This document follows industry best practices and includes pre-flight checks, dependency installation, configuration basics, service setup, and security hardening.

3.2 License Activation

The license file was placed in /etc/pmta/license. Permissions were set to 644.

chmod 644 /etc/pmta/license
chown pmta:pmta /etc/pmta/license

System Requirements

Before installing PowerMTA 60R3, ensure that your system meets the following requirements:

Operating System: CentOS 6 or later, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 or later, or Ubuntu 12.04 or later
Processor: 64-bit processor ( quad-core or higher recommended)
Memory: 8 GB RAM (16 GB or more recommended)
Storage: 50 GB free disk space (100 GB or more recommended)

4. Firewall Rules

Allow inbound injection (usually from localhost or a trusted web server) and outbound SMTP:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=25/tcp
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=587/tcp   # For submission
firewall-cmd --reload

Pre-install checklist

Obtain PowerMTA binary and license file (vendor-supplied).
Reserve sending IPs and verify PTR for each IP.
Generate DKIM keypair(s) and prepare TXT records.
Create user/group for pmta (if recommended).
Backup existing mail services/configuration if replacing.

Step 3: Install PowerMTA

Upload your installation file (e.g., PowerMTA-6.0r3.elf.x86_64.rpm) to the server using SFTP or SCP.

For CentOS/RHEL (Install .rpm file):

rpm -ivh PowerMTA-6.0r3.x86_64.rpm

For Ubuntu/Debian (Install .deb file): If you have the .deb package:

dpkg -i PowerMTA-6.0r3.amd64.deb

(Note: If the installer outputs any errors regarding missing dependencies, run yum install -y <package_name> or apt install -f to resolve them.)

3. Obtain PowerMTA 6.0r3 Package

Download the appropriate RPM from your SparkPost / PowerMTA customer portal.

Typical filenames:

PowerMTA-6.0r3-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
PowerMTA-6.0r3-1.el8.x86_64.rpm (if using RHEL8)

Upload the RPM to your server via scp or rsync.

2. Install Required Dependencies

PowerMTA relies on specific shared libraries. If these are missing, the installation will fail or the service will not start.

For RHEL/CentOS 7/8/9:

sudo yum install -y glibc libstdc++ libidn libidn-devel openssl openssl-devel perl libaio libaio-devel

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libidn11 libidn11-dev openssl libssl-dev perl libaio1 libaio-dev

Powermta 60r3 Install May 2026