Docker/docker-mailserver: Added Tips for multiple domains and improved set-up

2026-07-07 20:41:36 +02:00 · 2026-07-07 02:26:06 +02:00
parent 0d92318f13
commit 4c7759e930
1 changed files with 110 additions and 39 deletions
--- a/wiki/docker/mailserver_-_docker-mailserver.md
+++ b/wiki/docker/mailserver_-_docker-mailserver.md
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ It contains dovecot, antispam, antivirus, ssl and many more features.

 ## Set-up

+This section addresses the set-up of the docker-mailserver [Docker](/wiki/docker.md) container.
+
+### Download
+
 The configuration is done automatically using scripts by mailserver.
 First you need to download the essential setup files.

@@ -18,62 +22,129 @@ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docker-mailserver/docker-mailserver/v9.0.
 chmod a+x ./setup.sh
 ```

-After that you need to edit the `.env` and the `mailserver.env<>` files to
-configure the mailserver.
+After that you need to edit the `docker-compose.yml` and the `mailserver.env` files to configure the
+mailserver.
+
+### Initial configuration

 Create the file `rebuild.sh`.
-You then need to start the container with the `rebuild.sh` and add email
-accounts using the following command.
+You then need to start the container using `rebuild.sh`.
+
+After the container is running create the desired mail accounts where `<user@domain>` is the desired
+email account consisting of its parts and `<password>` is the password.
+It is recommended to create a postmaster account aswell.
+It can be either created as a secondary account or just linked to the first account as shown in the
+following lines.

 ```sh
-./setup.sh email add <user@domain> (<password>)
-./setup.sh alias add postmaster@<domain> <user@domain>
+./setup.sh email add <user@domain.tld> (<password>)
+./setup.sh alias add postmaster@<domain> <user@domain.tld>
 ```

-And finally generate the DCIM keys and rebuild once again.
+Then generate the DKIM keys.

-```
+```sh
 ./setup.sh config dkim
 ```

-In later steps the following command can be used to generate DKIM configuration for a given domain –
-which in this case is set to the placeholder `<domain>`.
+Finally rebuild the container once again.
+
+The required DNS configuration is explained in the
+[corresponding section of the email wiki entry](/wiki/email.md#mail-server-records).
+This needs to be set up for the email to work properly with most other providers.
+
+For the DKIM record the generated configuration has to be retrieved from the following file.
+
+```txt
+config/opendkim/keys/<domain>/mail.txt
+```
+
+Afterward run the `rebuild.sh` file again.
+
+### Reverse proxy
+
+If setting up this mailserver with [Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md) as a reverse proxy some additional
+steps should be taken.
+
+Although SMTP, IMAP and POP3 do not pass through [Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md), a TLS certificate is
+still required.
+A simple way to automatically obtain and renew such a certificate is to expose a temporary HTTP
+service.
+In this case a simple [Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md) `whoami` container is used.
+
+For a single mail domain the following service is sufficient.
+In this case add the following lines to the file `docker-compose.yml` in the `services:` section and
+adapt them according to your needs.
+
+```yml
+whoami:
+  image: docker.io/traefik/whoami:latest
+  networks:
+    - proxy
+  labels:
+    - "traefik.enable=true"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.rule=Host(`mail.<domain>`)"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls=true"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
+```
+
+The mailserver itself does not use this service.
+It merely causes [Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md) to request and automatically renew the TLS certificate.
+
+### Optional: Multiple Mail Domains
+
+Multiple independent mail domains can share a single mailserver instance.
+In this setup only one TLS certificate is used, containing all mail hostnames as Subject Alternative
+Names (SANs).
+
+For two domains the configuration could look as follows.
+
+```yml
+whoami:
+  image: docker.io/traefik/whoami:latest
+  networks:
+    - proxy
+  labels:
+    - "traefik.enable=true"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.rule=Host(`mail.example.com`) || Host(`mail.example.org`)"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls=true"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.domains[0].main=mail.example.com"
+    - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.domains[0].sans=mail.example.org"
+```
+
+For three domains simply extend both the router rule and the SAN list.
+
+```yml
+- "traefik.http.routers.whoami.rule=Host(`mail.example.com`) || Host(`mail.example.org`) || Host(`mail.example.net`)"
+- "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.domains[0].main=mail.example.com"
+- "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.domains[0].sans=mail.example.org,mail.example.net"
+```
+
+[Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md) will then obtain a single certificate with the following names and keep
+it updated in the future.
+
+- `mail.example.com` as the Common Name (CN)
+- `mail.example.org` as a Subject Alternative Name (SAN)
+- `mail.example.net` as a Subject Alternative Name (SAN)
+
+This single certificate is used by the mailserver for all configured mail domains.
+
+For every additional domain  a DKIM key has to be generated.

 ```sh
 docker exec mailserver setup config dkim domain '<domain>'
 ```

-Finally, if a reverse proxy is used check the
-[traefik entry](/wiki/docker/traefik.md#setup-mailserver) or the [nginx entry](/wiki/nginx.md).
+The required DNS records described in the
+[corresponding section of the Email entry](/wiki/email.md#mail-server-records) also have to be
+created as previously shown in [the previous section](#initial-configuration).

-Afterward you're ready to go by once again running the `rebuild.sh` file.
+After that mail addresses for the additional domains can simply be created and used.
+No further setup is needed and emails using the new domains can simply be created.

-If setting up this mailserver with [Traefik](/wiki/traefik.md) as a reverse proxy some additional
-steps should be taken.
-No http or https is needed.
-But a certificate for the mailserver is needed regardless.
-In this case add the following lines to the file `docker-compose.yml` in the
-`services:` section and adapt them.
-
-```yml
-  whoami:
-    image: docker.io/traefik/whoami:latest
-    labels:
-      – "traefik.enable=true"
-      – "traefik.http.routers.whoami.rule=Host(`<subdomain>.<domain>`)"
-```
-
-To use the mail server multiple [DNS](/wiki/dns.md) [records](/wiki/dns.md#records) have to be
-created.
-This process is explained in the
-[corresponding section of the email wiki entry](/wiki/email.md#mail-server-records)
-
-For the [DKIM record](/wiki/email.md#dkim-record) the dkim configuration for a given domain has to be 
-retrieved.
-It can be found in the config directory under the following path.
-
-```txt
-config/opendkim/keys/<domain>/mail.txt
+```sh
+./setup.sh email add <user@domain.tld> (<password>)
 ```

 ### rebuild.sh