How to Install Piler on NixOS

Piler is an open source email archiving solution that is used for email retention, e-discovery and compliance. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Piler on the latest version of NixOS.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure that you have the following:

A server or virtual machine running NixOS
A user account with sudo privileges

Step 1: Update your system

Before we start installing packages, we need to make sure that our system is up to date. To do this, run the following command:

sudo nix-channel --update
sudo nix-env -iA nixpkgs.nixos-unstable
sudo nixos-rebuild switch

This command will update your system and install the latest version of NixOS.

Step 2: Install required packages

Next, we need to install the packages required for Piler. To do this, run the following command:

sudo nix-env -iA nixpkgs.mariadb postfix perl perlPackages.DBI perlPackages.DBDmysql

This command will install the following packages:

Mariadb: a database server used by Piler
Postfix: a mail server used by Piler
Perl: a programming language used by Piler
PerlPackages.DBI: a perl module used by Piler to connect to the database
PerlPackages.DBDMysql: a perl module used by Piler to connect to the MariaDB database

Step 3: Download and install Piler

Next, we need to download and install Piler. To do this, follow these steps:

Download Piler from the official website by going to the following link: https://www.mailpiler.org/download/latest
Extract the downloaded archive by running the following command:
```
tar -xvf piler-latest.tar.gz
```
Move the extracted directory to the /opt directory:
```
sudo mv piler-*/ /opt/piler
```
Create a symbolic link to make the piler command available systemwide:
```
sudo ln -s /opt/piler/bin/piler /usr/bin/piler
```

Step 4: Setup Piler

Now we need to setup Piler by configuring the database and mail server settings. Follow these steps to configure Piler:

Create a new database for Piler by running the following commands:
```
sudo mariadb
CREATE DATABASE piler;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON piler.* TO 'pileruser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
quit
```
This will create a new database named "piler" and grant privileges to a user named "pileruser" with a password of "password".

Configure Postfix by editing the /etc/postfix/main.cf file and adding the following lines:

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination
smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot
smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes

These settings will allow Piler to send and receive emails.

Configure Piler by copying the example configuration file and modifying it with the new settings:

sudo cp /opt/piler/etc/piler.conf.example /opt/piler/etc/piler.conf
sudo nano /opt/piler/etc/piler.conf

In the file, change the following settings:

db_name = piler
db_user = pileruser
db_password = password
hostname = <your_hostname>
smtp_server = <your_mail_server>

Initialize the database by running the following command:
```
piler -I
```
This will create the necessary tables in the database.

Step 5: Start Piler

Now that everything is configured and installed, let's start Piler by running the following command:

sudo systemctl start piler

Step 6: Access Piler

Once Piler is running, you can access it by going to the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost:8080/

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we showed you how to install and configure Piler on the latest version of NixOS. Now you can start using Piler for email archiving, retention, e-discovery, and compliance purposes.