filters and content inspection tools.

Security is a critical aspect of Postfix. It employs multiple layers of defense to protect against unauthorized access and abuse. Features like access control lists (ACLs), TLS encryption, and support for various authentication mechanisms ensure secure email communication. Performance is another key strength of Postfix. It is optimized to handle large volumes of email efficiently, making it suitable for use in environments ranging from personal servers to large enterprises and ISPs.

Configuring Postfix is straightforward, thanks to its logical defaults and well-documented parameters. This ease of configuration, combined with its compatibility with Sendmail, facilitates smooth transitions from Sendmail to Postfix. The MTA’s reliability is further enhanced by its modular design, which isolates different functions into separate processes, preventing failures in one component from impacting the entire system.

Postfix’s extensibility allows for integration with third-party tools and services, such as spam filters and virus scanners, providing additional layers of email protection and management. Its vibrant community and extensive documentation offer robust support for users, ensuring that Postfix remains up-to-date with the latest security patches and features.

To subscribe to this product from Azure Marketplace and initiate an instance using the Azure compute service, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Azure Marketplace and subscribe to the desired product.
2. Search for “virtual machines” and select “Virtual machines” under Services.
3. Click on “Add” in the Virtual machines page, which will lead you to the Create a virtual machine page.
4. In the Basics tab:

• • Ensure the correct subscription is chosen under Project details.
  • Opt for creating a new resource group by selecting “Create new resource group” and name it as “myResourceGroup.”

5. Under Instance details:

• • Enter “myVM” as the Virtual machine name.
  • Choose “East US” as the Region.
  • Select “Ubuntu 18.04 LTS” as the Image.
  • Leave other settings as default.

6. For Administrator account:

• • Pick “SSH public key.”
  • Provide your user name and paste your public key, ensuring no leading or trailing white spaces.

7. Under Inbound port rules > Public inbound ports:

• • Choose “Allow selected ports.”
  • Select “SSH (22)” and “HTTP (80)” from the drop-down.

8. Keep the remaining settings at their defaults and click on “Review + create” at the bottom of the page.
9. The “Create a virtual machine” page will display the details of the VM you’re about to create. Once ready, click on “Create.”
10. The deployment process will take a few minutes. Once it’s finished, proceed to the next section.

To connect to the virtual machine:

1. Access the overview page of your VM and click on “Connect.”
2. On the “Connect to virtual machine” page:

• • Keep the default options for connecting via IP address over port 22.
  • A connection command for logging in will be displayed. Click the button to copy the command. Here’s an example of what the SSH connection command looks like:
    “`
    ssh [email protected]
    “`

3. Using the same bash shell that you used to generate your SSH key pair, you can either reopen the Cloud Shell by selecting >_ again

or going to https://shell.azure.com/bash.
4. Paste the SSH connection command into the shell to initiate an SSH session.

Usage/Deployment Instructions

Anarion Technologies – Postfix

Note: Search product on Azure marketplace and click on “Get it now”

Click on Continue

Click on Create

Creating a Virtual Machine, enter or select appropriate values for zone, machine type, resource group and so on as per your choice.

After Process of Create Virtual Machine. You have got an Option Go to Resource Group 

Click Go to Resource Group

Copy the Public IP Address

SSH into Terminal and Run these commands:

$ sudo su
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo systemctl restart postfix
$ sudo systemctl status postfix

For Postfix configuration wizard appears. If it does not show up automatically, run the following command to start it:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

Configure Postfix 

Once Postfix is installed, you need to configure it to use Gmail as a relay for all emails. Open the main Postfix configuration file by using the following command −

$ sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

Add the following lines to the end of the file –

relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous

Create a Gmail App Password

To use Gmail as a relay server, you need to create an App Password in Gmail configuration. This password is use to authenticate Gmail’s servers for relaing emails. To create an App Password, you
can follow these steps −

• Log in to your Gmail account.
• Go to your Google Account settings page.
• Click on “Search Bar & Search AppPassword”.
• Fill up App name column and Click on Create