‍Rainloop is a lightweight, open-source web-based email client that offers fast and efficient access to your emails. If you’re looking to set up Rainloop Webmail on your Ubuntu 22.04 server, you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through the step-by-step process of installing Rainloop Webmail on your server.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. A server running Ubuntu 22.04.
2. A domain name pointing to your server. For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll use the domain rainloop.example.com.
3. A non-root user with sudo privileges.

Step 1: Configure Firewall

To ensure a secure installation, it’s important to configure your firewall properly. By default, Rainloop Webmail requires HTTP and HTTPS ports, as well as ports for the mail accounts you use. Follow these steps to configure your firewall:

1. Check the status of your firewall by running the following command:

   sudo ufw status

You should see something like the following:

Status: active

To               Action         From
--               ------         ----
OpenSSH          ALLOW          Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)     ALLOW          Anywhere (v6)

2. Allow HTTP and HTTPS ports by running the following commands:

   sudo ufw allow http
   sudo ufw allow https

3. Open ports for the mail accounts you use. For example, if you use ports 587, 993, and 465, run the following commands:

   sudo ufw allow 587/tcp
   sudo ufw allow 993/tcp
   sudo ufw allow 465/tcp

4. Confirm the changes by running sudo ufw status again. You should see the newly added rules in the output.

Status: active

To                      Action            From
--                      ------            ----
OpenSSH                 ALLOW             Anywhere
80/tcp                  ALLOW             Anywhere
443                     ALLOW             Anywhere
587/tcp                 ALLOW             Anywhere
993/tcp                 ALLOW             Anywhere
465/tcp                 ALLOW             Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)            ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)
80/tcp (v6)             ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)
443 (v6)                ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)
587/tcp (v6)            ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)
993/tcp (v6)            ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)
465/tcp (v6)            ALLOW             Anywhere (v6)

With your firewall properly configured, you can now proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Install Nginx

To install Rainloop Webmail, we need a web server. Ubuntu 22.04 ships with an older version of Nginx, so we’ll install the latest version. Follow these steps to install Nginx:

1. Import Nginx’s signing key by running the following command:

   curl https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

2. Add the repository for Nginx’s stable version by running the following command:

   echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` nginx" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

3. Update the system repositories by running the following command:

   sudo apt update

4. Install Nginx by running the following command:

   sudo apt install nginx

5. Verify the installation by running the following command:

   nginx -v

You should see the version of Nginx installed, for example:

   nginx version: nginx/1.22.0

With Nginx successfully installed, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 3: Install and Configure PHP

Rainloop Webmail requires PHP to function properly. However, Ubuntu 22.04 ships with PHP 8.1 by default, and Rainloop Webmail requires PHP 8.0. Follow these steps to install and configure PHP:

1. Add Ondrej’s PHP repository by running the following command:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

2. Install PHP and the required extensions by running the following command:

   sudo apt install php8.0-fpm php8.0-curl php8.0-mbstring php8.0-mysql php8.0-xml php8.0-cli

3. Verify the installation by running the following command:

   php --version

You should see the version of PHP installed, for example:

PHP 8.0.20 (cli) (built: Jun 25 2022 08:12:05) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.0.20, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.0.20, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

4. Check the status of the PHP service by running the following command:

   sudo systemctl status php8.0-fpm

Ensure that the service is active and running.

5. Open the php.ini file for editing by running the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini

6. Locate the following variables and change their values to set the mail attachment size to 25MB:

   upload_max_filesize = 25M
   post_max_size = 25M

Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.

7. Open the file /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf for editing by running the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

8. Find the lines user=apache and group=apache in the file and change them as follows:

   user = nginx
   group = nginx

Also, find the lines listen.owner = www-data and listen.group = www-data and change them as follows:

   listen.owner = nginx
   listen.group = nginx

Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.

9. Restart the PHP-FPM service by running the following command:

   sudo systemctl restart php8.0-fpm

With PHP installed and configured, let’s proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Install MySQL

Rainloop Webmail requires a MySQL database to store contact information. Ubuntu 22.04 ships with the latest version of MySQL, so let’s install it:

1. Install MySQL by running the following command:

   sudo apt install mysql-server

2. Check the version of MySQL by running the following command:

   mysql --version

You should see the version of MySQL installed, for example:

   mysql Ver 8.0.29-0ubuntu0.22.04.2 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))

3. Set the password for the MySQL root user by running the following command:

   sudo mysql

This will open the MySQL shell.

4. Run the following command in the MySQL shell to set the password for the root user. Replace YourPassword12! with a strong password of your choice.

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'YourPassword12!';

5. Exit the MySQL shell by running the following command:

   exit

6. Run the MySQL secure installation script by running the following command:

   sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the prompts to secure your MySQL installation. You’ll be asked to provide your root password, install the Validate Password Component, and set the level of the password validation policy. Choose the options that suit your requirements.

With MySQL installed and secure, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 5: Configure MySQL

Before we can use MySQL with Rainloop Webmail, we need to create a database and a user with the necessary privileges. Follow these steps to configure MySQL:

1. Log in to the MySQL shell by running the following command:

   sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter your root password when prompted.

2. Create a database for Rainloop Webmail by running the following command:

CREATE DATABASE rainloop;

3. Create an SQL user to access the database. Replace YourPassword23! with a strong password of your choice.

CREATE USER 'rainuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourPassword23!';

4. Grant the rainuser access to the rainloop database by running the following command:

GRANT ALL ON rainloop.* TO 'rainuser'@'localhost';

5. Reload the privilege table by running the following command:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

6. Exit the MySQL shell by running the following command:

   exit

With MySQL properly configured, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 6: Install Rainloop

Now that we have all the necessary prerequisites in place, we can proceed to install Rainloop Webmail. Follow these steps to install Rainloop:

1. Create the public directory for Rainloop by running the following command:

   sudo mkdir /var/www/html/rainloop -p

2. Download the latest version of Rainloop by running the following command:

   wget http://www.rainloop.net/repository/webmail/rainloop-community-latest.zip

3. Unzip the downloaded file to the public directory by running the following command:

   sudo unzip rainloop-community-latest.zip -d /var/www/html/rainloop

4. Change the ownership of the directory to Nginx by running the following command:

   sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/html/rainloop

5. Set the read and write permissions required by Rainloop by running the following commands:

sudo find /var/www/html/rainloop -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/html/rainloop -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

With Rainloop successfully installed, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 7: Install SSL

To secure the communication between your server and the Rainloop Webmail client, it’s important to install an SSL certificate. We’ll use Certbot to generate free SSL certificates offered by Let’s Encrypt. Follow these steps to install SSL:

1. Install Certbot by running the following command:

   sudo snap install --classic certbot

2. Create a symbolic link to the /usr/bin directory by running the following command:

   sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

3. Generate an SSL certificate for Rainloop Webmail by running the following command:

   sudo certbot certonly --standalone --agree-tos --no-eff-email --staple-ocsp --preferred-challenges http -m test@example.com -d rainloop.example.com

4. Generate a Diffie-Hellman group certificate by running the following command:

   sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem 4096

5. Open the file /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/rainloop.example.com.conf for editing by running the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/rainloop.example.com.conf

6. Paste the following code at the bottom of the file:

   pre_hook = systemctl stop nginx
   post_hook = systemctl start nginx

Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.

7. To ensure that the SSL renewal process is working fine, do a dry run by running the following command:

   sudo certbot renew --dry-run

If you see no errors, your SSL certificate will renew automatically.

With SSL installed and configured, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 8: Configure Nginx

Now that we have Rainloop Webmail and SSL installed, we need to configure Nginx to serve the Rainloop Webmail client. Follow these steps to configure Nginx:

1. Open the file nginx.conf for editing by running the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

2. Find the line include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; and paste the following code below it:

   server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.

3. Create the Rainloop configuration file for Nginx and open it for editing by running the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/rainloop.conf

4. Paste the following code into the file:

   server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
server_name rainloop.example.com;
root /var/www/html/rainloop;
index index.php;
client_max_body_size 25M;
access_log /var/log/nginx/rainloop.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/rainloop.error.log;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/rainloop.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/rainloop.example.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/rainloop.example.com/chain.pem;
ssl_session_timeout 5m;
ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;
ssl_session_tickets off;
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;
ssl_ecdh_curve X25519:prime256v1:secp384r1:secp521r1;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_keep_conn on;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
location ^~ /data {
deny all;
}
}

# enforce HTTPS
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name rainloop.example.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Save the file by pressing  Ctrl + X and entering Y when prompted.

5. Verify the syntax of the Nginx configuration by running the following command:

   sudo nginx -t

6. Restart the Nginx service by running the following command:

   sudo systemctl restart nginx

With Nginx properly configured, let’s move on to the final step.

Step 9: Configure and Access Rainloop Webmail

Now that everything is set up, it’s time to configure Rainloop Webmail and start using it. Follow these steps to configure and access Rainloop Webmail:

1. Open Rainloop’s Administrator page by visiting the URL https://rainloop.example.com/?admin in your web browser.
2. You will be presented with a login screen. Enter the following credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: 12345Press enter to log in.

1. The Rainloop administrator dashboard will open with a warning to change your default password. Follow the instructions provided to change your password and click the “Update Password” button to proceed.
2. Rainloop uses MySQL to store contact information. Open the Contacts page within the Rainloop administrator dashboard and select MySQL from the dropdown menu.
3. Enter the database credentials you created earlier and press the “Test” button to check the connection and install the necessary tables. If the button turns green, it means the connection is successful.
4. You’re all set! Start using Rainloop Webmail by adding your mail accounts and configuring them according to your needs.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Rainloop Webmail on your Ubuntu 22.04 server. By following this comprehensive guide, you now have a fully functional web-based email client that offers fast and efficient access to your emails. If you have any questions or run into any issues, feel free to reach out to us for assistance. Happy emailing!

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