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System Administration Guide: Network Services

Managing the postmaster Alias

Every system must be able to send mail to a postmaster mailbox. You can create an NIS or NIS+ alias for postmaster, or you can create the alias in each local /etc/mail/aliases file. Refer to these procedures.

ProcedureHow to Create a postmaster Alias in Each Local /etc/mail/aliases File

If you are creating the postmaster alias in each local /etc/mail/aliases file, follow these instructions.

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services. To configure a role with the Primary Administrator profile, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

  2. View the /etc/mail/aliases entry.


    # cat /etc/mail/aliases
# Following alias is required by the mail protocol, RFC 2821
# Set it to the address of a HUMAN who deals with this system's
# mail problems.
Postmaster: root

  3. Edit each system's /etc/mail/aliases file.

    Change root to the mail address of the person who is designated as the postmaster.


    Postmaster: mail-address
    mail-address

    Use the assigned address for the person who is designated as the postmaster.

  4. (Optional) Create a separate mailbox for the postmaster.

    You can create a separate mailbox for the postmaster to keep postmaster mail separate from personal mail. If you create a separate mailbox, use the mailbox address instead of the postmaster's personal mail address when you edit the /etc/mail/aliases files. For details, refer to How to Create a Separate Mailbox for postmaster.

ProcedureHow to Create a Separate Mailbox for postmaster

If you are creating a separate mailbox for postmaster, follow these instructions.

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services. To configure a role with the Primary Administrator profile, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

  2. Create a user account for the person who is designated as postmaster. Put an asterisk (*) in the password field.

    For details about adding a user account, refer to Chapter 5, Managing User Accounts and Groups (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

  3. After mail has been delivered, enable the mail program to read and write to the mailbox name.


    # mail -f postmaster
    postmaster

    Use the assigned address.

ProcedureHow to Add the postmaster Mailbox to the Aliases in the /etc/mail/aliases File

If you are adding a postmaster mailbox to the aliases in the /etc/mail/aliases file, follow these instructions.

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

    Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services. To configure a role with the Primary Administrator profile, see Chapter 2, Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

  2. Add an alias for root. Use the mail address of the person who is designated as the postmaster.


    # cat /etc/mail/aliases
..
root: user@host.domain.com
    user@host.domain.com

    Use the assigned address of the person who is designated as postmaster.

  3. On the postmaster's local system, create an entry in the /etc/mail/aliases file that defines the name of the alias. sysadmin is an example. Also, include the path to the local mailbox.


    # cat /etc/mail/aliases
..
sysadmin: /usr/somewhere/somefile
    sysadmin

    Create a name for a new alias.

    /usr/somewhere/somefile

    Use the path to the local mailbox.

  4. Rebuild the alias database.


    # newaliases