# Which IMAP server to use???

## cryos

Hi,

I am currently in the dilemma of choosing an IMAP server to use. I require the use of secure IMAP, access to maildirs would be nice and some kind of filtering. I am currently using BincIMAP primarily, and Courier-IMAP as a backup - although not very keen on Courier-IMAP. 

I was thinking of trying Cyrus IMAP, mainly being tempted by the user virtualisation (although do that myself with Binc and postfix) and the Sieve extensions. What do other people think? How does Cyrus store mail?

Also can Cyrus allow the creation of root level folders? Courier can only create sub folders of inbox, and I don't want that. I want subfolder support, and root level IMAP folder support. I think the main draw is the easily user modified Sieve rules (using procmail at present - need shell access to modify their procmail rules...)

Any help and opinions would be very much appreciated.

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## Janne Pikkarainen

Cyrus is nice for large-scale server needs, but can easily be overkill if you have just handful of accounts and not that much of traffic at the server. Cyrus is very versatile but also a very complex system, so also the issues you meet with it during the installation and daily maintenance are much more complex than with more traditional servers.

Cyrus stores mail in its own format, which is like a mixture of maildir and databaseish files - overall mailbox and message status information is stored in Berkeley DB format, but the messages themselves are spread around in maildir style.

When it comes to folder naming schema and that kind of things: yes, Cyrus does allow you to modify those settings. But then again, I cannot stress this enough - learning-curve to Cyrus can be very steep and I recommend you to get a decent book if you have no previous Cyrus experience. Helps you to get over the most obvious bumps.

So Courier could be a nice choice for small to medium size servers, but if you have lots of accounts and very heavy traffic, take the Cyrus ride.

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## georwell

I agree with everything Janne said.  Cyrus is awesome.  Use that.  The learning curve might be a bit steep but everything you need is in the cyrus mailing list archives.

SIEVE rocks and combined with spamassassin makes it really really easy to filter mail on an imap server.  I know KMAIL will have built in support for sieve soon and other email clients will quickly follow.

So I guess I could say Cyrus.

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## toskala

from my own experience i should say: i dont like cyrus. it is nice for large scaled environments but it totally sucked when i was trying to upgrade from one version to the other.

the maildb for the users was totally fragged, after converting it to another server and another cyrus version, so at all it was a perfect mess.

currently i use courier and i'm quiet happy with it.

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## georwell

 *Quote:*   

>  but it totally sucked when i was trying to upgrade from one version to the other. 

 

Strange...did you compile it yourself?  Did you not remember which format your maildb was?  Running a proper mail server involves learning how it works.  I have upgraded cyrus numerous times and as long as I used the same configure options I didn't have any problems at all.  (No major version changes. just 2.1.*)  

./configure -blah -blah 

make

/etc/init.d/cyrus stop

make install

/etc/init.d/cyrus start

Done!

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## toskala

yes i did, the main problem back then was, that when i got the maildb compiled i lost all timestamp s of the mails and every mail had the same age  :Smile: 

i guess cyrus works great if the person who sets it up knows what to do, but the main problem was there, that some guy installed the thing who didnt really know what to do.

okay, a bit unfair to blame cyrus even if its just a personal experience i made  :Smile: 

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## UberLord

Th problem with BincIMAP is that Gentoo requires loads of stuff like daemontools and ucspi-tcp which I really don't like.

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## cryos

I wrestled with Cyrus IMAP for a few days. Tried to find adequate documentation on it, even got a few folders working but not really working... I might try to revisit it some day, but for right now I didn't like it and couldn't find any decent howto get Cyrus IMAP set up and administer your users.

I have decided to stick with BincIMAP for now. I use it with xinetd which I use for a few other things anyway. It works well and the latest version (1.2.6) seems better than ever. I would like shared folder support (planned for 1.3/1.4 versions of BincIMAP), but it isn't a necessity and I like being able to create folders in the root of IMAP rather than as subfolders of Inbox in Courier and Cyrus as far as I could get it.

If anyone knows of any good guides to setting up and administering Cyrus IMAP I would be interested. I would certainly set it up on my test server at home and see what it could do. It was just so hard getting anywhere - may be you have to buy a book to get the best from Cyrus as the online docs seem lacking...

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## axxackall

How is Cyrus good with shared IMAP folders? Yes, I know, Courier can do it too - and actually I use shared folders in courier.

But the main problem arises when we try to migrate from MS Exchange: mail folders are moved to Courier IMAP with no problems, but for Calendars we are still looking for some substitute. 

Can Cyrus help with that?

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## xming

try http://www.dbmail.org

xming

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## axxackall

 *xming wrote:*   

> try http://www.dbmail.org

 

While it looks promising (due to data-structure sensitive caching I think searching and manipulating in database will be always faster than in the filesystem directly), I havn't find yet if it already support shared calendars of any kind. Did I miss something?

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## georwell

Cyrus uses ACLs to give access to shared folders.  I have never worked with calendars and cyrus but I know that the Kolab server uses Cyrus for this very purpose.  

If you are trying to replace exchange you should look at Kolab.  I haven't used it yet but it is supposed to be an exchange replacement.  I would like to try but just haven't had an exchange system to replace.   :Sad: 

http://kolab.kroupware.org/

There is plenty of Cyrus documentation available.  And it has gotten a lot better in the last year or so.  You can look at it in the doc directory that comes with the source.

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## xming

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> I havn't find yet if it already support shared calendars of any kind. Did I miss something?
> 
> 

 

No, you haven't missed anything, the shared folders are in the 2.x (rc now) and I think shared calendar isn't on the planning yet.

But it is great for just mails (pop and imap), I have setup on sparc box using dbmail for handling 25K pop/smtp users,

xming[list=][/list]

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