Mailserver Selection

cPanel offers you a couple options of mailservers to choose from. You can either log into the WHM and pick and choose or do it from the CLI. Both ways are methods are explained below.

First you need to log into the WHM as the user root. Once logged in scroll down the left side navigation until you see the 'Service Configuration' category. From there click on the 'Mailserver Selection' link. You will now be presented with your mail server options. We recommend you choose the default mail server, as of writing this article the default server is dovecot. Select the mail server of choice, scroll down and make sure the convert mailbox format is checked. Click save and the WHM will now install the new server as well as convert your existing mailboxes to the required format!

Log into your servers console as the user root. Once logged in you can run the command '/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupmailserver' to see the available options and mailservers you can choose. We recommend you choose the default mail server which at the time of this article is Dovecot. Once you have made your decision run '/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupmailserver Dovecot' this will go through and install the mailserver as well as convert any existing mailboxes to the new format.

root@server [~]# /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupmailserver
Usage: setupmailserver [options] <mailserver>
 
Options:
  --force                    Perform conversion even if server is already configured
  --current                  Display the currently configured mail server
  --skip-maildir-conversion  Don't convert user maildirs during the server conversion
 
MailServers:
  courier    Standard mail server on cPanel systems
  dovecot    Lower memory usage mail server
  disabled   Disable local POP3 and IMAP functionality
 
 
root@server [~]# /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupmailserver dovecot
Configured new mailserver in cpanel.config to dovecot
Disabling Chksrvd monitoring
Checking that Dovecot is up to date
[20131105.170758]   Downloading http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/RPM/11.36/centos/5/i386/rpm.md5
[20131105.170758]   Downloading http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/RPM/11.36/centos/5/i386/dovecot-1.2.17-3.cp1136.i386.rpm
[20131105.170759]   Hooks system enabled
[20131105.170759]   Checking for and running RPM::Versions 'pre' hooks for any RPMs about to be installed
warn [setupmailserver] program "/scripts/predovecotup" is not executable
[20131105.170759]   All required 'pre' hooks have been run
[20131105.170801]   Installing new rpms: dovecot-1.2.17-3.cp1136.i386.rpm
[20131105.170801]   Preparing packages for installation...
[20131105.170802]   dovecot-1.2.17-3.cp1136
[20131105.170803]   Prelinking shared libraries and binaries: /usr/sbin/prelink -av -mR
[20131105.170806]   Checking for and running RPM::Versions 'post' hooks for any RPMs just installed
warn [setupmailserver] program "/scripts/postdovecotup" is not executable
[20131105.170806]   All required 'post' hooks have been run
 
Converting user maildirs to Dovecot format...
Converting /home/user/mail...ok
Checking SSL cert...done
Checking for expired SSL certs...done
Enabling Dovecot in init system
Starting Dovecot
Enabling chksrvd monitoring
Reconfiguring EXIM for new mailserver
Restarting EXIM
Mailserver conversion complete