How to prevent unneeded IMAP/POP3 services to start at boot

[François B]

I'm using Plesk only as a web server (Apache + MySQL). The e-mail accounts are hosted by a third-party. I don't need IMAP/POP3 services, and would like to permanently disable them, to save memory and for security.

The scripts on the web server might still send mail, so I want to keep SMTP service.

I could manually stop the IMAP/POP3 services in Plesk UI > Tools & Settings > Services Management after each reboot, but this is not practical and I would like to automate this by simply having the services never startup after a reboot.

None of my attempts succeeded:

A) In Plesk UI > Tools & Settings > Updates and Upgrades > Add/Remove Components:
Remove Mail hosting > IMAP/POP3 servers > Courier
results in error message, telling I should remove Postfix too (SMTP server) if I want to proceed, which I don't want (as stated above, I want to keep SMTP service).

B) Executed as root:

sysv-rc-conf courier-authdaemon off
sysv-rc-conf courier-imapd off
sysv-rc-conf courier-imaps off
sysv-rc-conf courier-pop3d off
sysv-rc-conf courier-pop3s off

Running sysv-rc-conf with no arguments now shows all columns empty for courier-*, however after next reboot, IMAP and POP3 services are still launched.

Any idea to prevent IMAP/POP3 services to start ?

(My setup: Ubuntu 14.04, Plesk 12.5)

 

[Liew CheonFong]

I am wondering the same too. Would love to see some experts show us the way.

 

[IgorG]

Do you have watchdog installed?

 

[François B]

Do you have watchdog installed?

No. See screen shot below.

 

[IgorG]

What about just removing Courier or Dovecot packages? For Dovecot, for instance:

# rpm -qa | grep dovecot
plesk-dovecot-imap-driver-12.5.30-cos6.build1205150826.19.i686
plesk-dovecot-pigeonhole-0.4.8-centos6.15081914.i686
plesk-dovecot-2.2.18-centos6.15081914.i686
plesk-dovecot-core-2.2.18-centos6.15081914.i686

# rpm -e plesk-dovecot-imap-driver plesk-dovecot-pigeonhole plesk-dovecot plesk-dovecot-core

 

[Liew CheonFong]

What about just removing Courier or Dovecot packages? For Dovecot, for instance:

# rpm -qa | grep dovecot
plesk-dovecot-imap-driver-12.5.30-cos6.build1205150826.19.i686
plesk-dovecot-pigeonhole-0.4.8-centos6.15081914.i686
plesk-dovecot-2.2.18-centos6.15081914.i686
plesk-dovecot-core-2.2.18-centos6.15081914.i686

# rpm -e plesk-dovecot-imap-driver plesk-dovecot-pigeonhole plesk-dovecot plesk-dovecot-core

What's the commands for Ubuntu?

 

[IgorG]

What's the commands for Ubuntu?

dpkg with corresponding options, I suppose.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Liew CheonFong,

What's the commands for Ubuntu?

For Debian/Ubuntu based systems, you would use the example commands:

dpkg --get-selections | grep dovecot
( to list installed packages with part of the name "dovecot" )​

dpkg --remove plesk-dovecot
( to remove the package "plesk-dovecot" )​