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How to check what Message Transfer Agent is used on the server with Plesk and how to switch it?

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Maxim Krasikov
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Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Question

How to check what Message Transfer Agent is used on the server with Plesk and how to switch it?

Answer

Starting from Plesk version 9 only two Message Transfer Agents (MTA) are supported - QMail and Postfix. Only one of them is used at a time.

The currently used MTA can be seen checked the following ways:

In Plesk:

  1. Log into Plesk.

  2. Open Tools & Settings > Services Management:

  3. Find SMTP Server line. Depending on the installed MTA it will be:

    SMTP Server (Postfix)
    or
    SMTP Server (QMail)

Directly on the server:

  1. Connect to the server via SSH.

  2. Execute the following command:

    # plesk sbin mailmng-server --features | grep SMTP_Server

    Depending on the installed MTA output will be:

    # plesk sbin mailmng-server --features | grep SMTP_Server
    $features['SMTP_Server'] = "Postfix";
    $features['SMTP_Server_package'] = "postfix";

    or

    # plesk sbin mailmng-server --features | grep SMTP_Server
    $features['SMTP_Server'] = "QMail";
    $features['SMTP_Server_package'] = "psa-qmail";

There are two ways of changing used MTA:

In Plesk:

  1. Log into Plesk.

  2. Open Tools & Settings > Updates and Upgrades > Add/Remove Components > Mail Hosting > SMTP servers.

  3. Select the necessary SMTP server - QMail or Postfix.

  4. Click Continue > Install.

Directly on the server:

  1. Connect to the server via SSH.

  2. Install the necessary SMTP server:

    • Postfix

      # plesk installer --select-release-current --install-component postfix

    • QMail

      # plesk installer --select-release-current --install-component qmail

    or

    Start Plesk installer and select the necessary SMTP server in Mail Hosting section:

    # plesk installer

Additional Information

Before switching, it is recommended to wait until all queued mails are delivered and stop the SMTP service to stop receiving emails.

The SMTP service can be stopped:

In Plesk:

  1. Log into Plesk.

  2. Open Tools & Settings > Services Management.

  3. Stop the service SMTP Server.

Directly on the server:

  1. Connect to the server via SSH.

  2. Execute the following command:

    # plesk sbin mailmng-service --stop-service

To flush the queue, use the following commands:

For QMail:

# kill -ALRM pidof qmail-send

For Postfix:

# postqueue -f

Comments

6 comments

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  • Avatar
    Arnaud (Edited )

    [Plesk Onyx 17.8.11] > Unknown Plesk command-line utility: "mailmng-server"

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  • Avatar
    Ivan Postnikov

    Hello @Arnaud, such behavior was not reproduced on a test server, the command worked without issues.

    # plesk sbin mailmng-service --stop-service
    # plesk -v
    Product version: Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 Update #8
    Update date: 2018/05/24 18:04
    Build date: 2018/05/17 15:37
    OS version: CentOS 7.4.1708

    What OS do you use and what mail server do you have installed?

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  • Avatar
    Arnaud

    weird ...
    here are the same commands, 
    no clue about the mail server installed (or maybe no mail server installed, I was trying to setup external smtp but realized a mail server might be mandatory for relaying .. ?)

    root@platform:~# plesk sbin mailmng-service --stop-service
    Unknown Plesk command-line utility: "mailmng-service"
    root@platform:~# plesk -v
    Product version: Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 Update #8
     Update date: 2018/05/26 06:27
     Build date: 2018/05/17 10:37
     OS version: Debian 8.10
     Revision: c3fb546fb867ac424d65da14d8b023f11ec0d150
     Architecture: 64-bit
    Wrapper version: 1.2
    root@platform:~#
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  • Avatar
    Ivan Postnikov

    @Arnaud, sorry for late response, have you tried this article to achieve the goal?

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  • Avatar
    Arnaud

    Hi, perfectly fine now, my postfix was disabled, and so was mailmng at the same time

    thank you 

    - Arnaud

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  • Avatar
    Ivan Postnikov

    Hello, @Arnaud.

    Thank you for the answer.

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