What is MxCentral for iRedMail?

MxCentral is a Laravel-based admin panel for existing iRedMail SQL installations. It manages the iRedMail databases and selected service configuration points without replacing the underlying mail stack.

Which iRedMail areas can MxCentral manage?

MxCentral manages domains, users, aliases, mailing lists, admin ownership, quarantine, throttling, white and blacklists, DKIM, DNS checks, SOGo branding, mail metadata, exports, and optional Fail2ban unban actions.

Does MxCentral replace SOGo or the mail server?

No. MxCentral is an admin control panel for an existing iRedMail host. It links to SOGo for webmail and keeps Postfix, Dovecot, Amavisd, iRedAPD, and the existing iRedMail databases in place.

How can operators test mail settings after changes?

Operators can use MXToolbox to send a real test message to a one-time recipient address and inspect SPF, DKIM, DMARC, BIMI, DNS trace, MIME structure, safe HTML preview, raw source redaction, and SMTP evidence.

MxCentral

A focused control plane for mail admins who already run iRedMail and want clearer day-to-day management without replacing the mail stack.

View the app Test mail settings

Backend: Laravel
Target: iRedMail SQL
Databases: MariaDB/MySQL

Admin portal

Manage the iRedMail pieces admins touch every week.

MxCentral works with the existing iRedMail databases directly: vmail for accounts and domains, iredadmin for sessions and audit data, amavisd for quarantine and policy data, iredapd for throttling, and optional fail2ban integration for blocked IPs.

Domains and DNS

Create domains, tune limits and transport, enable Backup MX, manage alias domains, configure catch-all destinations, and run MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks from the domain screen.

Users and access

Create mailboxes, update quota and passwords, toggle per-user services, delete users with mailbox path logging, assign domain admins, and keep mailbox self-service separate from global controls.

Aliases and lists

Manage aliases and mailing lists with members, owners, policies, descriptions, max message sizes, and active status using the same control surface as domains and users.

Quarantine workflow

View quarantined messages, inspect raw mail safely, delete selected messages, send Amavisd release requests, and run scheduled recipient notifications for newly quarantined mail.

Policy controls

Set throttling, manage Amavisd white and blacklists, allow selected sender mismatch accounts, approve unauthenticated senders or networks, and silently discard selected recipients through Postfix maps.

Operational visibility

Search accounts, review sent and received metadata, export managed accounts and admin statistics, inspect setup health, expose JSON read surfaces, and optionally unban Fail2ban IPs.

Built for real hosts

Local auth, narrow server permissions, visible file ownership.

The app does not need to own the whole server. It uses local iRedMail accounts for login, applies global-admin/domain-admin/self-service scoping, and runs configured system commands as argument arrays instead of shell strings.

DKIM management

Generate per-domain DKIM keys, write a marked MxCentral block into the Amavisd config, keep private keys on disk, show DNS records, and test the result.

System settings

Edit iRedAPD, Postfix, and SOGo-related settings through global-only screens, with .bak files and per-target lock files around managed writes.

SOGo connection

Link users to webmail and optionally manage the SOGo root page logo override so the webmail entry point matches the hosted brand.

Deployment model

Mount under a subdirectory such as /mxcentral, keep the remote .env on the server, and deploy without overwriting live storage or host-specific credentials.

Companion tool

Use MXToolbox to test the server from the outside.

After changing DNS, DKIM, SPF, DMARC, policy, or delivery settings in MxCentral, send a real message to MXToolbox. It creates an anonymous token session, gives you a one-time recipient address, waits for the message, and builds a report from the captured email and related DNS evidence.

SPF DKIM DMARC BIMI DNS trace MIME structure Safe HTML preview SMTP evidence

Open MXToolbox

MXToolbox email inspection preview — Anonymous email inspection with token-based reports and short-retention evidence.

Install path

Add a focused control panel to an existing iRedMail server.

MxCentral is deployed from a workstation checkout to the mail server. Clone the repo, configure the private target in an ignored Makefile.local, run make deploy from the repo root, keep the server .env and storage/ out of rsync, then finish sudoers, ACLs, nginx, cron, and post-install checks.

Read install guide Open GitHub

paul@mxcentral.net:~$ git clone git@github.com:TerminalAddict/mxcentral-for-iRedmail.git
paul@mxcentral.net:~$ cd mxcentral-for-iRedmail

paul@mxcentral.net:~/mxcentral-for-iRedmail$ cat > Makefile.local <<'EOF'
DEPLOY_HOST := root@your-mail-server
DEPLOY_PATH := /opt/www/mxcentral-for-iRedmail
EOF

paul@mxcentral.net:~/mxcentral-for-iRedmail$ make deploy

Deploy targetThe current deploy creates cache/storage directories, rsyncs the app, skips .env, storage/, SQLite files, node_modules/, and public/hot, then runs remote ownership and cache clearing.

Remote environmentUse DB_CONNECTION=sqlite with SESSION_DRIVER=file, CACHE_STORE=array, and QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync unless you intentionally add a separate Laravel database.

Existing installsUse scripts/deploy-rsync.sh for repeat deployments to existing MxCentral paths; it preserves host files and checks ownership.