Installation of DSPAM
Gotchas
Never use the default MySQL table type (myisam) for DSPAM, otherwise, whenever the MySQL daemon is killed or the machine is rebooted unexpectedly, the database will become corrupt and it will take a lot of time to repair. Always use the innodb table type. Just issue something like "alter table TABLE-NAME type=innodb" after creating the DSPAM tables.
In addition, the purge.sql script may prevent DSPAM from updating the DB while it is running. Strangely in that case DSPAM will not write any header into the mail but the processing is considered successfully. To prevent such cases, try setting the innodb_lock_wait_timeout to a larger value (default is 50 seconds) in /etc/mysql/my.cnf. You may run purge.sql manually to see how long it takes and then decide the value to use.
Integration with MTA
The most transparent way to your users to run DSPAM is to integrate it with the MTA. This can be tricky so make sure first that your MTA is setup properly and working. Often there is more than one possible way, so choose the one that works best for you. On a single user installation it might be better to call DSPAM from your mail delivery agent (see below).
/sendmail & Cyrus IMAP - LMTP based Integration of DSPAM with sendmail and Cyrus IMAP. Quarantined email is delivered to IMAP mailbox. Also usefull for integrating any MTA with DSPAM+Cyrus IMAP as well as sendmail+DSPAM and any other MDA.
Integration with MDA
Calling DSPAM from your MDA (e.g. Procmail or Maildrop) is the easiest way of integration. Choose this on a single user setup or a small scale installation with only local, knowledgeable users.
/Maildrop – invoke DSPAM from a Maildrop filter rule. Includes automatic retraining of misclassified mail without the need to forward these.
/PostgresProcmail - DSPAM+Postgres+Procmail-HOWTO by SamMason. Very clean and simple, ideal for the single end user. MySQL users can read this as well (the differences are neglectable).
/Mailagent - Shows one way to let mailagent invoke dspam and act on the results.
DSPAM Notes - Includes some tips for customizing DSPAM per-user with Procmail.
Integrating with MUA
/Maildir – Let users manage training through moving mails to designated folders, where folders are in maildir format.
Moving to DSPAM
Tips for moving to DSPAM from other Anti-Spam solutions
/TrainingFromCurrent - Training DSPAM based on your current anti-spam software's output.
STEP BY STEP HOWTOS
* http://dspam.wahlfaelschung.de - German HOWTO/TUTORIAL about setting up a full featured Mailserver (from tarballs, not distribution-specific), with Exim/Courier-IMAP/DSpam/ClamAV/SpamAssassin/Apache2
* [Postfix-DBmail-PostgreSQL + ALT Linux] Russian from Maxim Z