During our European vacation, something broke on my mail server that I've been running from home for the past 3 years.

The server is a mac mini running OSX Server. Setup was a breeze and it's been performing with little to no maintenance all this time.

Of course breakage occurs when you're thousands of miles away. [Thanks Murphy]

The problem is a drive that is on the verge of failing and I will have to get a replacement to ensure the server's integrity

I took advantage of the opportunity to install an interim fix by building a linux server running CentOS and the iRedmail package

iRedmail is free and is pretty easy to install if you have at least some familiarity with a command line.

The installation really isn't much more than copying a couple commands that are listed on the install page

After creating the required mx record on my curry.com dns, emails started flowing and I'm testing a combination of the IMAP server and web client, which is the Roundcube software. Its pretty spiffy, especially compared to squirrel mail that I've been using to date and is a part of the OSX Server package

I'm especially impressed with the grey/white/black listing capabilities of iRedmail. So far it's really doing a good job, and I will post my findings again in a few days.