[Mimedefang] OT: Anyone here use Dovecot imap server in production evironment?

Rich West Rich.West at wesmo.com
Thu Apr 7 20:37:07 EDT 2005


>  
>
>>I tested Dovecot briefly on OpenBSD, and lost mailboxes. No idea what
>>happened, but UW-IMAP has been much more forgiving, especially when
>>compiled with MBX support for faster mailboxes.
>>    
>>

In my initial evaluations of Dovecot and Cyrus, I did learn that Dovecot 
isn't truly ready for prime time just yet.. at least, not with the 
version I downloaded (I'm planning on trying again soon, though, as UW 
is painful in its delays).

>
>Cyrus is definitely a much more "serious" server, and I do miss the
>shared mailboxes.  (We worked around it with Dovecot by creating special
>users and giving access to the appropriate people:  All the salespeople
>get to access "shsales", for example.)
>
>One thing that is a bit of a pain with Cyrus is that it's very awkward
>to use procmail with Cyrus, and Sieve just isn't as flexible as procmail.
>  
>

Cyrus is a great mail server, no doubt, but its design makes it such 
that it only works in certain specific environments.  In an environment 
that we serve here, which is a "multiple domain, multiple user, nothing 
shared ever, mail filtering required" environment, Cyrus just doesn't 
apply.  Similar to what David states, Cyrus lacks the true ability to 
utilize procmail (someone on their list hinted that it was possible, but 
more painful than having your fingernails pulled off).

What I did discover is that while there is a lot of noise about Cyrus 
and how wonderful it is, it was designed with a specific customer/user 
base in mind.  UW-IMAP, while older than dirt itself, pretty much 
applies to any install.  And, yes, UW-IMAP is simplistic in its install, 
while both Courier and Cyrus are scarier than hell (making compiling 
sendmail and building a good sendmail.cf/submit.cf look like a junior 
admin could do it with their eyes closed).

Just my $0.02, but I find that Dovecot is quite promising as a potential 
drop-in replacement for UW-IMAP if Courier or Cyrus don't do "it" for you..

-Rich



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