Quick Start Guide¶

This guide helps you get Mailborder V6 up and running quickly, from installation to processing your first emails.

Perfect for administrators who want to get started fast and dive into details later.

Prerequisites¶

Before starting this quick start guide:

• [x] Debian 11+ or Ubuntu 20.04+ server ready
• [x] Root or sudo access
• [x] Static IP address configured
• [x] Internet connectivity
• [x] Details of your internal mail server

Time Required: 30-60 minutes for basic setup and testing.

Step 1: Install Mailborder (5 minutes)¶

Add Repository and Install¶

# Add Mailborder repository
wget -qO - https://repo.mailborder.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.mailborder.com/apt stable main" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mailborder.list

# Update and install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mailborder

The package installation will automatically: - Install all dependencies (Postfix, MariaDB, Redis, Rspamd, ClamAV, Nginx, PHP) - Configure basic system settings - Create mailborder system user

Run Initial Setup¶

sudo mb-setup

During setup, you'll be prompted for:

1. Administrator Email: Your email address for login
2. Administrator Password: Secure password (12+ characters)

The setup script will: - Create and populate the database - Generate encryption keys - Configure services - Start all daemons

Expected Output:

Installation complete!

Access the web interface at:
  https://YOUR-SERVER-IP/

Default credentials:
  Email: admin@example.com
  Password: (as entered)

Verify Installation¶

sudo mb-status

All services should show [RUNNING]. If any show [STOPPED], see Troubleshooting Service Start Issues.

Step 2: Configure Email Relay (5 minutes)¶

Mailborder needs to know where to deliver clean email.

Via Web Interface¶

1. Navigate to https://YOUR-SERVER-IP/
2. Log in with your administrator credentials

3. Go to System Settings → Email Processing

4. Configure relay host:

   Relay Host: mail.example.com
   Relay Port: 25
   Authentication: No (for most internal mail servers)
   

5. Click Test Connection to verify

6. Click Save Settings

Via Command Line (Alternative)¶

sudo mb-config set relay.host mail.example.com
sudo mb-config set relay.port 25
sudo systemctl reload mb-virtuoso

Step 3: Configure Accepted Domains (2 minutes)¶

Tell Mailborder which domains to accept email for.

Via Web Interface¶

1. Go to System Settings → Domains
2. Click Add Domain
3. Enter your domain: example.com
4. Type: Local (deliver to relay host)
5. Click Save

Repeat for additional domains.

Via Command Line¶

sudo mb-domain add example.com --type local
sudo mb-domain add example.net --type local
sudo mb-domain list

Step 4: Test Email Flow (10 minutes)¶

Before going live, verify everything works.

Test 1: Clean Email Delivery¶

From your workstation or mail server, send a test email to an address on your internal mail server:

To: testuser@example.com
Subject: Test Clean Email
Body: This is a test of Mailborder email delivery.

Configure your mail server or workstation to send through Mailborder: - SMTP Server: YOUR-MAILBORDER-IP - Port: 25 - No authentication required (if from trusted network)

Verify delivery:

1. Check if email arrived in recipient's mailbox
2. In Mailborder web interface, go to Monitoring → Email Logs
3. Find the test email
4. Verify: Status = Delivered, Spam Score < 2.0

Test 2: Spam Detection¶

Send an obvious spam email:

To: testuser@example.com
Subject: BUY V1AGRA NOW!!! CHEAP PRICES!!!
Body: Click here to claim your prize! Act now! Limited time offer!!!

Verify quarantine:

1. Email should NOT arrive in recipient's mailbox
2. In Mailborder, go to Email Security → Quarantine
3. Find the test email with high spam score (>7.0)
4. Status should be Quarantined

Test 3: Virus Detection¶

Send email with EICAR test virus:

Create a text file named eicar.txt with this content:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Email this file as an attachment.

Verify blocking:

1. Email should be quarantined or rejected
2. Check Email Security → Quarantine or Monitoring → Email Logs
3. Virus field should show: Eicar-Test-Signature

If all three tests pass, your Mailborder is working correctly!

Step 5: Tune Spam Settings (5 minutes)¶

Adjust spam thresholds based on your organization's needs.

Recommended Starting Values¶

For most organizations:

1. Go to Email Security → Spam Filtering

2. Set thresholds:

   Pass (deliver): Score < 6.0
   Quarantine: Score 6.0 - 20.0
   Reject: Score > 20.0
   

3. Enable engines:

4. [x] Rspamd
5. [x] RBL Checks

6. [x] SPF/DKIM/DMARC Validation

7. Click Save Settings

Monitor and Adjust¶

Over the next week:

• Review quarantine daily
• Look for false positives (legitimate email incorrectly quarantined)
• Look for false negatives (spam that got through)
• Adjust thresholds accordingly

If too many false positives (legitimate email quarantined): - Increase thresholds (e.g., Pass < 7.0, Quarantine 7.0-25.0)

If too much spam getting through: - Decrease thresholds (e.g., Pass < 5.0, Quarantine 5.0-15.0) - Enable additional scanning engines

Step 6: Configure DNS (10 minutes)¶

Option A: Mailborder as Primary MX (Recommended)¶

This is the most common deployment: Mailborder receives all email directly from the Internet.

Current DNS (before Mailborder):

example.com.  IN  MX  10  mail.example.com.

New DNS (with Mailborder):

mailborder.example.com.  IN  A   203.0.113.10
example.com.             IN  MX  10  mailborder.example.com.

Steps:

1. Add A record for Mailborder:

   mailborder.example.com → YOUR-MAILBORDER-IP
   

2. Update MX record to point to Mailborder:

   example.com → mailborder.example.com
   

3. Keep old MX as backup (optional):

   example.com.  IN  MX  10  mailborder.example.com.
   example.com.  IN  MX  20  mail.example.com.
   

DNS propagation takes 5 minutes to 48 hours depending on TTL.

Option B: Mailborder Behind Existing Gateway¶

If you already have an email gateway or firewall:

1. Configure existing gateway to forward email to Mailborder
2. Configure Mailborder to deliver to internal mail server
3. No DNS changes needed

Email flow:

Internet → Existing Gateway → Mailborder → Internal Mail Server

Verify Reverse DNS (Critical)¶

Ensure your Mailborder IP has a PTR record:

dig -x YOUR-MAILBORDER-IP +short

Should return: mailborder.example.com.

If not, contact your ISP or hosting provider to configure reverse DNS. Without reverse DNS, many mail servers will reject your outbound email.

Step 7: Configure Outbound Email (Optional)¶

If Mailborder should also scan outbound email:

Configure Internal Mail Server¶

Point your mail server to use Mailborder as a smart host:

For Postfix:

relayhost = [mailborder.example.com]:25

For Exchange: 1. Create Send Connector 2. Address space: * (all domains) 3. Smart host: mailborder.example.com

For Zimbra:

zmprov ms `zmhostname` zimbraMtaRelayHost mailborder.example.com

Update Mailborder Outbound Settings¶

1. In Mailborder web interface: System Settings → Outbound
2. Enable Scan Outbound Email: Yes
3. Outbound Spam Thresholds: Lower than inbound (e.g., 4.0)
4. Block Outbound Spam: Quarantine or Reject
5. Click Save

This protects your organization from compromised accounts sending spam.

Step 8: Go Live (5 minutes)¶

Once testing is complete and DNS is updated:

Monitor Closely¶

For the first 24 hours:

1. Check email flow every hour
2. Dashboard → Email Statistics

3. Ensure email is being delivered

4. Review quarantine frequently

5. Look for false positives

6. Release legitimate email immediately

7. Watch for delivery issues

8. Monitor → Email Logs
9. Filter by Status = Failed

10. Investigate any failures

11. Monitor system resources

12. Dashboard → System Health
13. CPU, RAM, disk usage should be reasonable

Common Go-Live Issues¶

No Email Arriving at Mailborder

• Check DNS propagation: dig example.com MX
• Check firewall: Port 25 must be open
• Check Postfix is listening: netstat -tlnp | grep :25

Email Queuing on Mailborder

• Check relay host is reachable: telnet mail.example.com 25
• Check relay host accepts email from Mailborder IP
• Review logs: tail -f /var/log/mailborder/virtuoso.log

High False Positive Rate

• Temporarily increase spam thresholds
• Review quarantine, identify patterns
• Whitelist trusted senders
• Tune over several days

Performance Issues

• Check CPU/RAM usage
• Verify disk space available
• Check service status: mb-status
• See Performance Monitoring

Step 9: User Communication (10 minutes)¶

Inform your users about the new spam filtering:

Email Announcement Template¶

Subject: New Email Security System Active

Hello,

We've implemented a new email security system (Mailborder) to protect
against spam, viruses, and malware.

What This Means for You:
- Less spam in your inbox
- Protection from viruses and phishing
- Suspicious emails will be quarantined for review

Quarantine Access:
- You'll receive a daily summary of quarantined emails
- You can release legitimate emails if needed
- Access quarantine at: https://mailborder.example.com/portal

If You're Missing Email:
1. Check your quarantine
2. Add sender to your personal whitelist
3. Contact IT support if you need assistance

Questions? Contact: support@example.com

Thank you,
IT Department

Train Key Users¶

• Show a few users how to access quarantine
• Demonstrate how to release emails
• Explain spam scores and why email was quarantined
• Collect feedback for tuning

Step 10: Ongoing Maintenance (5 minutes daily)¶

Maintain Mailborder health with quick daily checks:

Daily Tasks (5 minutes)¶

1. Check Dashboard
2. Verify all services running
3. Review email statistics

4. Look for alerts

5. Review Quarantine

6. Scan for false positives
7. Release legitimate email

8. Delete obvious spam

9. Check for Updates

10. Signature updates (automatic)
11. System updates available

Weekly Tasks (30 minutes)¶

1. Review Logs
2. Look for patterns (repeated failures, blocked senders)
3. Check top spam sources

4. Verify performance metrics

5. Tune Policies

6. Adjust spam thresholds based on false positive rate
7. Update whitelist/blacklist

8. Refine policy rules

9. User Feedback

10. Collect reports of missed spam or blocked legitimate email
11. Adjust settings accordingly

Monthly Tasks (1-2 hours)¶

1. Full System Review
2. Routine Maintenance
3. Database optimization
4. Log rotation

5. Backup verification

6. Security Updates

7. Apply system updates
8. Review security advisories

9. Update SSL certificates if needed

10. Reporting

11. Generate monthly reports for management
12. Email volume trends
13. Spam/virus statistics
14. Cost savings (time saved from spam)

Quick Reference Commands¶

Essential Mailborder commands:

# Service status
sudo mb-status

# Restart all services
sudo systemctl restart mb-*

# View real-time email processing
sudo tail -f /var/log/mailborder/filter.log

# Check mail queue
sudo mailq

# Add domain
sudo mb-domain add newdomain.com --type local

# Add whitelist entry
sudo mb-whitelist add sender@example.com

# Add blacklist entry
sudo mb-blacklist add spammer@spam.com

# View recent logs
sudo journalctl -u mb-rpcd -n 50

# Check configuration
sudo mb-config show

# Update signatures
sudo mb-update --signatures

# System health check
sudo mb-doctor

Next Steps¶

Now that Mailborder is running:

Enhance Security¶

• Set Up 2FA - Multi-factor authentication for admins
• Configure Passkeys - Passwordless authentication
• Install SSL Certificate - Trusted certificate

Advanced Features¶

• GeoIP Filtering - Block by country
• Custom Policies - Advanced policy rules
• API Integration - Automate with scripts

Scale Up¶

• High Availability - Redundant deployment
• Performance Tuning - Optimize for high volume
• Clustering - Multi-node deployment

Learn More¶

• Admin Interface Guide - Master the interface
• Email Security Features - Understand how it works
• Troubleshooting Guide - Fix issues quickly

Getting Help¶

• Documentation: Full docs at /usr/share/mailborder/docs/
• Community: Forums at https://community.mailborder.com
• Support: Email support@mailborder.com
• Emergency: See Getting Support

Congratulations! Your Mailborder V6 deployment is complete and protecting your email.