How to Install Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04

Introduction

Before we begin talking about how to install Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04, let's briefly understand – What is Rainloop Webmail?

Rainloop Webmail is a user-friendly web-based email client that allows you to access and manage your emails conveniently from any device with an internet connection. It offers a sleek and intuitive interface, making it easy to compose, send, receive, and organize your emails efficiently.

With its responsive design and customizable features, Rainloop Webmail ensures a seamless and personalized email experience. Stay connected and in control of your messages with this versatile webmail solution.

In this tutorial, you will install and use Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04. We will also address a few FAQs on how to install Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04.

Advantages of Rainloop Webmail

1. User-Friendly Interface: Rainloop Webmail offers a sleek and intuitive interface for easy email management.
2. Accessibility: Access your emails conveniently from any device with an internet connection.
3. Efficient Organization: Easily compose, send, receive, and organize your emails for improved productivity.
4. Responsive Design: Enjoy a seamless email experience with a design that adapts to different screen sizes.
5. Customization: Personalize your webmail experience with customizable features to suit your preferences.

Prerequisites to Install Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04

• Ubuntu 22.04 running server.
• A server-pointing domain name. We will make use of the domain rainloop.example.com for our tutorial.
• A non-root user with sudo privileges.
• Make sure everything is updated.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

• Set up the essential utility packages. Some of these may already be installed in your machine.

sudo apt install wget curl nano unzip -y

Step 1 – Configure Firewall

The first step before installing Rainloop is to set up the firewall. Verify the firewall's condition.

sudo ufw status

You will get an output like below:

Output

Status: active

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

For Rainloop to work, HTTP and HTTPS ports are required.

sudo ufw allow http
sudo ufw allow https

For the mail accounts you should use, open ports.

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

To confirm, check the status:

sudo ufw status

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)

Step 2 – Install Nginx

Nginx is shipped with an outdated version of Ubuntu 22.04. You must obtain the official Nginx repository in order to install the most recent version.

Import the signing key for Nginx.

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

Adding the stable version of Nginx's repository.

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

Use the following command to update the system repositories.

sudo apt update

Install Nginx.

sudo apt install nginx

Check the installation:

nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/1.22.0

Step 3 – Install and Configure PHP

PHP 8.1 is preinstalled in Ubuntu 22.04 by default. But we must install PHP 8.0 in order for Rainloop to function. The PHP repository maintained by Ondrej must be added first.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Install PHP and the Rainloop required extensions.

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

Confirm the installation.

php --version

Output

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

See the status of the PHP service.

sudo systemctl status php8.0-fpm

Output 


? php8.0-fpm.service - The PHP 8.0 FastCGI Process Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/php8.0-fpm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-07-04 01:52:55 UTC; 1min 22s ago
       Docs: man:php-fpm8.0(8)
    Process: 12463 ExecStartPost=/usr/lib/php/php-fpm-socket-helper install /run/php/php-fpm.sock /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf 80 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 12460 (php-fpm8.0)
     Status: "Processes active: 0, idle: 2, Requests: 0, slow: 0, Traffic: 0req/sec"
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 2241)
     Memory: 8.7M
        CPU: 89ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/php8.0-fpm.service
             ??12460 "php-fpm: master process (/etc/php/8.0/fpm/php-fpm.conf)

To edit, access the php.ini file.

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

To set the maximum mail attachment size at 25 MB, modify the values of the following variables.

upload_max_filesize = 25M
post_max_size = 25M

By hitting Ctrl + X and typing Y when requested, you can save the file.

Open the /etc/php/8.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf file.

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

Replace the lines in the file that say user=apache and group=apachewith ones mentioned below.

...
; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group
;       will be used.
; RPM: apache user chosen to provide access to the same directories as httpd
user = nginx
; RPM: Keep a group allowed to write in log dir.
group = nginx
...

Also, locate listen.owner = www-data and listen.group = www-data and make the following changes to them.

...
; Set permissions for unix socket, if one is used. In Linux, read/write
; permissions must be set in order to allow connections from a web server. Many
; BSD-derived systems allow connections regardless of permissions. The owner
; and group can be specified either by name or by their numeric IDs.
; Default Values: user and group are set as the running user
;                 mode is set to 0660
listen.owner = nginx
listen.group = nginx
...

By hitting Ctrl + X and typing Y when requested, you can save the file.

Start the PHP-FPM service again.

sudo systemctl restart php8.0-fpm

Step 4 – Install MySQL

The most recent version of MySQL is included with Ubuntu 22.04. It may be set up using a single command.

sudo apt install mysql-server

Confirm the MySQL version.

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

For MySQL versions, 8.0.28 and later, this step is required. Activate the MySQL Shell.

sudo mysql

Execute the following command to change the root user's password. A mix of numerals, uppercase, lowercase, and special characters should be used.

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

Exit the shell using the below command:

mysql> exit

Execute the script to install MySQL securely.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

You will initially be prompted for your root password. Access it. You will then be prompted to install the component for password validation. It evaluates the security of MySQL passwords. To install it, press Y.

The level of the password validation policy will then need to be configured. The strongest option is 2, therefore pick that one.

Hit N to continue refusing the change of your root password. Moreover, select Y to delete the test database, disable remote root logins, remove anonymous users, and reload the privilege tables.

Step 5 – Configure MySQL

Open the MySQL shell and log in. When prompted, enter your root password.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Make a Rainloop database.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE rainloop;

In order to access the database, create a SQL user. Change yourpassword to a different password of your choosing.

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

Ensure rainuser has database access.

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

Load the privilege table again.

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the shell using:

mysql> exit

Step 6 – Install Rainloop

Make a public directory for Rainloop.

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

Download the most recent version of Rainloop.

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

Execute the following to unzip the downloaded file to the public directory.

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

Next, change the directory's ownership to Nginx.

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

Grant read and write permissions required by Rainloop.

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

Step 7 – Install SSL

To create the free SSL certificates provided by Let's Encrypt, we first install Certbot.

Either use the Ubuntu repository to install Certbot or use Snapd to download the most recent version. The Snapd version is what we'll be using.

Snapd is preinstalled in Ubuntu 22.04 by default. To ensure that your version of Snapd is up-to-date, run the following command:

sudo snap install core

Install Certbot.

sudo snap install --classic certbot

By making a symbolic link to the /usr/bin directory, the following command can be used to make sure that the Certbot command can be executed.

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

For Rainloop, create an SSL certificate.

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

Create a Diffie-Hellman group certificate.

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

Editing can be done by opening the file /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/rainloop.example.com.conf.

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

Add the next line of code to the bottom.

pre_hook = systemctl stop nginx
post_hook = systemctl start nginx

By hitting Ctrl + X and typing Y when requested, you can save the file.

Using Certbot's standalone option, we created the SSL certificate. Nginx should be turned off while the certificate is being renewed because it operates its web server to create the certificate. The pre_hook and post_hook commands automatically shut down and restart the Nginx server before and after the renewal, requiring no additional manual work.

Do a dry run to ensure the SSL renewal is functioning properly.

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

You are good to go if there are no errors. Your certificate will automatically renew each year.

Step 8 – Configure Nginx

To edit, launch the nginx.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Paste the following code beneath the line include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; that you found.

server_names_hash_bucket_size  64;

By hitting Ctrl + X and typing Y when requested, you can save the file.

The Rainloop configuration file for Nginx should be created and edited.

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

Add the next line of code to it.

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;
}

By hitting Ctrl + X and typing Y when requested, you can save the file.

If you don't have a domain, you can use the below configuration:

server {

    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    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;


    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;
    }
}

Check the syntax of the Nginx configuration, and remove default conf.

sudo nginx -t
sudo rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Start the Nginx service again.

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 9 – Configure and Access Rainloop

The following login screen will appear when you access Rainloop's Administrator page through the URL https://rainloop.example.com/?admin.

To log in, type the following information and hit Enter.

Username: admin
Password: 12345

A prompt to update your default password will appear when you first access the Rainloop administrator dashboard.

Use the link on the dashboard to alter the default password.

To continue, enter a new password and press the Update Password button.

In order to maintain contact information, Rainloop uses MySQL. Choose MySQL from the dropdown menu on the Contacts page.

Type in the database credentials you already created.

To check the connection and install the tables, click the Test button. The connection is successful if the button turns green.

Add your mail accounts to Rainloop to get started utilizing it.

FAQs to Install Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04

Conclusion

We hope this detailed tutorial helped you to install and use Rainloop Webmail on Ubuntu 22.04.

If you have any queries or doubts, please leave them in the comment below. We'll be happy to address them.