Rating: 

I decided to try Postfix after spending some time on the Postfix website (http://www.postfix.org), reading what appeared to be a fairly trivial configuration process for a simple, single domain setup. I wanted more information on serving up email for multiple domains and a deeper understanding of the nuts and bolts of Postfix.

That's when I found The Book of Postfix by Ralf Hildebrandt and Patrick Koetter, published by No Starch Press. The book will help you get a single domain email server up and running in the first three chapters. It includes an email primer for postmasters - a great tutorial if you haven't already covered the material.

Trying to light up an email server as powerful as Postfix (or Sendmail for that matter) requires patience and good documentation. You may already have the patience to pull it off and the Postfix website has excellent documentation. The Book of Postfix is like a mega-vitamin and sugar coating to top it off - it gives you the required dose of information to perform the task at hand and goes way beyond by giving you a wide array of extras that will increase your overall understanding of Postfix and email server technologies in general.

There is an excellent chapter that highlights the 'anatomy' of Postfix, describing what each tiny piece of Postfix does. The book covers message transfer restrictions and content filters in great detail.

After you have learned enough Postfix basics, the book dives into more advanced topics such as SMTP authentication and the Transport Security Layer. There is a sizable chapter on setting up a company mail server (based on Postfix, Cyrus SASL, Courier maildrop and Courier IMAP) that illustrates an excellent 'real-world' example of how you might use Postfix in a production environment.

The book finishes off with chapters on how to install, tune and troubleshoot your Postfix installation. I found this book very easy to read and understand and I think the material covered targets not only those new to email servers, but also seasoned postmaster veterans.