Getting Started

Set Timezone

Ensure the timezone is set correctly in your machine. From an SSH/Console prompt, run the following command to set your timezone where ZONE is your preferrred timezone (Example: sudo timedatectl set-timezone EST)

sudo timedatectl set-timezone ZONE

You can get a listing of all the time zones by running the following command:

sudo timedatectl list-timezones

Access Hermes SEG Administrator Console

Using a browser, access the Hermes SEG Administrator Console at https://<IP_ADDRESS>/admin/ where <IP_ADDRESS> is the IP address of your server.

If you have recently rebooted your system, you may get a 500 Internal Server Error when attempting to access the Hermes SEG Administrator Console. This usually means that the Authentication Server has not initialized yet. This error usually goes away on its own. Wait a couple of minutes and try refreshing your browser again.

Username: admin
Password: ChangeMe2!

Set System Settings MySQL Database Credentials

If this is a brand new installation, Do NOT fill in Postmaster E-mail Address field yet. If this is a system restored from backup, DO fill in the Postmaster E-mail Address field with an email address that contains a domain that your system relays e-mail.
Do NOT fill in the Admin E-mail Address field yet.
Fill in the MySQL Hermes Database Username you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL Hermes Database Password you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL Ciphermail Database Username you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL Ciphermail Database Password you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL SysLog Database Username you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL SysLog Database Password you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL Opendmarc Database Username you set during installation.
Fill in the MySQL Opendmarc Database Password you set during installation.
Click the Save Settings button (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Set Network Settings

Navigate to System --> Network Settings (New Web GUI).
Set the Network Mode drop-down to Static.
Fill in the Host Name field. Ensure you enter only the name without the domain part. For example, if the FQDN of your Hermes SEG appliance is going to be smtp.domain.tld, then in the Host Name field you will simply enter smtp without the domain part.
Fill in the Primary Domain Name field. For example, if the FQDN of your Hermes SEG appliance is going to be smtp.domain.tld, then in the Primary Domain Name field you will simply enter domain.tld.
Fill in the Hermes SEG appliance IP Address, select the appropriate Subnet Mask for your network, fill in the Gateway and DNS1. If applicable, fill in DNS2 and DNS3 fields.
Click on the Submit button. Once the settings are saved, they will not take effect until you click on the Apply Settings button.
Click on the Apply Settings button (Figure 2).

Figure 2

If you changed Hermes SEG IP Address, your browser will most likely time out. Remember, to access the Hermes SEG Administrator Console Web GUI at https://<NEW_IP_ADDRESS/admin/ where is the <NEW_IP_ADDRESS> is the IP you set above.

Set System Certificates

Navigate to System --> System Certificates (New Web GUI).

Hermes SEG Community Version

Hermes SEG Community Version will allow you to create Certificate Signing Requests to submit to 3rd party CAs and import certificates from 3rd party CAs.

Click the Import Certificate button, enter a friendly name for the certificate in the Certificate Name field, paste the contents of the certificate including the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- & -----END CERTIFICATE----- lines in the Certificate field, paste the contents of the unencrypted key including the -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- & -----END PRIVATE KEY----- lines in the Unencrypted Key field, paste the contents of the root and Intermediate CA certificates including the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- & -----END CERTIFICATE----- lines in the Root and Intermediate CA Certificates field and click the Import button (Figure 3):

Figure 3

Hermes SEG Pro Version

Hermes SEG Pro Version will allow you to create Certificate Signing Requests to submit to 3rd party CAs, import certificates from 3rd party CAs as well as Request Lets Encrypt (Acme) Certificates.

If you wish to import a 3rd party CA certificate, please follow the Hermes SEG Community instructions above to import a certificate. If you wish to request a Lets Encrypt (Acme) certificate, follow the instructions below:

Before requesting Acme Certificates ensure that BOTH ports TCP 80 and TCP 443 are open to Hermes SEG from the Internet and the domain you are requesting the certificate is pointing to the Internet accessible IP address of your Hermes SEG machine. We recommend that you test using the Acme Staging server first to ensure the request works before attempting to use Acme Production. The reason we initially Request Acme Certificate utilizing the Acme Staging server is because Lets Encrypt is much more lenient with rate limits with failed requests in their staging environment than their production environment, click here for details.

Click the Request Acme Certificate button, enter a friendly name in the Certificate Name field, enter the FQDN (domain name) you wish to request a certificate, enter a valid e-mail address in the Notifications E-mail address field, leave the Acme Server drop-down field set to Acme Staging and click the Request button (Figure 4):

Figure 4

If the Acme Certificate Request fails, double-check that the FQDN (domain name) points to the Internet accessible IP of your Hermes SEG machine and that BOTH ports TCP/80 (HTTP) and TCP/443 (HTTPS) are allowed through your firewall and try again.
If the Acme Certificate Request succeeds, locate the newly created certificate in your certificate list, click the icon and on the resultant Delete Certificate confirmation click on Yes (Figure 5):

Figure 5

Click the Request Acme Certificate button again, enter a friendly name in the Certificate Name field, enter the FQDN (domain name) you wish to request a certificate, enter a valid e-mail address in the Notifications E-mail address field, this time set the Acme Server drop-down field set to Acme Production and click the Request button (Figure 6):

Figure 6

Set Console Settings

The Hermes SEG Console Settings sets the method you wish to access Hermes SEG machine which includes the Admin Console, User Console and the Ciphermail Console. By default, the Console Mode is set to IP Address, however, an IP address is not contusive to using SSL certificates. Therefore, if you plan to use a SSL certificate to access the Hermes SEG machine without getting certificate errors, you must set the Console Mode to Host Name. The Host Name you set does NOT necessarily have to the the same Host Name you set in Network Settings above. The Host Name and Primary Domain Name you set in the Network settings is used for SMTP transactions such as SMTP TLS and it's not related to Hermes SEG console access.

Navigate to System --> Console Settings (New Web GUI).
Set the Console Mode drop-down to Host Name and in the resultant Host Name field that appears, fill in the desired host name you wish to use (Figure 7):

Figure 7

The Console Certificate field is pre-populated with the system-self-signed certificate. If you wish to use a SSL certificate you previously set in the Set System Certificates section above, simply delete the system-self-signed entry and start typing the friendly name of the certificate you setup previously that matches the host name. The system will locate the certificate and display it in a drop-down list. Click on the certificate and the system will automatically populate all the rest of the Certificate fields such as the Subject, Issuer, Serial and Type (Figure 8):

Figure 8

Figure 9

After clicking the Submit button and you changed the Console Mode from IP Address to Host Name, your browser will NOT automatically redirect you to the new console address. Ensure you enter the new address in your browser as https://<HOST_NAME>/admin/ where <HOST-NAME> is the new Host Name you set above.

Additionally, we recommend that you generate a DH (Diffie-Hellman) Parameters file by clicking the Generate DH Parameters File button and on the resultant Generate Diffie-Hellman (DH) Parameters File confirmation window, click on Yes (Figure 10):

Figure 10

Generating a DH Parameters file can take a very long time to complete (~40 minutes on 1-CPU systems). You can proceed to configure the rest of your system (DO NOT reboot the system while it's generate a DH Parameters file) and check back under System --> Console Settings to see if a new Diffie-Hellman (DH) key-exchange drop-down appears set it to Enable and click the Submit button below (Figure 11).

Figure 11

If you follow the above recommendations, you should be able to achieve an A+ rating on the Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test (Figure 12):

Figure 12

Set SMTP TLS Settings

It's important to set SMTP TLS in order to transmit e-mail messages between your Hermes SEG machine and other e-mail servers using TLS encryption.

Before you can set SMTP TLS, you must first have either imported or requested a SSL Certificate in the Set System Certificates section above for the Hostname and Primary Domain Name you set in the Set Network Settings above.

Navigate to Gateway --> SMTP TLS Settings (New Web GUI).
Set the SMTP TLS Mode drop-down to Opportunistic TLS.
The SMTP TLS Certificate field is pre-populated with the system-self-signed certificate. If you wish to use a SSL certificate you set in the Set System Certificates section above, simply delete the system-self-signed entry and start typing the friendly name of the certificate you setup previously that matches the Hostname and Primary Domain Name you set in the Set Network Settings above. The system will locate the certificate and display it in a drop-down list. Click on the certificate and the system will automatically populate all the rest of the Certificate fields such as the Subject, Issuer, Serial and Type (Figure 13):

Figure 13

Click the Submit button (Figure 14):

Figure 14

Change admin System Account Password

Navigate to System --> System Users (New Web GUI).
In the System Users screen, click the icon next to the admin Username (Figure 15).

Figure 15

In the Edit System User screen, set the Set User Password drop-down to YES, enter a new password in the User Password field that appears and click the Submit button (Figure 16).

Figure 16

Setup Domains

In order for Hermes SEG to deliver email, you must first set the domain(s) that Hermes SEG will process email for along with their corresponding destination email server(s). You can add as many domains and destination email servers as required. An email server can be configured as an IP address or a Host Name as long as the Hermes SEG can reach it over the TCP port you set. Multiple domains can be pointed to the same email server if necessary.

Navigate to Gateway --> Domains (New Web GUI).
Click the Create Domain button (Figure 17):

Figure 17

The system will generate a temporary Domain Name, Destination Address and redirect you to the Edit Domain page.
Adjust the pre-populated Domain Name field to the actual domain name you are using.
Set the Delivery Method field to SMTP if you wish to have Hermes SEG relay e-mail for that domain or set it to NONE if you wish Hermes SEG to discard and silently drop any received e-mail for that domain. Note that setting the Delivery Method to NONE will disable all other fields.
Set the Recipient Delivery field to ANY if you wish to have Hermes SEG relay e-mail for any recipients regardless if those recipients are added in Gateway --> Internal Recipients or Gateway --> Virtual Recipients. This method relies on the destination e-mail server to reject e-mail for non-existent recipients. Note that this method has the potential of adding extra load on the destination e-mail server but offers more flexibility because it doesn't require you to add Internal or Virtual recipients before hand. Alternatively, set the Recipient Delivery to SPECIFIED if you wish to have Hermes SEG relay e-mail only for recipients that have been added in Gateway --> Internal Recipients or Gateway --> Virtual Recipients. This method will reject any e-mail for non-existent Internal or Virtual recipients by Hermes SEG thus reducing the load on the destination server.
Set the Destination Address field to the IP Address or the FQDN of the destination e-mail server you wish to have Hermes SEG relay e-mail.
Set the Destination Port field to the TCP port of the destination e-mail server you wish to have Hermes SEG relay e-mail.
Set the Destination Requires Authentication field to NO if the destination e-mail server does not require authentication or set to YES if the destination e-mail server requires authentication. Setting to YES will add a Destination Username field and a Destination Password field which will have to be filled with a destination e-mail server username and password. Note that if Gateway --> Relay Host is Enabled, Hermes SEG will not allow you to save a domain with Destination Requires Authentication field set to YES. You must first set Gateway --> Relay Host to Disabled.
Set the Destination Use MX Lookup to NO if you do not wish to have Hermes SEG perform MX lookups to relay e-mail for the domain you are adding. This will prevent e-mail loops if Hermes SEG is the primary MX host for the domain and it's usually the most common configuration. Set the Destination MX Lookup to YES if you wish to have Hermes SEG perform MX lookups to relay e-mail for the domain are adding. Please note that the Destination Use MX Lookup field is not available if the Destination Requires Authentication field is set to YES (Figure 18).
Click the Submit button to save your changes.

Figure 18

Add Internal Recipients

If you have setup any domains in the Setup Domains section above with the Recipient Delivery field set to SPECIFIED, then you MUST add either Internal Recipients or Virtual Recipients in order to process incoming e-mail and relay that email to the correct recipient mailboxes which are located on the destination email server(s) for the domain(s) you setup in the Setup Domains section above. This section will guide you with adding Internal Recipients.

Navigate to Gateway --> Internal Recipients (New Web GUI).
Click the Create Recipient(s) button (Figure 19):

Figure 19

In the Add Internal Recipient(s) page, in the Recipient(s) field, enter an e-mail address each in each own line, select the appropriate options in the SVF Policy to Assign, Quarantine Reports, Quarantine Report Frequency, Train Bayes Filter from User Portal, Download Messages from User Portal, PDF encryption, S/MIME Encryption, S/MIME SIGNATURE, PGP Encryption drop-downs and click the Submit button (Figure 20):

Figure 20

Set System Settings Postmaster & Admin E-mail Address

Navigate to System --> System Settings (Old Web GUI).
Fill in Postmaster E-mail Address field with an email belonging to a Relay Domain you setup above.
Fill in the Admin E-mail Address field with an email of domain outside of the system (i.e. a domain that the system does not relay email Ex: someone@hotmail.com).
Click the Save Settings button.

Set Relay IPs & Networks

In addition to inbound email, if the email server(s) you added will also be sending outbound email through the Hermes SEG (recommended), you must allow their IP address(es) to send (relay) email through the Hermes SEG.

Navigate to Gateway --> Relay IPs & Networks (Old Web GUI).
Ensure IP Address is selected and the under the IP Address field enter the IP Address of the email server that you want to allow to send email through the Hermes SEG, under the Note field, enter a short description identifying the email server (ensure that you don't use any spaces or special characters in the Note field) and click the Add button (Figure 21)

Figure 21

Repeat as necessary for every email server that you want to allow to send outbound email through the Hermes SEG.
As you add entries, you will notice that each entry shows up under the Permitted Relay IPs/Networks to be added section (Figure 22)

Figure 22

After you are finished adding all your permitted email servers, you must apply the settings in order for the changes to take effect. On the bottom of the page, click on the Apply Settings button (Figure 23)

Figure 23

Initialize Pyzor

Pyzor is a collaborative, networked system to detect and block spam using digests of messages. Vipul's Razor is a distributed, collaborative, spam detection and filtering network.

Hermes SEG uses both of these components for better spam detection. Both of these components must be initialized before Hermes SEG can use them.

Navigate to Content Checks --> Initialize Pyzor (Old Web GUI) and click on the Initialize Pyzor button. Wait for successful completion before proceeding further (Figure 24).

Figure 24

Initialize Vipul's Razor

Before attempting to initialize Vipul's Razor, ensure the Hermes SEG has outbound Internet access. Initialization can take a few minutes to complete, so please be patient.

Navigate to Content Checks --> Initialize Vipul's Razor (Old Web GUI) and click on the Initialize Razor button. Wait for successful completion before proceeding further (Figure 25).

Figure 25

Clear Bayes Database

The Bayes Database tries to identify spam by looking at what are called tokens; words or short character sequences that are commonly found in spam or ham.

On a new Hermes SEG installation, it's always best to ensure a clean Bayes Database before you start processing email.

Navigate to Content Checks --> Clear Bayes Database (Old Web GUI) and click on the Clear Database button. Wait for successful completion before proceeding further (Figure 26).

Figure 26

Set Encryption Settings

Navigate to Encryption --> Encryption Settings (Old Web GUI).
Fill in Encryption by e-mail subject keyword field or leave it set to default [encrypt].
Select whether you wish to Remove the e-mail subject keyword after encryption or leave it to default Yes.
Fill in the PDF Reply Sender E-mail field. This must be an email address with a domain that Hermes SEG relays email. Ex: postmaster@domain.tld
Click the button for the Server, Client and Mail Secret Keyword fields to generate random keywords, or set your own 10-character minimum uppler/lower case letter/number keywords.
Click on the Save Settings button and after the settings are saved, click the Apply Settings button(Figure 27).

Figure 27

Change the Ciphermail admin Account Password

Navigate to https://<IP_ADDRESS>/ciphermail/ where <IP_ADDRESS> is the IP Address of your machine and login with the Username of admin and password of admin (Figure 28):

Figure 28

Once logged in, click on the Admin entry on the top menu and on the Administrators page, click on the admin username (Figure 29).

Figure 29

In the Edit Administrator: admin page, enter a new password in the first Password field and then verify it in the second Password field and then click on the Apply button at the bottom of the page (Figure 30). Passwords must be at least 8 characters long, they must contain letters, numbers and special characters.

Figure 30

Recommendations

Add Barracuda and Zen Spamhaus RBLs

In order to use the Barracuda RBL you must first register for a free account. Goto http://www.barracudacentral.org/rbl and register for a free account.
Navigate to Content Checks --> RBL Configuration (Old Web GUI).
Under the Select the type of entry section, ensure Block List is selected. Under the Block List field enter b.barracudacentral.org, under the Weight field enter 3 and then click the Add button.
Repeat Step 3 to add zen.spamhaus.org with a weight of 3 also (Figure 31)

Figure 31

Finally, click on the Apply Settings button on the bottom of the page to apply the RBL changes (Figure 32)

Figure 32