MailerQ installation and configuration on Ubuntu-Step by Step

MailerQ is premium Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), developed to sent bulk emails. It is loaded with some cool features like IP rotation, external MTA IPs, multiple domains, real time stat and so on.

Requirements for MailerQ

1. A domain from namecheap, Godaddy
2. MailerQ license
3. A Cloud or VPS with Ubuntu 20.04 ( minimum 4 GB RAM ). I am using Contabo for the demonstration.

Check out the list of VPS provider with open port 25.

Environment Setup

Connect to the Remote Server

After you have received VPS/cloud login credentials, you need to connect to remote server. Depending on which operating system you are currently working, there are different tools to connect to remote server.

You can follow this guide to learn more about connecting to remote server.

Checking Port Accessibility

Now you are connected to remote server successfully. But before you can even proceed, you need to make sure port 25 is open on your hosting. Otherwise, whole hard work will go in vain.

To check for open port 25, first install telnet.

sudo apt install telnet -y

Then execute the following command

sudo telnet smtp.gmail.com 25

Now, if port 25 is open, you will see connected message.

Otherwise, you will get timeout message or your command will take infinite time to display output.

Checking Blacklisting of IP

Now you know that port 25 is open on VPS. It’s time to check for VPS IP for backlisting. Blacklisted IP won’t deliver emails to inbox. Simply go to Mxtoolbox and copy your IP to run the check.

If your IP is clean, you are good to go. Otherwise, contact your hosting for replacement of blacklisted IP.

Initial DNS setup

After fulfilling above two pre-requisite, it’s time to create few DNS records for your domain. These records are as follows.

Installation of MailerQ

Now, you have completed above steps, it’s time to install MailerQ. We will begin with updating and installing few packages required by MailerQ.

Updating and Upgrading VPS

First of all update your Ubuntu

sudo apt update -y

Next upgrade the Ubuntu with following command

sudo apt upgrade -y

Set the hostname

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname mail.yourdomain.com

Installing RabbitMQ

MailerQ requires RabbitMQ to process queue. First of all you need to install few dependencies.

sudo apt-get install curl gnupg debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https -y

After that add signing keys and few repositories

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver "hkps://keys.openpgp.org" --recv-keys "0x0A9AF2115F4687BD29803A206B73A36E6026DFCA"
curl -1sLf https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang/gpg.E495BB49CC4BBE5B.key | sudo apt-key add -
curl -1sLf https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/gpg.9F4587F226208342.key | sudo apt-key add -

Now add apt repositories maintained by Team RabbitMQ

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rabbitmq.list <<EOF
deb https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang/deb/ubuntu focal main
deb-src https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-erlang/deb/ubuntu focal main
deb https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/deb/ubuntu focal main
deb-src https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/rabbitmq/rabbitmq-server/deb/ubuntu focal main
EOF

Next, update the repository and install Erlang

apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y erlang-base \
                        erlang-asn1 erlang-crypto erlang-eldap erlang-ftp erlang-inets \
                        erlang-mnesia erlang-os-mon erlang-parsetools erlang-public-key \
                        erlang-runtime-tools erlang-snmp erlang-ssl \
                        erlang-syntax-tools erlang-tftp erlang-tools erlang-xmerl

At last, install RabbitMQ.

apt-get install rabbitmq-server -y --fix-missing

Now, we have rabbitMQ installed let’s check the status

systemctl status rabbitmq-server

Installing MailerQ

First download and add the repository key

wget -qO - https://packages.mailerq.com/mailerq.key | sudo apt-key add -

Add the MQ repository to apt

echo "deb https://packages.mailerq.com/debian stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mailerq.list

Update and install MailerQ

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mailerq

Configuration of MailerQ

The config file for MailerQ is located at “/etc/mailerq/config.txt”. In this file, you have to pass on few information like address and login credentials of your RabbitMQ message broker, Management Console and the address of your database. Change your management console port to 8485 in config.

# Management console configuration
www-port: 8485

After above step, you need to start MailerQ

sudo service mailerq start

Now, you can got http://YOUR_IP:8485 to access the Management Console and send your first email.

Final DNS Setup

After configuration you need to create few more records to ensure your emails go to inbox. They are as follows.

Now, before sending test email, don’t forget to create reverse DNS record. also known as PTR records. This can be done by yourself in Contabo, but in other hosting you may want to ask the hosting provider.

Conclusion

MailerQ installation difficulty is above average. I have written all the steps for successful installation. If you face any issue, feel free to open a topic in forum.