selfhosted-apps-docker/mail-archiver

Mail-Archiver

guide-by-example

Purpose & Overview

IMAP email archiving system with web gui managment.

• Github

Written in C# for backend and postgres for database. A very new project but looks super promising.

Files and directory structure

/home/
└── ~/
    └── docker/
        └── mail-archiver/
            ├── 🗁 mailarchiver_database/
            ├── 🗋 .env
            └── 🗋 compose.yml

• mailarchiver_database - contains the database data, including all emails and attachments
• .env - the file containing environment variables for docker compose
• compose.yml - the compose file that defines how to run the containers

Only the two files are required.
The directories are created on the first run.

Compose

Some changes from the official compose.

• env variables are moved to the .env file
• reverse proxy is expected so the ports are only exposed(documented), not mapped to the host
• hostname and container name are added
• renamed services to have more clear name
  which required to also change the connection string variable, replacing host postgres with mailarchiver-db
• changed bind mount folder name
• network is set

compose.yml

services:
  mailarchiver-app:
    image: s1t5/mailarchiver:latest
    container_name: mailarchiver-app
    hostname: mailarchiver-app
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    expose:
      - "5000"
    depends_on:
      mailarchiver-db:
        condition: service_healthy

  mailarchiver-db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    container_name: mailarchiver-db
    hostname: mailarchiver-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file: .env
    expose:
      - "5432"
    volumes:
      - ./mailarchiver_database:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U mailuser -d MailArchiver"]
      interval: 300s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 30s

networks:
  default:
    name: $DOCKER_MY_NETWORK
    external: true

.env

# GENERAL
DOCKER_MY_NETWORK=caddy_net
TZ=Europe/Bratislava

# Database Connection
ConnectionStrings__DefaultConnection=Host=mailarchiver-db;Database=MailArchiver;Username=mailuser;Password=masterkey;

# Authentication Settings
Authentication__Enabled=true
Authentication__Username=admin
Authentication__Password=secure123!
Authentication__SessionTimeoutMinutes=60
Authentication__CookieName=MailArchiverAuth

# MailSync Settings
MailSync__IntervalMinutes=15
MailSync__TimeoutMinutes=60
MailSync__ConnectionTimeoutSeconds=180
MailSync__CommandTimeoutSeconds=300

# BatchRestore Settings
BatchRestore__AsyncThreshold=50
BatchRestore__MaxSyncEmails=150
BatchRestore__MaxAsyncEmails=50000
BatchRestore__SessionTimeoutMinutes=30
BatchRestore__DefaultBatchSize=50

# Npgsql Settings
Npgsql__CommandTimeout=600

# POSTGRES
POSTGRES_DB=MailArchiver
POSTGRES_USER=mailuser
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=masterkey

All containers must be on the same network.
Which is named in the .env file.
If one does not exist yet: docker network create caddy_net

Reverse proxy

Caddy v2 is used, details here.

Caddyfile

mailarchiver.{$MY_DOMAIN} {
  reverse_proxy mailarchiver-app:5000
}

First run

Login with the credentials set in the .env file

gmail

• 2factorAuth needs to be fulyl enabled and set
• https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords
  create app password

Trouble shooting

Update

Manual image update:

• docker-compose pull
  
• docker-compose up -d
  
• docker image prune

It is strongly recommended to now add current tags to the images in the compose.
Tags will allow you to easily return to a working state if an update goes wrong.

Backup and restore

Backup

Restore

Backup of just user data

Backup script

Cronjob - scheduled backup

Restore the user data