Mailman 3 with Ubuntu 26.04 and Migration

The following article addresses various aspects related to a Mailman 3 installation. First, we will show how Mailman 3 can be installed as easily as possible with MariaDB, Nginx, Postfix, and Hyperkitty using APT on Ubuntu 26.04 Server. Next, we will examine various aspects of the configuration and demonstrate which settings should be configured.

1. Set Variables

   SITE_OWNER=me@lists.vbox.local"
   
   WEB_HOST="lists.vbox.local"
   MAIL_DOMAIN="lists.vbox.local"

2. Install and Configure MariaDB

   Installation Using APT

   apt install -y mariadb-server

   Optimize MariaDB for Use with Mailman 3

   cat >/etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/99-mailman.cnf <<'EOF'
   [mysqld]
   
   innodb_file_per_table=1
   innodb_buffer_pool_size=512M
   innodb_log_file_size=256M
   
   max_allowed_packet=256M
   
   character-set-server=utf8mb4
   collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
   EOF

3. Install Additional Required Packages

   apt install -y dbconfig-mysql
   apt install -y python3-mysqldb
   apt install -y python3-pymysql

4. Install Mailman 3

   apt install -y mailman3-full

   For a local test installation, the following questions can be answered as shown below. For regular operation, they must be specific circumstances.

   Postfix

   • General mail configuration type
     • 5 = Local only
   • System mail name
     • lists.vbox.local

   Mailman3

   • Configure database for mailman3 with dbconfig-common?
     • Yes
   • MySQL application password for mailman3
     • Leave blank OR specify your own password
   • Password confirmation
     • Repeat password if necessary
   • Password of the database’s administrative user?
     • Leave blank

   Mailman3-Web

   • Configure database for mailman3-web with dbconfig-common?
     • yes
   • MySQL application password for mailman3-web?
     • Leave blank OR specify your own password
   • Password confirmation
     • Repeat password if necessary
   • Password of the database’s administrative user
     • Leave blank

5. Complete the database configuration

   dpkg --configure -a

6. Restart services

   systemctl restart mailman3
   systemctl restart mailman3-web

7. Set the Site Owner

   sed -i \
     "s/^site_owner:.*/site_owner: ${SITE_OWNER}/" \
     /etc/mailman3/mailman.cfg

   systemctl restart mailman3

8. Configure Postfix

   postconf -e \
   'relay_domains=hash:/var/lib/mailman3/data/postfix_domains'
   
   postconf -e \
   'transport_maps=hash:/var/lib/mailman3/data/postfix_lmtp'
   
   systemctl reload postfix

9. Configure Mailman Web

   Here, the sample configuration mailman.example.com is replaced with the correct data.

   mkdir -p /var/log/nginx/mailman3
   
   touch /var/log/nginx/mailman3/access.log
   touch /var/log/nginx/mailman3/error.log
   
   sed -i \
   "s/server_name mailman.example.com;/server_name ${WEB_HOST};/" \
   /etc/mailman3/nginx.conf
   
   ln -sf \
     /etc/mailman3/nginx.conf \
     /etc/nginx/conf.d/mailman3.conf
   
   rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
   
   nginx -t
   
   systemctl reload nginx

10. Create a Mailman Web superuser

    Here, you must assign a password for the web admin.

    mailman-web createsuperuser \
      --username admin \
      --email "${SITE_OWNER}"

11. Configure the Django site

    cd /usr/share/mailman3-web
    
    python3 manage.py shell -c "
    from django.contrib.sites.models import Site
    s = Site.objects.get(id=1)
    s.domain='${WEB_HOST}'
    s.name='${WEB_HOST}'
    s.save()
    print(list(Site.objects.values()))
    "
    
    systemctl restart mailman3-web