Same Username, Different Domains
 

Hi, I have a question that I haven't been able to find the answer to. I've checked google, as well as this and other forums ..

Here goes. Let's say I have a Linux-based server for webhosting, email etc.
On this server I am hosting two domains: domain1.com and domain2.com, each for a different client, where client1 owns domain1.com and client2 owns domain2.com.

client1 wants to add a user, "john", with email "john@domain1.com".
client2 wants to add a user, "john", with email "john@domain2.com".

How can I add two (or more) users in Linux with identical names? How do "large" hosting companies manage this?

Thanks in advance,

Generally speaking the 'username' part of email address can have nothing in common with the shell user name (although usually have).
Currently I am using qmail which allows to do what you want even w/o any shell user creation.

In your post you didn't name the SMTP server you are using.
Probably it is the most popular -sendmail- which I believe allows to do that also.
But I can help you only with qmail setting. Sorry.

Hi, thanks for your reply :)

I do know how to setup the virtuser table with Sendmail (although I've been tossing around the idea of switching to qmail).

I always assumed that in large virtual-hosting situations where, say, a hosting company will use a control panel like Plesk/CPanel/etc., when you go to "add user" in the control panel you are in fact creating a Linux user a la "useradd" command?

Are you suggesting that what the control panel is really doing is simply creating a virtual user in the [smtp-server/mta]?

Unfortunately I am not using any "control panels" etc for configuring Linux services. Generally I hate to use them and prefer to manually edit the config files. The reasons why I prefer such method are very simple:
- I fully control what I'm doing
- less extra stuff = more secure system + less extra files, configs, etc.

So sorry, I can't help you. I don't know what is happening what you create virtual user with your stuff.

Regarding qmail. It is really worth to switch to. This stuff was released years ago and up to know there is no new versions although there is a special bonus found by the author (D.J. Bernstein) for the person who finds the bug. So it looks like really bug-free. Sendmail was updated a lot of times since the security holes.