initial commit

content/blog/send-mail-from-gitlab-through-mandrill-using-postfix/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+date: 2015-06-01
+title: Send mail from Gitlab through Mandrill using Postfix
+slug: send-mail-from-gitlab-through-mandrill-using-postfix
+category: linux
+featured_image: http://i.imgur.com/W709cC9m.png
+---
+
+I am a fan of Gitlab. While Github is great, and I [use it
+heavily](https://github.com/chriscowley), one should never be 100%
+reliant on the whims of a for-profit company. After all, their agenda is
+not the same as mine and could chang in the future. I also use it for
+projects at work where we do not necessarily want to allow public
+access.
+
+Sending emails however is a little complicated. A good email server
+needs DNS and and SMTP properly configured. You then spend all your
+waking hours ensuring that you are not on any blacklists. Once you have
+done that you may even have to time to do the rest of your job.
+
+[Mandrill](https://mandrillapp.com/) takes care of all this for you,
+then provides both SMTP and REST access. Gitlab, by default, uses SMTP
+to send its emails, so you simply configure your SMTP server of choice
+to use Mandrill to relay its messages. Personally I use Postfix as it is
+installed by default on RHEL/CentOS.
+
+In Gitlab, there is nothing to do on a default install. It will use
+whatever your servers install MTA is. This actually means that this post
+is actually in no way related to Gitlab - Postfix/Mandrill only.
+
+You will need to install `cyrus-sasl-plain`:
+
+    sudo yum install cyrus-sasl-plain`
+
+Modify the file /etc/postfix/main.cf to contain:
+
+    myorigin = example.com
+    smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
+    smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
+    smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
+    smtp_use_tls = yes
+    relayhost = [smtp.mandrillapp.com]
+
+Next you need to get the credentials Postfix will use to connect to
+Mandrill. Go into \"Settings\" -\> \"SMTP & API Info\". Create a new API
+key for Gitlab. You account name is your username, and this API key will
+be your password. You can use any API key or a single API key for many
+services, but I use a separate key for each service. That way, if a
+service is compromised, I can just delete the key to block it.
+
+<img src="/images/GYvvKrx.png" class='image-process-article-image' />
+
+Create the file `/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd` containing:
+
+    [smtp.mandrillapp.com] <your-account-name>:<a-long-key>
+
+You need to secure that, so run `chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd`.
+
+Finally, you need to map that file and restart Postfix:
+
+    sudo /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
+    sudo systemctl restart postfix
+
+Voila, now you should be able to send emails from the CLI and Gitlab.