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4.8 Virtual Email Mapping – Virtmaps
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server can have more than one domain name associated with it. Using more than one domain name on a BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server is called Virtual Hosting. Virtual Hosting is explained in Chapter 15. Email accounts and email aliases can apply to any and all of the domain names associated with your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server. For example, if the domains 123.com and abc.com both point to your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server, then an alias on your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server called webmaster will work for mail sent to webmaster@123.com and webmaster@abc.com.
However, what if you wanted webmaster@123.com to go to a different account than webmaster@abc.com? The solution to this problem is called Virtual email Mapping, or virtmaps.
A virtmap is similar to an email alias, in the sense that it points one email address to another. However, there are three important differences between virtmaps and aliases: (1) Virtmaps are located in a separate file than email aliases. Both files are located in the ~/etc directory, but aliases are stored in a file called “aliases,” while virtmaps are located in a file called “virtmaps.” (2) A virtmap must be defined as an entire email address, including the @ and the domain name. (3) Unlike an alias, a single virtmap cannot point to multiple addresses. A virtmap can, however, point to a single alias, a username, another virtmap, or a complete email address. By default, the virtmaps file looks something like this:
To create a virtmap, edit your virtmaps file using the pico text editor through a Telnet session or you can download
the virtmaps file to your local machine, edit it using notepad and re-upload it to the server. If you choose to download the file before editing make sure to download the file
in ASCII. Use your arrow keys to move to the end of the file and add a line similar to this:
name@yourdomain.com destination,
where name can be any name you choose, yourdomain.com is the domain name of your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server, and the destination is an email account, an alias, another virtmap on your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server, or the complete email address of a
user that is not located on your BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server. Note that unlike the aliases file, you do not
use a colon to separate the name from the destination. You only need a few spaces. You should not use your own
domain name in the destination if the destination user in located on your own BLUEHILL.com Virtual Server.
There are correct examples of virtmaps in your virtmaps file itself, which are commented out with a # sign.
Much like email aliases, entries in your virtmaps file will not take effect until you inform your BLUEHILL.com Virtual
Server that you’ve updated the file.
You need to use the vnewvirtmaps command to load the virtmaps into your
BLUEHILL.com Virtual Servers virtmaps database.
To do this telnet into your server and at the command prompt simply
type vnewvirtmaps:
% vnewvirtmaps
This page last
updated
on September 15, 1998 at 11:09 am PST
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