Installing and configuring a barebones email server on Ubuntu

Question

I've got an unmanaged Linux VPS running ubuntu that I'm using for the web server for a personal website. I'd like to get a barebones email server up and running. All the installation guides I've found so far are for a full-fledged email server with a webmail interface and everything. That's a lot more than I need. There's only two things I need:

• My web application needs to be able to send email. Specifically, it'll be emailing me when an exception occurs.
• I want all email sent to [anything]@domain.com forwarded to my personal gmail account. The server doesn't even need to retain the email or anything.

I want to reserve resources for the actual web app, so I don't want to install anything I won't need for this.

Answer 1

You're web application needs a SMTP server. That server can be a hosted service like Google's or MailHop. If you really want to be an email administrator:

postfix should be installed HOWTO is here

if not,

sudo apt-get install postfix

Answer 2

msmtp or nullmailer sounds like it would fit the bill for the former. You could use google mail for domains for the latter.

Answer 3

I'll Second Postfix. I've been using it since around 2000 - it's not that hard to set up. However, for what you're doing (relaying to your ISP) msmtp or nullmailer as suggested by geocar will probably do the trick - they appear to be specifically designed for this sort of role - although I've never used them so I can't really comment from experience in the way I can with Postfix.