Configuring Outgoing Mail Server

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Configuring Outgoing Mail Server

For many reasons, email service is essential. Being able to configure an email server is something every System Administrator should know how to do. This lab will give some practice in doing just that. By default only local mail is available and it cannot be sent or received from our network. In this activity, you will reconfigure the Postfix mail server to support sending and receiving email from the network.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 23, 2025

Duration

15m

Challenge

Install the Postfix Mail Server, and the mailx and Mutt Mail Clients
Become the root user using sudo and use the yum command to install the software for the Postfix mail server, as well as the mailx and Mutt email clients:
```
sudo -i
yum -y install postfix mailx mutt
```
Challenge

Configure Postfix to Listen on All Network Interfaces
Use the postconf command to configure the Postfix mail server to listen on all network interfaces:
```
postconf -e inet_interfaces=all
```
Challenge

Enable and Start the postfix Service
Use the systemctl command to enable and start the postfix service:
```
systemctl enable postfix.service --now
```
Challenge

Send a Test Message with the mail Command and Check the Log to See if It was Delivered
Using the mail command send a message with the subject test to cloud_user that contains the contents of the /etc/hosts file:
```
mail -s 'test' cloud_user@server1 < /etc/hosts
```
Challenge

Verify That Outgoing Mail is Working
Using the tail command, verify that the message was delivered. Return to the cloud_user account and view the message using the mutt command:
```
tail /var/log/maillog
exit
mutt
```
Press Enter to create the Mail directory in our home directory if necessary.

Press q to quit mutt.

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