[TriLUG] Managing postfix/squirrelmail

[Douglas Ward]

I have been tasked to set up a new e-mail server that will manage about 1000
mailboxes and have decided to use postfix. We can't afford to purchase 1000
additional Exchange licenses.  I am interested in anyone's experiences in
the following areas:

1) I intend to set up the users (regular system accounts) on the server and
store their mailboxes in the /home/username directory.  I can easily back up
the mailbox using rsync.  How can I back up the user accounts in case the
server were to ever fail?  I don't think that backing up /etc/passwd will
catch the passwords.

2) I am eying squirrelmail as the webmail application.  With the use of lots
of plug-ins I can get close to the Exchange server that I am replacing.
Does anyone know of any other webmail applications that come closer to
Outlook Web Access out of the box?  I am specifically thinking about auto
forwarding, out of office assistant, calendar, address book groups, contact
imports, etc...

I would appreciate any help that can be offered.  Thanks!