Axigen, A Fresh Approach for Mail Server Admins

Axigen Mail Server: Turnkey mail server for Linux or Unix.

In a Linux/Unix universe built on a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic, Axigen Mail Server introduces a twist: Why not let someone else do the heavy lifting? Traditionally, a complete modern mail server on Linux or Unix would need to be rolled together using a wide variety of free and open source tools, ranging from an SMTP engine to a Web server to a Web mail interface, various authentication modules, and so on. Although such a system promises low-to-no licensing costs and maximum flexibility, it requires significant development expertise and time.

Axigen Mail Server delivers a comprehensive, turnkey mail server in a DIY world. With one software install, Axigen promises to provide a fully integrated, centrally managed server with support for core mail services plus groupware and collaborative services like calendaring, tasks and Outlook support. The software promises to have your mail server up and running in mere minutes.

Axigen Mail Server comes pre-packaged for a variety of target platforms, such as Debian, FreeBSD, NetBSD, RPM and Ubuntu. We installed Axigen under Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty." The 13MB download archive unzipped into a .deb package along with some text files containing installation instructions and support.

Although Ubuntu lets you install a .deb package graphically or from the command-line, the initial Axigen configuration must be launched from a terminal. The configuration wizard walks through a series of basic setup screens where you specify information about the server, such as its domain, which services you want to enable, and on which ports they will listen. Once completed, Axigen can be started and stopped through the normal mechanism for your platform (in this case, "/etc/init.d/axigen").

Once running, Axigen is further administered through a Web browser. The administration GUI is comprehensive and clean but somewhat obtuse. Rather than presenting every configuration option with the same degree of importance, a more productive interface design would present common tasks with more prominence than obscure ones.

For example, adding a new mail user should not be buried two configuration pages deep. The GUI lacks integrated help information, and where it does exist, it is very basic. As a result, although Axigen is indeed very easy to set up and get running, a new administrator will need to take some time with the interface and PDF manual to learn his or her way around.

To its credit, Axigen added new features at a rapid pace this past year. To help authenticate the origin of messages that can help prevent spam, it now supports DomainKeys in addition to SPF. Axigen does not offer integrated anti-spam or anti-virus filters, but it can now connect to a wide variety of third-party services, some without licensing fees (e.g., ClamAV and SpamAssassin). Axigen also supports commercial filters from Symantec, F-Secure, Norman, Kaspersky, Sophos and others.

Mail users can connect to Axigen with any standard mail client, such as Eudora and Thunderbird. Axigen now includes an Outlook connector with the Business edition, allowing the mail server to substitute for Exchange in many messaging roles, including server-side search.

Alternatively, Axigen includes a full-featured Web mail interface for browser access. Well-designed and easy to use, Axigen's latest Web mail adds support for so-called "personal organizer" functions, including calendar, tasks, public folders and a journal. In contrast to the mail server, Axigen's Web mail offering delivers impressive out-of-the-box productivity for end users. Perhaps this team should consult with the administration interface team.

Axigen doesn't leave the DIY crowd completely behind. Administrators can ditch the administration interface and go old-school, working directly with its text-based configuration file. The server itself can also be controlled through the command-line, supporting batch scripts for task automation. Using Axigen's proprietary HSP scripting language, administrators can connect Axigen's engine to external or custom processing scripts.

Axigen Mail Server is available in three editions, "Office," "Business" and "ISP." The Office edition is free but supports only five mailboxes. It also does not include the Outlook connector. Still, it would be a powerful and rapidly deployed mail server for a very small organization. Whereas the Business edition includes calendaring and the Outlook connector, the ISP edition supports clustering (dividing mail services across multiple servers) and LDAP/Active Directory authentication.

Pros: Rapid deployment; Full-featured integrated bundle; Impressive Web mail server.
Cons: Lacks integrated help; Obtuse administration interface; Anti-virus/anti-spam requires third-party products.

Reviewed by: Aaron Weiss
Original Review Date: 7/12/2007
Original Review Version: 4.0