Ever since Zimbra release, one of the most requested features has been the possibility to regulate Distribution Lists senders. This guide explains how to do it by using the new Milter server included with Zimbra 7.1+.
What is a Milter
Quote from the Wikipedia page for Milter:
In Zimbra, the Milter is used for permission control on emails addressed to a Distribution List.
Milter runs as a deamon listening on port 7026 (default, can be changed via zmlocalconfig -e).
Enabling Milter
To enable the Milter server follow this simple steps:
- Log into the Zimbra Administration Consolle
- Enter the Server Settings menu from the left-side panel
- Enter the MTA tab
- Check the "Enable Milter Server"
- Enter the Milter Server's IP in the "Milter Server Binding Address" textbox. Use 127.0.0.1 for the local Milter Server (most common choice)
- Click "Save"
To check if the Milter Server is running, log into the Zimbra server on a root consolle (e.g. ssh) and run the following command:
If you have correctly enabled the Milter Server but it fails to start, run an MTA reload with the following command:
Configure allowed senders for a distribution list
To allow a user to write to a distribution list, you must grant such user the sendToDistList right for the distribution list.
To do so, use the following command:
To check if the rights are correctly granted:
- Obtain the user's ZimbraID with
Code:zmprov ga user@yourdomain.dom | grep -i "zimbraid: "
- Check the distribution list's permissions with
zmprov gdl distributionlist@yourdomain.dom | less
If you can see a line in the output of the last command like:
then the user is now allowed to write to the distribution list, while all the other users will not be allowed to do so.
Granting rights to other entities
The sendToDistList right can also be granted to entities other than users by changing the parameters of 'zmprov grr'.
This is the syntax to use:
The {grantee-type} can be:
- usr => User*
- grp => Group (distribution list) *
- all => All entities
- dom => Domain*
- pub => Public
The [grantee-id|grantee-name] argument is required only for the grantee-types marked with an (*)
REMEMBER: Once you grant sendToDistList permission on a distribution list NO USERS, except for those who have been specifically granted such right, WILL BE ABLE TO WRITE TO THE MAILING LIST
Final Thoughts:
Distrinution List regulation was a very needed function in Zimbra, and the new Milter Server provides a good way to manage that.
However, it's still a 'dormant' function in Zimbra (no official docs nor a configuration GUI has been released yet), so be careful and try this on a test server before starting to use this new feature in a production server.
Your friendly neighborhood Community Manager,
Cine