E-mail in the Host Manager
Postfix and Dovecot on the server, Email Routing Configuration, the Mail Queue Manager, delivery reports, Enable DKIM/SPF Globally, the Mail Troubleshooter, greylisting and SMTP restrictions.
Mail on an AIOhPanel server is Postfix for sending and receiving, Dovecot for IMAP and POP3, and Maildir folders in each account's home. The panel writes the maps those services read. This chapter covers the mail tools of the Host Manager; the customer's side is in E-mail tools.
Where the mail lives
| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Postfix | Virtual domains, mailboxes and aliases come from files in /etc/aiohpanel/mail/. Listens on 25, with 587 (submission) and 465 (SMTPS) for sign-in. |
| Dovecot | Logs users in from /etc/aiohpanel/mail/passwd (SHA512-CRYPT), delivers through LMTP, serves IMAP 143 / 993 and POP3 110 / 995. |
| Mailboxes | Maildir under each account's home, in mail/<domain>/<user>. |
| Mail client names | mail.<domain> for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. The default zone already has the record. |
Mail is sent from the panel itself (welcome messages, resets, alerts) when Let the panel send e-mail is on in Tweak Settings → Mail.
Email Routing Configuration
Email → Email Routing Configuration lists every domain with a menu for where its mail goes.
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Local Mail Exchanger | This server keeps the mail. The normal choice. |
| Automatically Detect Configuration | The panel looks at the domain's MX records and picks local or remote. |
| Backup Mail Exchanger | This server holds the mail and passes it on when the main server is back. |
| Remote Mail Exchanger | The mail goes to another server (Google Workspace, say); nothing is stored here. |
Change a row and press Save. The panel rewrites the mail maps for the affected accounts. Customers see their own domains on Email → Email Routing in the hosting panel.
Mail Queue Manager
Email → Mail Queue Manager shows messages Postfix has not delivered yet: Message ID, Sender, Recipient, Size, Age, Status and the Reason it waits. Per message you can Deliver it now, Freeze it (hold it), Thaw it (release a held one) or Delete it. Deliver all and Delete all act on the whole queue. A queue of more than 100 messages is flagged by the Security Advisor. See Security Advisor.
Delivery reports and statistics
- Mail Delivery Reports - search the mail log by Sender, Recipient, Message ID, Status and date range, and see how each message ended. A reseller sees only mail of their own domains.
- View Mail Statistics Summary - messages per day and per status, the busiest senders and the busiest receiving domains.
- View Sent Summary - per account and domain: the last hour against the hourly limit, the last 24 hours and the failed or deferred count.
- View Relayers - who sent through this server, and the hosts that may relay without signing in.
- Customers have Track Delivery for their own mail.
Enable DKIM/SPF Globally
Email → Enable DKIM/SPF Globally lists every domain, with its DKIM and SPF state and a header such as 12 of 15 domains protected.
- Enable makes a 2048-bit key pair, keeps it with the account, and writes the
default._domainkeyTXT record and the SPF record into the domain's zone. - Refresh makes a new key and publishes it.
- Disable removes the DKIM record.
- Enable for all and Disable for all do it for every domain at once.
DKIM signs each message a domain sends and SPF lists the servers allowed to send for it, so mail with both lands in spam far less often. Receivers also read DMARC, which new zones get as v=DMARC1; p=none.
Mail Troubleshooter
Email → Mail Troubleshooter: type an address and press the button. The report lists, step by step:
- whether the domain is hosted here, and by which account;
- its routing mode;
- the MX records in this server's zone, and the ones in public DNS;
- whether a mailbox, a forwarder or a mailing list exists for the address;
- how many messages for it wait in the queue.
The last line is a verdict, for example Mail for jane@example.com is delivered to its mailbox on this server or The mailbox exists but incoming mail is suspended. Start here when a customer says mail does not arrive.
The rest of the group
- Repair Mailbox Permissions - for one account or every account, puts the owner and mode of the Maildir folders right again.
- Spamd Startup Configuration - how the SpamAssassin daemon starts: children, connections per child, who may connect, start on boot.
- Greylisting - tells a first-time sender to try again later. Set the Initial block time, the retry window and the list of trusted hosts that are never delayed.
- Security Center → SMTP Restrictions - only the mail server, root and the users you choose may connect to other servers on port 25; everyone else must send through the mail server, so its limits apply.
- Server Contacts → Edit System Mail Preferences - the sender of system mail.
- Tweak Settings → Mail - the hourly e-mail cap per domain, the default mailbox quota (1024 MB), the mailbox format and whether sending needs authentication.
- A package's Max Hourly Email by Domain Relayed and its failed-or-deferred percentage stop one customer's spam from getting the server's IP blocked elsewhere.
Updated 2026-11-02