Piler Email Archiving — Email Never Forgets, So Make Sure It’s Stored Right
There are two kinds of admins: those who archive email, and those who eventually wish they had. Piler falls squarely into the “do it properly” camp — a self-hosted, open-source archiving system that captures, deduplicates, indexes, and stores email for the long haul. No licensing traps, no per-mailbox pricing, no weird cloud lock-in.
It’s not a glossy SaaS platform with blinking dashboards and sales reps. It’s a straight-shooting, Linux-native archive engine that quietly keeps every message exactly where it needs to be — accessible, secure, and out of users’ inboxes.
What It Does (Without the Marketing Gloss)
| Feature | Why It’s Useful |
| SMTP-Based Archiving | Captures all mail through journaling or transport rules — no plugins, no fuss. |
| Works with Any Mail Server | Exchange, Postfix, Sendmail — if it sends mail, Piler can archive it. |
| Deduplication & Compression | One copy per message, no matter how many recipients — keeps storage sane. |
| Fast Search Interface | Web-based, clean, and fast — even legal can figure it out. |
| Role-Based Access | Separate access for users, auditors, IT — no need to share credentials. |
| Legal Hold & Retention | Lock messages, define policies, stay compliant without needing external tools. |
| TLS & Encryption | Messages are encrypted at rest and in transit. Tick that checkbox. |
| LDAP/AD Integration | Pulls users from existing infrastructure. No need to manage accounts twice. |
Where It Fits (And Why It Sticks Around)
- Compliance teams keep asking for “that one email from 18 months ago.”
- PSTs are piling up in random folders and nobody knows what’s where.
- Legal needs mailbox access but can’t have full mailbox access.
- Management wants retention policies that actually get enforced.
- Current solution costs a fortune and no one remembers why it was bought.
Getting It Running (With Minimal Drama)
- Set the Stage
Install on a Linux box — Ubuntu or CentOS works well. Expect to bring along MariaDB, Redis, Nginx, and Postfix. - Get the Code
Either build from source or use one of the package builds. Official project lives at piler.hu and GitHub. - Feed It Mail
Configure journaling or a transport rule to BCC a copy of all mail to Piler. This is the part where everything starts flowing in. - Tune the Config
Settings are stored in /etc/piler. Define paths, DB access, encryption settings, and other core parameters. - Archive & Search
Once live, mail gets ingested, indexed, deduplicated, and stored. The search interface gives quick access to years’ worth of messages. - Tie It to LDAP
Add Active Directory or LDAP integration to allow seamless user access. Role separation is built in — no need for workarounds.
Final Notes
Piler doesn’t pretend to be sexy. It just works — quietly, reliably, and with enough knobs and switches to satisfy any admin who’s tired of black-box backups and overpriced archive solutions.
It keeps the mail. All of it. Efficiently. And when the day comes that someone asks for a message from three years ago — it’ll be right there, waiting.
