topic Re: sendmail does not ! in Operating System - Linux

sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:13:03 GMT

I am having a real fight with sendmail the environment is

sendmail-8.12.8-9.90 on a Redhat 9.0 kernel 2.4.20-20.9

this sendmail is only for a local mail delivery nothing fancy here

Sometime ago after upgrading from 7.2 to 9.0 I noticed that I did not receive anymore mails

service sendmail at boot is flagged OK

so after some searching I found loads of messages like the following in /var/log/maillog

sendmail[1514]: hAK9hIeh001514: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=30065, relay=[127.0.0.1]
[127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]

At first I checked all sendmail files in old mail directory (/etc/) theses have moved upgrade and are now in /etc/mail as it should be all those files looked good

I then turn my attention to port smtp (25) i am still using ipchains here but this worked before so there no reason it should not work now ...this is always seen as close no matter what is in sendmail.fc

in /etc/hosts localhost is there I can ping this see it with ifconfig.

I try-ed lots of different m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

In fact I have an other linux 9.0 (also migrated to from 7.2 to 9.0) I copied the sendmail.mc
from there and created a sendmail.cf from that no luck ! it works on one system not on the other ? ... the only differences I see are as follow-es (from /var/log/maillog)

sendmail[6530]: hAKAo0vw001852: to=, ctladdr= (0/0), delay=00:00:02, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=local, pri=30688, dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent

why is one dsn=2.0.0 and the other dsn=4.0.0

I am probably failing to see the obvious here and I am looping, I never have been a sendmaid
expert but would like some help to get me on the way.

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Alexander Chuzhoy — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:16:09 GMT

I guess the problem is that in up to redhat 7.3 the configuration file was in /etc/ i.e
/etc/sendmail.cf
but starting from 8.0 it is
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Re: sendmail does not !

Alexander Chuzhoy — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:19:29 GMT

OK sorry I didn't read till the end (so tipical).
What's the entry of /etc/mail/access ?
did you try to telnet to port 25
and -is there an answer?

Re: sendmail does not !

Alexander Chuzhoy — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:26:13 GMT

try to execute the following:
telnet ip_address 25
helo test
mail from: huc@yyyy.mydom
rcpt to: root@yyyy.mydom
data
test message
.
quit

of course instead of writing just oress on it.... :)

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:26:50 GMT

Dont worry I do the same fly over questions, then opps!

Yes I tryed but port 25 always and up closed after I service sendmail restart with a new sendmail.cf

in /ztc/mail/access

localhost.localdomain RELAY
localhost RELAY
127.0.0.1 RELAY

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 13:27:50 GMT

Maybe your /etc/mail/access file got stomped on. Right now it appears your server can not relay off itself.

Or if you are using smart relay DS in sendmail.cf

Is relay authorized by hostname or ip address.

SEP

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:02:44 GMT

Sorry for delay, but here is some more

telnet localhost 25

telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused

Because port close

DS is null

I have attached sendmail.mc (in fact this is default one because figure t should work ... it does on the second linux !)

Perhaps some could send me an even more basic one ?

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:06:40 GMT

oppp submit before attach ...

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

K.C. Chan — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:23:09 GMT

Huc,
There is a slight change on how sendmail is run on RH8-9. The easiest way I know of is start up sendmail, this starts up sendmail which listen on localhost and responsible for recieving, and a mail queue client which is responsible for sending mail. The spool dir is now /var/spool/mqueue and /var/spool/clientmqueue. Both sendmail daemon listen on locahost. One for dequeueing /var/spool/mqueue and the other for /var/spool/clientmqueue. Correct me if I am wrong, this is how I understand and got my to work.

If you feel you don't want to start up sendmail service then you need to do this on /etc/mail/submit.cf, edit "Ds" smart relay to forward mail to your mail server. Then you have to make sure all your cron messages are not going to root@localhost; otherwise it will be bounce back because there is no sendmail listening on localhost(Unless you start up sendmail offcourse, which listen on localhost by default).

Re: sendmail does not !

Alexander Chuzhoy — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 14:37:22 GMT

Hey Huc! locate this line in your sendmail.mc file:
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
and remove "Addr=127.0.0.1," from it.
Then
m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
and then
service sendmail restart

Best regards...

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:04:57 GMT

Alexander I tryed this but no luck

When I start service sendmail and then do an nmap localhost i don't even get port 25 close ... port 25 is not there ...

I am going to try DS smart relay now

Will get get back to you with results

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Steven E. Protter — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:10:56 GMT

Diagnostic:

sendmail -v -d8 -d38 person@yourdomain.com
Type some text
.

SEP

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:33:24 GMT

Connecting to [127.0.0.1] via relay...
jphuc@whatever... Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]

I also tryed DS smart relay host in sendmail.cf

... Yesterday I could at least get to a stage
where nmap localhost would give port 25 as closed ... Dont get this far now ...

Boy am I glad this is not a very important system

... I wonder if this is not more an Ipchain problem ... because I have an other system that works and I have compared both the only diff i see now is one run ipchains the other iptables apart from that ??? well don't know

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:50:38 GMT

Thank all for your help here I will grab some sleep now and ponder on this (will have a serious read at sendmail.doc ) and probably turn to iptables if I find the time ... I am getting stuborn on this one...

Hey SEP, pass the last 100 mark nearly there !
I am already rejoycing for you ..

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:07:47 GMT

OK could not leave it at that well i am a stubborn b......
could not let it rest !

Found it in fact I turn off ipchains and turn on to iptables
same result ... then i started looking at file security

It hit me I had been trying/testing out Bastille
on this node ... week prior to migrate 7.3 to 9.0

Review bastille decided to invoke bastille -r (revert)

I will have to turn it on again after but this is a test node right !

Well sendmail now works ! (received a lots of mail)

A lesson I shall not forget !

Thank you all, you have great merit for supporting/helping such an i....

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Jerome Henry — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 09:46:32 GMT

I'm discovering your thread. Whow, what an adventure !
That's why in fact (sorry Steven) I do not like Bastile too much, I feel it too 'turning you to a mind where you close your machine too much'.
Could you post what did exactly Bastille stop in your machine ?
Tks
(of course 0)
J

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:09:18 GMT

Oops ! I hit the 3 pts bottom, I dont know what has been wrong with ITRC forums, but I could not reach until, now !

I will invetigate and post finding here, I dont have much time right now, but will get to the bottom.., not to urgent because this is a home test system.

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 12:01:08 GMT

When you let Bastille touch sendmail, you have to test immediately. I've had problems with what it does to sendmail and BIND over the past 15 months I've used it.

SEP

Re: sendmail does not !

Huc_1 — Fri, 21 Nov 2003 12:11:39 GMT

Yes I gave you our point to get there hourra Hourra

And yes you always said thar bastile is for the carefull and it probaly me, just sloppy on thar one ...

I am realy please to see you as a salad head !!

J-P

Re: sendmail does not !

Patrick Van Humbeeck — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:35:10 GMT

Hi Huc,

Good to see you fixed the problem already, just a little trick that you could have used to spare some time investigating the firewall side of things :

netstat -alpnt | grep sendmail would have shown you if sendmail was listening on port 25 or not, so you could have skipped the fw tests if it wasn't even listening on the port behind the fw.

Rgds,

Patrick