Thanks to some generous donations and my tax return, I have obtained parts and put together a new server. This blog and a few other minor things are already running on the new machine, though as I write this, most of my other Internet services are still on the old server, saidar. The new server is named frodo. I was going to name it bilbo, but changed my mind after reflection. Frodo is a more mature character than Bilbo, capable of carrying a heavier burden.
The specs of the server are as follows:
- Old 2U rackmount case with 460W PSU
- ASRock M3A785GXH/128M motherboard
- AMD Phenom II X3 705e processor
- 2x2GB DDR3-1600 RAM
- two 1TB SATA2 drives, mirrored
Internally, the CPU is a full quad-core Phenom II, but sold as a triple-core. This is part of a line of CPU models that allow AMD to sell chips with bad components that would otherwise just get junked. Not all of the chips are actually bad, though – some of them are perfectly functional chips that have had components disabled to sell at a lower price point. Anecdotal evidence suggests that as many as 70% of them are fully functional. The BIOS on this motherboard has the ability to re-enable the disabled components. In addition to enabling all the cores, I have also overclocked it from 2.5 to 3.0 Ghz. It’s been running for over a week now (since 2009-Feb-09) without any issues.
On the software side, this will be the most feature-laden system yet. Some of that will be just because everything is a newer version, but I have learned some things in the last few years about mailserver configuration that will bring a lot of new functionality to my users. Some of it is available on the current server, but only to people with root access. In other words, only me. Here’s what’s installed or planned so far:
Mail Server:
- postfix
- dovecot (backports.org)
- amavisd-new (backports.org)
- spamassassin (backports.org)
- clamav (debian-volatile)
- razor
- pyzor
Web-based software (php apps are from source):
- apache
- php
- phpmyadmin
- postfixadmin
- mailzu
- squirrelmail
- roundcube
I had been planning on doing some full documentation on my wiki of how I’m configuring it, but in the interests of actually getting it done, that hasn’t happened. I have put up some disjointed notes, which I will flesh out and clean up. Unfortunately, using those notes won’t be possible for a novice. If anyone is interested in setting something similar up, I may be able to help out. Such help would be free of charge unless it’s for a business.