This guide explains how to manually create a discussion list system with your Mail Service, thanks to Mailman and the Public Cloud of Infomaniak!

Preamble

• Mailman is a free application for managing mailing lists, discussion groups, and newsletters.
• The provided files allow for easy setup of Mailman.
• The server and its firewall are deployed with Terraform, an Infrastructure as Code (IaaC) tool, and its configuration is done with Ansible.
• This system allows you to create discussion lists for your various contacts (direction@, ecommerce@…).

Preparation…

… of your environment

• Having an Infomaniak Mail Service is essential to follow this tutorial.
• Download the files necessary for deploying Mailman on the Public Cloud via this GitHub repository.

... of the Mail Environment

1. Create an address mailman@domain.xyz (help) and keep the password safe (it will be used to configure the server).
2. Add the following aliases (help) :
   • postorius
   • mylist
   • mylist-bounces
   • mylist-confirm
   • mylist-join
   • mylist-leave
   • mylist-owner
   • mylist-request
   • mylist-subscribe
   • mylist-unsubscribe

Your mail environment is ready, let's proceed with the deployment of Mailman!

… of the Public Cloud

1. Create a Public Cloud project and a user (help).
   • Warning: the Public Cloud password must be secure. 2FA authentication on your Infomaniak account is strongly recommended.
2. Click here to access the OpenStack dashboard and use the identifier PCU-XXXXXX with the defined password.
3. Download your openrc file. It allows you to authenticate as an administrator via command line (it contains information such as the identifier, password and datacenter).

You are ready to connect to the OpenStack administration.

... of the instance

To make your future instance accessible via SSH, HTTP and HTTPS, create a security group with the following command:

openstack security group create --description "Ports 22 - 80 - 443 pour Mailman" mailman-sec

Then add the necessary rules:

openstack security group rule create --dst-port 80 --protocol TCP mailman-sec
openstack security group rule create --dst-port 443 --protocol TCP mailman-sec
openstack security group rule create --dst-port 22 --protocol TCP mailman-sec

These steps can also be performed from the Horizon dashboard, in the Network → Security Groups tab. Refer to the Cloud documentation for more information on this subject.

Deploy the instance that will host Mailman with the following command:

openstack server create --flavor a1-ram2-disk20-perf1 --security-group mailman-sec --network ext-net1 --key-name <votre-clé> --image "Debian 11.5 bullseye" mailman3

Once connected to the machine, update it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install the openstack client:

sudo apt install python3-openstackclient -y

Install Ansible to automatically deploy Mailman:

sudo apt install ansible -y

Mailman Deployment

To deploy Mailman, import your SSH key and the OpenRC file via SFTP to the installation machine.

Use tools like putty, termius or mobaxterm (or any SSH/SFTP client) with the following information:

• IP: IP address of the created machine
• Port: 22
• SSH key: .pem file
• User: debian

In this guide, Termius was used for the SFTP transfer.

Download the necessary files:

wget https://github.com/reneluria/mailman-cloud

Move the files next:

mv cle.pem mailman/
mv PCP-XXXX.sh mailman/

Access the folder:

cd mailman/

Protect the key by assigning the correct permissions:

sudo chmod 600 tf-keypair.pem

Create a file inventory to configure SMTP, the domain, etc. :

nano inventory

Fill in this template with your information:

mailman ansible_host=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[all:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
ansible_user=debian
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=id_tf_keypair
fqdn=mailman.<yourdomain>
mail_host=mail.infomaniak.com
mail_account=mailman@<yourdomain>
mail_password=<email_password>
mailman_user=mailman
mailman_password=<interface_password>
mailman_domain=<yourdomain>
mailman_email=<your_email>

Save with Ctrl + S, then exit with Ctrl + X.

Start the deployment:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml -D

Mailman is now accessible at your IP address: X.X.X.X/mailman3

Log in

Log in with the credentials defined in the inventory file for:

• Create a domain then a list « maliste »

In the list settings, it is recommended:

• DMARC Mitigations: Replace with the list's address »
• Modify messages: Reply to the list " and " Reply to the first strip »