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How to deploy a mail server with BeAdmin ​

The BeAdmin panel lets you run your own mail service on the server: create mailboxes on your own domains, set up forwarding aliases, and work with mail through the Roundcube web client or external mail clients over IMAP and SMTP. This article covers installing the module and signing in to mail for the first time.

⚠️ Warning

To run a mail server you will need your own domain. You can buy a domain from any registrar — mailboxes will be hosted on it. Additional domains can be connected after the installation; one is enough for the first launch.

Installing the module ​

Open Mail in the panel side menu and click Install on the module page. The installation dialog opens. If the module is missing software dependencies, the panel will offer to install them automatically.

In the installation dialog, fill in the fields:

  • Primary domain — the domain on which mailboxes will be created, for example example.com. If domains are already registered in the panel, they are listed in the drop-down.
  • Mail server address — a separate domain or subdomain (for example, mail.example.com) that mail clients will use to connect to the server. The panel will issue a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate for it — without a certificate external mail clients cannot connect over a secure connection. The name must have an A record pointing to the server's IP. If the field is left empty, no SSL certificate is issued.
  • Advanced options → Dovecot database password — when the module is installed, a MariaDB service user is created for Dovecot to access the mail server database. You can leave the field empty; the password will then be generated automatically.

Click Run installation. After installation, the module page opens with sections in the side menu: Mailboxes, Aliases, Mail domains.

ℹ️ The mail server uses MariaDB

If the MariaDB module is not installed yet, the panel will add it automatically. Do not remove the MariaDB module while the mail server is running — mail will stop accepting and sending messages.

Installing the Roundcube web client ​

Roundcube is a web interface to the mail server: you sign in to any mailbox right in the browser, with no external client to configure. Roundcube is installed as a separate step — the web client needs one of the supported PHP versions.

  1. On the module page, in the Roundcube block, click Install. If a suitable PHP version is not installed yet, the panel will offer to install it as the first step.
  2. After installation, an Open Roundcube button appears in the block — it opens the web client in a new tab.

To sign in, enter the full mailbox address — for example, info@example.com — and its password. Aliases cannot be used for sign-in: they only forward messages.

Connecting an external mail client ​

You can work with the mail server in any IMAP/SMTP client — for example, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, or Gmail. When setting up the account, specify the server parameters:

  • Incoming mail server (IMAP): the address set in the Mail server address field during installation (for example, mail.example.com), port 143 (STARTTLS) or 993 (SSL/TLS).
  • Outgoing mail server (SMTP): the same address, port 25, 465 (SSL/TLS), or 587 (STARTTLS).
  • Username: the full mailbox address, for example info@example.com.
  • Password: the mailbox password set when the mailbox was created.

Once these parameters are entered, the client will connect to the server — pick the mode that already has TLS configured so that passwords are transmitted encrypted.

💡 If messages land in spam — check DNS records

The domain registrar must serve correct A, MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and PTR records. See How to configure DNS records for the mail server for details.

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