Getting Started

CeyMail Mission Control is a self-hosted mail server management platform that transforms the complexity of running your own email infrastructure into a single command. It installs and configures Postfix, Dovecot, OpenDKIM, SpamAssassin, MariaDB, and a modern web dashboard -- so you can manage domains, users, DKIM keys, mail queues, AI spam screening, and more without touching config files.

Prerequisites

Before installing CeyMail, make sure you have the following ready:

• A VPS or dedicated server running Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04 or Debian 11 / 12
• At least 512 MB of RAM (1 GB+ recommended, 2 GB+ for AI spam screening)
• A registered domain name with access to DNS management
• A public IPv4 address that is not on any major email blacklists
• Root access (the installer must run as root)
• An external email address for Let's Encrypt certificate notifications (e.g., a Gmail address -- cannot be on the domain you are setting up)

Step 1: Prepare DNS records

The installer will attempt to provision SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt, which requires your domains to resolve to the server. You need two A records -- one for the mail hostname and one for the dashboard subdomain.

Replace example.com with your actual domain and 203.0.113.10 with your server's public IP.

Verify the A records have propagated before continuing:

dig +short mail.example.com
dig +short mc.example.com

Both should return your server IP.

Step 2: Install CeyMail

SSH into your server as root and run:

curl -sSL https://ceymail.com/install | sudo bash

The installer is interactive -- it will prompt you for three pieces of information:

1. Mail domain -- The hostname for your mail server (e.g., mail.example.com)
2. Dashboard subdomain -- Where Mission Control will be accessible (e.g., mc.example.com)
3. Let's Encrypt email -- An external email for SSL certificate notifications (e.g., you@gmail.com)

After collecting your inputs, the installer runs through the following steps automatically:

• Detects and configures your web server (Nginx or Apache)
• Installs Node.js 22, MariaDB, and system dependencies
• Creates the ceymail and ceymail_dashboard databases
• Generates DH parameters for Postfix TLS
• Downloads and deploys the Mission Control dashboard
• Configures the firewall (UFW) with required ports
• Provisions SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt (if DNS is ready)

The entire process typically completes in 3-5 minutes on a standard VPS. When finished, you will see a summary with your dashboard URL.

Step 3: Complete the setup wizard

Open the dashboard URL shown in the installer summary (e.g., https://mc.example.com). You will be redirected to the Welcome Wizard at /welcome, which walks you through:

1. Database verification -- Confirms the MariaDB connection is working
2. Admin account creation -- Set your dashboard username and password
3. Completion -- Setup is finalized and you are redirected to log in

After logging in, you are redirected to the Install Wizard at /install, which configures the mail services:

1. System check -- Verifies OS, disk, RAM, and CPU meet requirements
2. PHP version selection -- Choose which PHP version to install (for Roundcube webmail)
3. Core package installation -- Installs Postfix, Dovecot, OpenDKIM, SpamAssassin, and more
4. Domain configuration -- Confirms your mail hostname and domain
5. SSL certificates -- Generates mail-specific SSL certificates
6. Service configuration -- Writes Postfix, Dovecot, and OpenDKIM config files
7. DKIM setup -- Generates DKIM signing keys for your domain
8. Permissions -- Sets correct file ownership and modes
9. Service activation -- Starts and enables all mail services
10. Webmail -- Installs and configures Roundcube webmail
11. Summary -- Displays all DNS records you need to add

Step 4: Add DNS records

After the install wizard completes, the summary page displays all DNS records you need to add at your domain registrar:

You can copy these directly from the install wizard's summary page or from the DNS page in the dashboard.

Step 5: Set reverse DNS

Contact your hosting provider to set the PTR (reverse DNS) record for your server IP to point to your mail hostname:

IP:     203.0.113.10
PTR:    mail.example.com

Many receiving mail servers reject or deprioritize email from servers without valid reverse DNS.

Next steps

• Installation -- Detailed system requirements, firewall configuration, and troubleshooting
• Basic Configuration -- DNS records, SSL, SMTP relay, and AI spam screening
• API Reference -- Manage domains, users, and aliases through the dashboard API