Installation Guide

Yarilo installs two ways. Pick the one that matches your target:

Path	Best for	Topology
Docker Compose	one host: local dev, evaluation, small self-hosted installs	standalone, all roles as containers, SQLite userdb
Kubernetes	production, HA, multi-node	director ring + co-located backends, MySQL or Postgres userdb

Both run the same image, ghcr.io/yarilomail/yarilo. A container selects its role via YARILO_COMPONENT (Compose) or the Helm chart (Kubernetes).

Clients always connect to login proxies. The proxies terminate TLS and forward plaintext to the session backends; session processes have no TLS knowledge.

Examples use mail.example.com and namespace yarilo-sb — substitute your own values throughout.

Installing with Docker Compose

A single-host standalone deployment. The backends share a Maildir store and coordinate through yarilo-auth, yarilo-warden and yarilo-locks (Redis-backed). The userdb is SQLite — no external database required.

WARNING

Single-host, not highly available. For HA or multi-node, use Kubernetes.

This section is the quickstart. MTA integration, operations and the full service reference are in Docker Compose; the deployment files live in deploy/compose/.

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine 24+ with the Compose v2 plugin (docker compose version)
• Free host ports: 143/993, 110/995, 587/465, 4190, and — loopback-only by default — 24, 12325, 12340. Override in .env.
• ~512 MB RAM

Quickstart

cd deploy/compose
cp .env.example .env
./gen-certs.sh mail.example.com
docker compose up -d
docker compose ps

This sequence:

• Copies the default environment; adjust the image tag or ports in .env if needed
• Generates a self-signed TLS certificate for local use
• Starts all containers; docker compose ps should report every one as healthy

gen-certs.sh writes tls/cert.pem and tls/key.pem. The key is world-readable so the uid-1000 container can load it.

For a public deployment, drop a real certificate and key (e.g. Let's Encrypt fullchain.pem / privkey.pem) into deploy/compose/tls/ as cert.pem / key.pem and restart the login proxies. The tls/ directory is git-ignored.

Creating the first user

The SQLite userdb lives in the state volume at /var/lib/yarilo/users.db. yarilo-auth creates the yarilo_users table on first start.

Insert a user with a one-off sqlite container:

docker run --rm -v yarilo_state:/data nouchka/sqlite3 /data/users.db \
  "INSERT INTO yarilo_users (username,password,home,mail,enabled) VALUES \
   ('[email protected]','{PLAIN}changeit', \
    '/var/mail/vhosts/mail.example.com/[email protected]', \
    'maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/mail.example.com/[email protected]',1);"

The mail column is the per-user mail location (maildir: / sdbox: / mdbox:).

TIP

{PLAIN} is fine for local testing only. Use a hashed scheme ({BCRYPT}…) for anything real.

Sending and reading a test message

Deliver a message via LMTP on the loopback port, as your MTA would:

printf 'LHLO t\r\nMAIL FROM:<[email protected]>\r\nRCPT TO:<[email protected]>\r\nDATA\r\nSubject: hi\r\n\r\nhello\r\n.\r\nQUIT\r\n' \
  | nc 127.0.0.1 24

Read it back over IMAPS — with the self-signed certificate the verify warning is expected:

printf 'a login [email protected] changeit\r\nb select INBOX\r\nc logout\r\n' \
  | openssl s_client -quiet -connect 127.0.0.1:993

Or run the bundled smoke test. The entrypoint dispatches on YARILO_COMPONENT, so invoke the binary directly:

docker compose exec yarilo-imap \
  yarilo-smoketest -host yarilo-imap-login -imap-port 10993 \
  -telemetry http://yarilo-imap-login:8080 -insecure=true

Listening ports

Service	Host port	Notes
IMAP / IMAPS	143 / 993	login proxy, STARTTLS / implicit TLS
POP3 / POP3S	110 / 995	login proxy
Submission	587 / 465	login proxy
ManageSieve	4190	login proxy
LMTP	24 (loopback)	unauthenticated — for your MTA only
SASL auth	12325 (loopback)	fronting MTA: smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot
Quota policy	12340 (loopback)	fronting MTA: check_policy_service

Wiring a fronting Postfix — LMTP delivery, SASL auth, quota policy — is covered in Docker Compose.

Operations

To follow logs of any service:

docker compose logs -f yarilo-imap

Set LOG_LEVEL=debug in .env for verbose output.

To upgrade, bump YARILO_TAG in .env, then:

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

To back up, snapshot the mail (messages + indexes) and state (userdb) volumes.

To uninstall:

docker compose down

Add -v to also delete the mail, state and redis volumes — this destroys all data.

Installing on Kubernetes

The production topology: a director ring (StatefulSet) routes each user to a single co-located backend pod that carries every protocol, fronted by per-protocol login proxies, with shared yarilo-auth, yarilo-warden, yarilo-locks (Redis-backed) and yarilo-quota-status.

See Deployment and the diagrams yarilo_director.svg / yarilo_backend.svg for the full rationale.

This section uses the sandbox example (helm_values/values-sandbox.yaml, a single-node microk8s namespace yarilo-sb). Production notes are called out inline.

What you'll end up with

Component	Kind	Purpose
yarilo-director	StatefulSet	LMTP proxy + consistent-hash ring, owns backend routing
yarilo-backend	StatefulSet	co-located pod: imap / pop3 / submission / lmtp / managesieve + fts + reg sidecar
yarilo-*-login	Deployments	TLS-terminating login proxies (imap / pop3 / submission / lmtp / managesieve / sasl)
yarilo-auth	Deployment	passdb + userdb against the SQL store
yarilo-warden	Deployment	connection accounting, auth-penalty, cross-node kick bus
yarilo-locks	Deployment	cross-process write coordination (mTLS :9104, Redis-backed)
yarilo-quota-status	Deployment	RCPT-time quota policy service for a fronting MTA
SQL StatefulSet	StatefulSet	passdb / userdb store (sandbox only — use managed SQL in production)
yarilo-tls Secret	Secret	TLS certificate provisioned by cert-manager
LoadBalancer Services	Service	public entry per login proxy (143/993, 110/995, 587/465, 4190, 24)

Prerequisites

DNS

An A (or AAAA) record for the public hostname pointing at the LoadBalancer IP your cluster will assign:

mail.example.com  A  <LB-IP>

::: note For real mail you also need MX, SPF/TXT, DKIM and PTR records. For the sandbox an A record is enough — the smoke test connects by hostname. :::

cert-manager

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
helm repo update
helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace \
  --version v1.16.x \
  --set installCRDs=true
kubectl -n cert-manager get pods

All cert-manager pods should report Running before you continue.

ClusterIssuer

The repo ships deploy/clusterissuer.yaml with two solvers: http01 (nginx ingress) and dns01 (Cloudflare, used for mail since no port 80 is needed).

Edit it — replace [email protected] / example.com — then apply:

kubectl -n cert-manager create secret generic cloudflare-api-token \
  --from-literal=api-token=<CLOUDFLARE-API-TOKEN>
kubectl apply -f deploy/clusterissuer.yaml
kubectl get clusterissuer letsencrypt-prod

The ClusterIssuer should report STATUS: Ready.

LoadBalancer support

The chart provisions Service objects of type LoadBalancer. Ensure a controller can fulfil them:

• microk8s — microk8s enable metallb and assign an IP range
• k3s — bundled klipper-lb works out of the box
• EKS / GKE / AKS — the cloud LB controller handles it automatically

Setting up the passdb / userdb store

yarilo-auth resolves logins from a SQL store. Two sandbox manifests ship: MySQL is the default wired by values-sandbox.yaml; Postgres is an alternative.

Both put login (passdb) and storage/quota/routing (userdb) in the same store. The split into passdb_sql_query / userdb_sql_query / userdb_sql_iterate_query lives in values-sandbox.yaml, so migrating to a production layout only changes the queries.

Production

Swap the sandbox manifest for a managed SQL DSN: replace the dsn key in the Secret and run the init SQL against the managed instance. The Secret reference in values-sandbox.yaml stays the same.

MySQL (default)

helm_values/mysql-sandbox.yaml creates namespace db, a mysql Secret (DB yarilo, user yarilo / sandbox-secret), an init ConfigMap and a MySQL 8.4 StatefulSet. The schema is the PostfixAdmin layout: domain, alias and mailbox tables.

kubectl apply -f helm_values/mysql-sandbox.yaml
kubectl -n db get pods,svc,pvc

The mailbox table is what values-sandbox.yaml queries — columns are matched by name, password is the only required one, active maps to enabled. Its DSN reaches yarilo-auth through the YARILO_DB_DSN env var, injected from the mysql Secret; skip_schema: true keeps yarilo-auth from creating its own table.

Seed a user — domain + mailbox + alias rows:

kubectl -n db exec -i mysql-0 -- mysql -uyarilo -psandbox-secret yarilo <<'SQL'
INSERT IGNORE INTO domain (domain, transport, customer_id, active)
VALUES ('mail.example.com', 'virtual', 'cust-0001', 1);

INSERT IGNORE INTO mailbox
  (username, password, mbtype, home, mpath, maildir, local_part, domain, active)
VALUES
  ('[email protected]', '{BCRYPT}REPLACE_WITH_HASH', 'mdbox',
   '/var/mail/vhosts/', 'mail.example.com/[email protected]', 'mdbox',
   'alice', 'mail.example.com', 1);

INSERT IGNORE INTO alias (address, goto, domain, active)
VALUES ('[email protected]', '[email protected]', 'mail.example.com', 1);
SQL

Generate the hash with htpasswd -nbB alice '<password>' | cut -d: -f2 and prefix it with {BCRYPT}.

Postgres (alternative)

helm_values/postgres-sandbox.yaml creates a yarilo-postgres StatefulSet (PG 16, user yarilo / sandbox-secret) with a single users table covering passdb (username / password / active) and userdb (home / mail_path / quota / allow_nets / director_tag).

kubectl apply -f helm_values/postgres-sandbox.yaml
kubectl -n yarilo-sb get pods,svc,pvc

To use Postgres instead of MySQL, point yarilo-auth at this store and switch the passdb block in values-sandbox.yaml to driver: postgres with the users-table queries. The postgres-sandbox.yaml header documents the columns and the expected passdb_sql_query / userdb_sql_query / userdb_sql_iterate_query.

Seed a user:

kubectl -n yarilo-sb exec -i yarilo-postgres-0 -- \
  psql -U yarilo -d yarilo -c \
  "INSERT INTO users (username, password, active, display_name)
   VALUES (LOWER('[email protected]'), '{BCRYPT}REPLACE_WITH_HASH', TRUE, 'Alice');"

With home / mail_path left blank, yarilo derives the path from storage.mailHomeTemplate (%d/%n → <maildirRoot>/<domain>/<local-part>). Set home to an absolute path to override per user.

Deploying yarilo

helm upgrade --install yarilo ./helm \
  -f helm_values/values-sandbox.yaml \
  -n yarilo-sb

Listeners brought up, via the login-proxy LoadBalancer Services:

Listener	Port	TLS mode
IMAPS / IMAP	993 / 143	implicit TLS / STARTTLS
Submissions / Submission	465 / 587	implicit TLS / STARTTLS
POP3S / POP3	995 / 110	implicit TLS / STARTTLS
LMTP	24	plain (internal — front it with an MTA)
Telemetry	8080	ClusterIP only — /healthz, /readyz, /metrics

Waiting for the certificate

cert-manager creates a Certificate, runs the DNS01 challenge, and writes the result into the yarilo-tls Secret mounted by the login proxies. No restart is needed once it is populated.

kubectl -n yarilo-sb get certificate yarilo-tls -w

Wait for READY=True; first issuance typically takes 1–3 minutes. If it hangs:

kubectl -n yarilo-sb describe certificate yarilo-tls

Getting the LoadBalancer IP

Each login proxy has its own LoadBalancer Service; the IMAP one is the usual public entry.

kubectl -n yarilo-sb get svc yarilo-imap-login -w
dig +short mail.example.com

Wait for EXTERNAL-IP, then confirm DNS resolves to it.

Running the smoke test

app/smoketest-e2e drives the full flow: Submission AUTH, LMTP delivery, IMAPS LOGIN + SASL, POP3S. From the repo, against the public host:

go run ./app/smoketest-e2e/ \
  -host mail.example.com \
  -user [email protected] \
  -pass '<password>' \
  -submission-port 587 -lmtp-port 24 -imaps-port 993 -pop3s-port 995

For an in-cluster protocol/sieve check, the yarilo-smoketest binary runs as a Job against the login-proxy Services — see hack/smoketest/job.yaml.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Certificate stuck Issuing	Cloudflare API token missing/expired	kubectl -n cert-manager describe order …; recreate cloudflare-api-token
login pod CrashLoopBackOff at startup	YARILO_DB_DSN resolves empty	check the SQL Secret's dsn key is populated and base64-encoded
LoadBalancer stuck <pending>	no LB controller / metallb not enabled	enable metallb or set service.type=NodePort for the sandbox
Smoke test tls: handshake failure	DNS not yet at the LB, or cert still issuing	dig the host, kubectl get certificate, wait
AUTH fails for the seeded user	wrong table/column or missing {SCHEME} prefix	MySQL: mailbox row has active=1; Postgres: users row has active=TRUE; verify the {BCRYPT} prefix

There is no single yarilo Deployment — read logs per component:

kubectl -n yarilo-sb logs deploy/yarilo-imap-login --tail=200 -f
kubectl -n yarilo-sb logs deploy/yarilo-auth --tail=200 -f

LOG_LEVEL=debug is on by default in values-sandbox.yaml.

Uninstalling

helm uninstall yarilo -n yarilo-sb
kubectl delete -f helm_values/mysql-sandbox.yaml

Use postgres-sandbox.yaml in the second command if you deployed Postgres.

WARNING

PVCs (backend maildir, SQL data) are deleted with their namespaces. To keep mail data, take a kubectl cp snapshot first.

Storage layout

Yarilo storage follows the mail_storage pattern: MailboxBackend and IndexBackend are per-process factories; UserMailbox / UserIndex are per-session handles created once after authentication and closed when the session ends. All per-user state — filesystem root, quota, uid/gid — is captured in mailbox.UserInfo at login time.

The global home layout is controlled by two config keys:

storage:
  maildirRoot: /var/mail/vhosts      # prepended to template-derived paths
  mailHomeTemplate: "%d/%n"          # %d=domain, %n=local-part, %u=full email

The default %d/%n gives /var/mail/vhosts/example.com/alice. Use %u for a flat layout, or %n for single-domain setups. Per-user relocation is a DB-only change — populate home — with no code or config change.

See Mailbox Storage for backends (maildir, dbox, mdbox), self-healing and rotation tuning, and Quota for enforcement.