Release 5.0.1 of Debian's Lenny GNU/Linux distribution includes version 8.3 of PostgreSQL.
During the creation of a new Debian Lenny server, a list of software packages is provided. To make a new PostgreSQL-only server, unselect everything, including the 'Standard system', then select 'SQL Database', and proceed with the installation.
Once installation has completed, and the new server has rebooted, the PostgreSQL service is not auto-started. There are a couple of manual commands to be applied. In prior versions, PostgreSQL was auto-started. I think I understand the reasoning, particularily because it is useful for my situation.
During the server creation, I have a separate set of disks allocated for the database. By manually finishing the PostgreSQL implementation, I am able to initialize the directory location during service creation. If I have I've mounted my drives at /var/local/db, then these two commands get the PostgreSQL 8.3 service started:
pg_createcluster -d /var/local/db 8.3 main /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.3 start