HP-UX Mailing Solutions White Paper

Executive Summary
This white paper discusses how to setup the mail server using Sendmail in an HP-UX operating
system and how to obtain additional security, anti-spamming, and antivirus features in the mail
server using various products. The paper also includes selected usage models and examples,
and the benefits of using these on HP-UX systems.
Intended Audience
This white paper is intended for HP customers currently using Sendmail or planning to use
Sendmail, system administrators, and Sendmail support engineers. This white paper is also
intended for HP field and consulting personnel who advise customers on solutions for their
environments. It is assumed that the reader has functional knowledge of Sendmail and its usage.
Introduction
Sendmail 8.13.3 is the latest Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) available on the HP-UX operating system.
It contains the required enhanced security, performance, and anti-spamming technologies. This
white paper focuses on the basic server setup perspective of Sendmail. It also discusses the
anti-spamming and virus-filtering features in Sendmail.
The following components are required to setup a basic mail server:
• Message Transfer Agent
• Message Delivery Agent
• Message Access Agent
The subsequent sections discusses the components in detail.
Setting up the Mail Server
This section discusses the components required to setup a mail server.
This section addresses the following topics:
• “Message Transfer Agent” (page 7)
• “Message Delivery Agent ” (page 9)
• “Message Access Agent” (page 10)
Message Transfer Agent
Sendmail is the most popular UNIX®-based implementation of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP) for transmitting email between users in a network. When a Sendmail server receives an
email message, it attempts to deliver the mail to the intended recipient immediately and if the
recipient does not exist, it queues email messages for later delivery.
Sendmail provides the following advantages over other MTAs:
• Better relay checking
• Better DNS failure rejection
• Access restriction for hosts, user, and network
• Better industry support, documentation, and ongoing development
• Graphical administration tools for most environments through Webmin
• New techniques for mail filtering or rejection such as content filters of distributed database
through DNS
Configuring Sendmail in an HP-UX System
This section discusses the prerequisites and procedure to configure Sendmail in an HP-UX system.
Executive Summary 7