Demo
Demo

Knowledge base

PMTA knowledge base›Procedure§ 2.3

Initial configuration

critical

Initial Configuration
Two things set by hand

Everything else is already in the shipped configuration; two things are set by hand.

The responsible person’s address is postmaster. The pmtawatch watchdog sends the crash report there after an automatic restart, as well as the license expiry warning, and mail to the local postmaster and abuse is forwarded there by default.

Relaying control. By default mail is accepted only from 127.0.0.1; every other submitting machine needs its own <source> block with always-allow-relaying. relay-domain and relay-address are needed only if the node accepts inbound mail: they name the recipients for whom mail is accepted from any source.

The main trap is a node without postmaster. The engine runs without it, but after a crash the watchdog brings it back silently: the crash report and the license expiry warning have nowhere to go.
What the Hub does. 🔴 The Hub does not write the responsible person’s address — it is in none of the templates, and the watchdog’s crash report has nowhere to go. It configures relaying itself: a shared login and a login for each sending pair with always-allow-relaying, plus blocks for the addresses from “Allowed to submit”. Of the two mandatory things, one is covered.
Recommended values

What to set:

What Line When
the responsible person’s address postmaster always
a submitting machine <source> with always-allow-relaying for each one except 127.0.0.1
recipients of inbound mail relay-domain, relay-address only if the node accepts mail
The two mandatory things, the purpose of the responsible person’s address and the relaying default come from the manual (§ 2.3, § 3.3.1.4). The table is ours.
Example configuration
postmaster admin@example.com
<source 10.0.0.1>
    always-allow-relaying yes</source>
The addresses are examples; each submitting machine gets its own block, and several responsible addresses can be set.
yellow — — directive names, blue — blocks. They are highlighted the same way in the text of the card.
Compatibility
PowerMTA 6.0
described in the manual of this version · platform: any
The vendor does not state the first version for every directive — there is no note here. The name also appears in the 5.0 edition of the manual.
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Related entries

4 relations

Does not work without

postmasterGlobalThe directive this step sets. § 2.3

Depends on

Installing on LinuxA related procedure: they share some of the steps. § 2.2

Works together with

The watchdog that restarts the engineThe mechanism this step relies on. § 2.3

Applies to

Who is allowed to submit mail and for whom to accept itThe mechanism this step relies on. § 2.3

How to check on the node
Check both mandatory things:
grep -n '^postmaster\|always-allow-relaying' /etc/pmta/config
No postmaster line means the watchdog’s reports have nowhere to go; always-allow-relaying should be present only for submitting machines.
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What else to read

3 articles

◇Accept, route, deliverA message’s path inside the node: accept, decide where, deliver — and all the settings live between these three steps.◇How a message gets into the engineSix described submission methods: extended SMTP, four language bindings and a directory the node watches on disk.◇Who is allowed to submit mail and for whom to accept itOut of the box, the node accepts submission only from the machine itself; two different questions — “who can send through us” and “for whose addresses we accept mail” — are answered by different directives.

In the Hub
Cost of a mistake
reversible: harms only while it is set
Scenarios
Configuration lifecycle · Connect a sending platform
Priority
critical