[CentOS] Planning Mail Server (with low resources)

Tue Dec 6 13:38:19 UTC 2005
William A. Mahaffey III <wam at HiWAAY.net>

Chris Mauritz wrote:

> 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,


If you could afford *1* extra HDD (NewEgg, 250 GB EIDE 133 Samsung, 
~$104.00 shipped), you could put /home there, & use the 40 GB as your 
system disk only, with:

/boot   100 MB
/var   10 GB
swap   2 GB
/    the rest

or even

/var   10 GB
swap   2 GB
/   the rest

for a no-virtual-partition (nomenclature ?) solution.

soft-link /tmp to /var/tmp & you're off to the races .... $0.02 only, no 
more, no less :-).

-- 
	William A. Mahaffey III
---------------------------------------------------------------------
	Remember, ignorance is bliss, but
	willful ignorance is LIBERALISM !!!!