[CentOS] Planning Mail Server (with low resources)

Tue Dec 6 02:40:01 UTC 2005
Chris Mauritz <chrism at imntv.com>

Alain Reguera wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I'm planning the installation of the school's Mail Server. This is the
>first time I get in administration. I've been reading about postfix,
>cyrus  and the first page in the guide of HughesJR.com[2] about
>installing postfix-cyrus, but due my low hardware resources, I ask for
>suggestions to see If what I need can be done (and|or) stable.
>
>Hardware:
>Pentium III 1.4Ghz
>256 RAM
>40 GB HD-IDE
>
>Soft:
>CentOS 4.2
>Postfix
>Cyrus-IMAPd
>MailScanner
>Spanassassin
>
>Partitioning(in MB)[1]:
>/                                   1.000
>/boot/                            100
>/home/                          15.000
>/swap/                           512
>/tmp/                             500
>/usr/                              1.000
>/var/                              5.000
>/var/log/                         2.000
>/var/spool/mail/               14.800
>
>The server will serve around 2000 students, but only 80(maybe 100)
>concurrent at time. I would like to make a very basic installation,
>'cause as you can see, I am with a very low hardware resources. This
>host will be mail dedicated.
>
>In the near future the hard would be upgraded(maybe a nu computer).
>Now, I need something to show in a working environment.
>  
>

That is PLENTY fast enough to run the mail server that Johnny talks 
about in his web pages as long as people have relatively small mailbox 
quotas.  One change would be to add more memory to the machine if you 
can (memory is cheap these days so that might not even be an issue).  
I'd suggest a gig of RAM and a gig of swap.  IDE disks are also cheap so 
it might be better to upgrade it to something like a 300 or 400gig drive 
now than to wait until you run out of space in the very near future.

Cheers,