Postfix: The Definitive Guide

Separate Domains with Virtual Accounts

The drawback for the techniques so far is that you must maintain system accounts for all email addresses on your server. As the number of domains you host increases, so does the effort to maintain all the accounts. In particular, if users only receive email at your server, and don’t otherwise log in, you probably don’t want to have to create system accounts for each one. Instead, configure Postfix to deliver to a local message store where each virtual email address can have its own mailbox file. Your users then retrieve their messages through a POP/IMAP server.

The local message store works much like normal local delivery, but it doesn’t require a one-to-one correspondence between each mail file and a local user account. For this configuration, list each virtual domain in the virtual_mailbox_domains parameter:

virtual_mailbox_domains = ora.com, oreilly.com

If you have many domains, you can list them in a file and point virtual_mailbox_domains to the file:

virtual_mailbox_domains = /etc/postfix/virtual_domains

The file /etc/postfix/virtual_domains then contains a line for each domain:

#
# /etc/postfix/virtual_domains
#
ora.com
oreilly.com

Virtual domains listed in virtual_mailbox_domains are delivered by the virtual delivery agent, which is actually a streamlined version of the local delivery agent. It makes deliveries in a highly secure and efficient manner, but local aliases, .forward files, and mailing list programs are not available. You can ...