How to Set Up an iRedMail Mail Server on Ubuntu EC2 with Multiple Domain Management

In today’s world, managing a dedicated mail server for your domain or business is essential for security, privacy, and control over your communications. iRedMail is an open-source mail server solution that simplifies the setup and management of a full-featured email server, including support for multiple domains.

This guide walks you through the entire process—from launching an EC2 instance on AWS, setting up iRedMail on Ubuntu, configuring DNS records, and managing multiple domains and email accounts.

Prerequisites

An Ubuntu EC2 instance (preferably Ubuntu 20.04 or later)
Elastic IP for your EC2 instance
A domain name (e.g., example.com)

Step 1: Prepare Your EC2 Instance

Launch an Ubuntu EC2 Instance
In the AWS EC2 dashboard, launch a new instance using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Ensure that the security group allows the following ports:

25 (SMTP)
587 (SMTP Submission)
993 (IMAP)
443 (HTTPS)

Update Your Server
After SSHing into your EC2 instance, update it with:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Set the Hostname
Set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN):

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname mail.example.com

Step 2: Install iRedMail

Download the iRedMail Installer
Navigate to /tmp and download the iRedMail installer:

cd /tmp wget https://github.com/iredmail/iRedMail/archive/refs/tags/1.7.1.tar.gz -O iRedMail.tar.gz

Extract and Run the Installer
Extract the installer and run it:

tar xvf iRedMail.tar.gz cd iRedMail-1.7.1/ sudo bash iRedMail.sh

Follow Installation Prompts
The installer will prompt you to:

Select the mail directory (/var/vmail by default)
Choose Nginx or Apache as the web server (Nginx is recommended)
Set up MySQL/MariaDB as the database backend
Provide your domain name (e.g., example.com)
Set up an admin email (e.g., postmaster@example.com)

After the installation, reboot your system:

sudo reboot

Step 3: Access the iRedAdmin Panel

Log in to the Admin Panel
Once the system reboots, access iRedAdmin at:

https://mail.example.com/iredadmin

Log in with the admin email (e.g., postmaster@example.com).
Add a New Domain
In the iRedAdmin panel, navigate to Domains and Accounts → Add Domain. Enter your new domain name (e.g., newdomain.com) and set up email accounts.

Step 4: Configure DNS Settings

To ensure email delivery, configure the DNS records for your domain.

MX Record

Type: MX
Host: @
Priority: 10
Mail Server: mail.example.com

A Record

Type: A
Host: mail
Value: <Your Elastic IP>

SPF Record

Type: TXT
Host: @
Value: v=spf1 mx -all

Step 5: Add a New Domain to iRedMail

Log in to iRedAdmin

Access https://mail.example.com/iredadmin and log in with admin credentials.

Add the New Domain
Navigate to Domains and Accounts → Add Domain, and enter the new domain (e.g., newdomain.com).
Configure DNS for the New Domain

MX Record: Add a new MX record for the new domain, pointing to mail.example.com.
SPF Record: Set v=spf1 mx -all for the new domain.

Step 6: Secure the Server with Let's Encrypt SSL

Install Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot

Obtain an SSL Certificate:

sudo certbot certonly --nginx -d mail.example.com

Configure Nginx to use the SSL certificate and restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx