Setting up webmail for multiple domains (not as addons or parked)

[aclees86]

Hello,

I am currently hosting some websites with individual cPanel accounts and I'm using Roundcube with specific plug-ins as my mail client.

I would like to install Roundcube just once on one domain and have all clients visit this domain for their emails, rather than installing Roundcube for each account. It also solves the problem of having to automate the Roundcube installation which is proving extremely difficult.

So, I've been searching the internet for days and playing around with WHM/cPanel and cannot seem to get what I want.

Just to clarify - www.first-domain.com, www.second-domain.com and www.third-domain.com will all visit www.email-service.com to pick up their emails. None of the domains are hosted as add-on domains or are parked so I cannot create an account in www.email-service.com which would be an email address from their domain.

I've tried playing with MX settings setting them all pointing to www.email-service.com but this has proved useless.

I am gradually automating every single stage of the account set-up process so would like a solution to conform to this.

Any ideas?

 

[Infopro]

You're hoping to run a second instance of Roundcube, instead of using host.domain.com:2096 is that it?

 

[aclees86]

You're hoping to run a second instance of Roundcube, instead of using host.domain.com:2096 is that it?

Yes, I am. But looking to have all separate accounts i set up in WHM to channel emails through this as mail server. I don't have full root access with my provider but I'm starting to realise I may have to switch to somewhere that does so i can do this - am i right?

Thanks

 

[Infopro]

You would have more freedom to experiment and implement things as you wish, yes of course.

What you're looking for is already possible with cPanel, sans the snappy URL email-service.com you're hoping to achieve.

 

[aclees86]

I don't necessarily need to have the snappy domain name, but i do need to be able to host the email service on a separate account. Each account only uses about 15mb but I have to allocate a lot more due to email. If could get all email amounts from one cpanel account i could just allocate 20mb to each account and then adjust the email account limit to cope, saving me a lot of wasted space. Is this possible without needing a mail server (and as such requiring full root access)?

Thanks for your help

 

[Infopro]

Adding a second instance of Roundcube seems like overkill to me, just to restrict email account sizes. Not to mention updating, security and wasted space concerns.

The server has Roundcube installed. Depending on your Redirection settings here:
Home » Server Configuration » Tweak Settings, Redirection tab, when a user visits theirdomain.com/webmail they would be redirected to host.domain.com:2096 where they'd select Roundcube and then login.

You can set the Default user-defined quota for email accounts in WHM as well:
Home » Server Configuration » Tweak Settings, Mail tab. But, this can be changed by the cPanel user who creates the email accounts.

 

[aclees86]

Just to clarify, when I say restrict space I mean to restrict web space. As each website is only c15mb I am currently providing 250mb for each account to allow enough email storage and some users are nearing this limit while others are at about 20mb for website and email combined. I figured that putting email on a separate account would mean I can increase this as necessary while keeping the cpanel account limits for websites at 20mb. doing this will allow me to have better planning for the number of accounts that can be put on my whm. I am currently upgrading my plan frequently just to get more space when technically I dont need it. Out of interest, what security concerns are introduced when using a mail server instead of using the default mail on the account?

Thanks again.

 

[Infopro]

Whether you use the already installed Roundcube, or install your own, you're still using the mailserver as selected in WHM.
Home » Service Configuration » Mailserver Selection
Roundcube is software, not a mail server.

So, if you install your own, does it make use of security tokens? is it using SSL? How will it stay up to date? The version that's installed with cPanel is updated by cPanel automagically when cPanel pushes out Roundcube updates, you'll need to update yours manually.

I'm not trying to talk you out of your idea, but it sounds to me like you're trying to reinvent the wheel here somehow without knowing enough about the system you already have access to, as a Reseller.

20MB accounts are going to be problematic rather quickly I would think. If an end user installs a wordpress site and uploads 4 images to a blog post or gallery, and those images are large, he's out of space. Forget email quota. If he has no site, but 20 email accounts he gave to friends and sends them all a cool 1MB image he took on vacation, all those email accounts get the image, use IMAP and leave email on server, and the account is out of space.

You can set default quota as mentioned previously, you can also set notifications when users are running out of quota, here:
Home » Server Configuration » Tweak Settings, Notifications tab.

 

[aclees86]

Thank you,

The web space i need to allocate is not going to need much space - its a custom CMS system that creates a basic listing almost. Which is why i have an interest in getting all mail from all accounts on to one secluded account i can adjust as necessary. As I'm paying per gb usage at the moment i am upgrading per 4 accounts as i allocate 250mb - if 10 people only use 20mb then that's 2.8gb I'm paying for but not using. If i could get all mail out of their individual accounts onto a separate space i can upgrade only when i actually need to. Clients could also get all the email space they need in this set up.

Do you understand my logic for this? I may be totally missing something here - but if there is a solution without much work then great. I'm just trying to explore options here - I'm not necessarily focussed on one solution.

I get the security comments. I appreciate I would have to find such a solution.

My initial idea was to combat this issue by having a mail server and using roundcube as the client for simplicity and provide some revenue in the form of advertising within this. But I appreciate this may not be the solution I am looking for.

Thanks

 

[Infopro]

As I'm paying per gb usage at the moment....

If it was me, I think I might go find a new Hosting Provider with less restrictions on space used. Using the tools already provided in cPanel, you restrict accounts via Package settings / Quota and users can be notified when running low on space. They can either purchase a larger Package from you, or clear out old email to free up space.

In order to fit into the present needs (per GB usage) you're adding more workload onto yourself, I think.

 

[aclees86]

I think youre right. I just wanted to avoid a migration of accounts, but I guess sooner is better than later.

Thanks for your help on this topic, if nothing else it has helped me learn a few things!

- - - Updated - - -

I think youre right. I just wanted to avoid a migration of accounts, but I guess sooner is better than later.

Thanks for your help on this topic, if nothing else it has helped me learn a few things!

 

[Infopro]

There's a lot to take into consideration when creating your Packages, aside from email and the space used for a small CMS. The docs are helpful there I think to give you some idea of what I mean:

Creating Packages - cPanel Documentation

Good luck!