topic Re: vms mail in Operating System - OpenVMS

vms mail

Peter Clarke — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:13:46 GMT

Hi,

Our ES40 sends our statements out to our customers however when the customers reply it comes back to the wrong address.
It is putting the user@node.domain.com and i don't want the node part how can i change this?

Many Thanks
Pete

Re: vms mail

Kris Clippeleyr — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:24:09 GMT

Hi Peter,
You could define the logical TCPIP$SMTP_FROM like this:

$ Define TCPIP$SMTP_FROM "user@domain.com"

Regards,
Kris (aka Qkcl)

Re: vms mail

Hoff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:52:33 GMT

The former reply presumes DCL-level MAIL access and that's usually a very safe bet, and a good approach for most cases.

If you're doing this from within some local application code via the MAIL$ API and not directly from DCL, you can also choose to set the return address via the API, too.

Re: vms mail

Peter Clarke — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:28:35 GMT

Yes i have changed for dcl and works fine but it is from the software that they are getting a problem.... so there is no global setting that will make all mail have the reply address user@domain.com?

Re: vms mail

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:28:52 GMT

Assuming SMTP through TCPIP services for VMS (UCX), then IMHO the right way to do it is through defining a substitute domain.

TCPIP> HELP SET CONFIG SMTP /SUBSTITUTE

This will insert from user@domain for all users, wether Mail from DCL or program API.

Re: vms mail

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:35:32 GMT

If the mail API is VMS callable mail, then the TCPIP SMTP settings should be honoured I think.
If the API is through some direct socket call to a mail server, then of course not.

For VMS mail also check logicals:
"MAIL$INTERNET_MODE" = "SMTP"
"MAIL$INTERNET_TRANSPORT" = "SMTP"
"MAIL$PROTOCOL_SMTP" = "TCPIP$SMTP_MAILSHR"

Re: vms mail

Hoff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:47:59 GMT

I'd expect the logical name to be honored, but I've (also) learned not to assume anything around how unknown application code and an unknown server is implemented.

It would not surprise me to find that, for instance, there's some php code in use here that sends out the mail directly. And that likely won't honor the logical name.

Go look at the code and see what it's actually doing.

The classic OpenVMS approach of MAIL at DCL or the MAIL API isn't as ubiquitous as it once was. It's trivial to connect into a remote email server from php code, for instance.

And we don't even know that this is the TCP/IP Services IP stack yet. Off-hand, I don't know if the Process IP stacks uniformly implement the TCPIP$SMTP_FROM mechanism.

If this is TCP/IP Services here (and if you are using the stack directly and not a remote stack!), then the replacement domain command syntax is a decent bet.

Do some digging on your server, and see what you have for an IP stack, and take a look at how this stuff is implemented in your environment.

Re: vms mail

Peter Clarke — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:11:16 GMT

I ran TCPIP> HELP SET CONFIG SMTP /SUBSTITUTE_DOMAIN=NAME=domain.com and now i don't even receive a mail when i send it?

Re: vms mail

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:23:06 GMT

You mean, You don't get a reply ?
Of course You can have a from address of user@mail_domain only, if there is a mail receiver at address mail_domain, and the receiver must be able to find the user.
Is the VMS system the receiver ? or some other mail server system ?

Re: vms mail

Hoff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:26:18 GMT

Upstream mail servers (those that do permit relay, and relay is almost certainly restricted) can get cranky when they receive relays from new or changed or "spoofed" domains.

Re: vms mail

Peter Clarke — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:36:57 GMT

Basically we are sending out from the Alpha but want to get the replies on a different Linux mailserver.....

Re: vms mail

Hoff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:15:09 GMT

>Basically we are sending out from the Alpha but want to get the replies on a different Linux mailserver.....

Yes. That is quite clear. To move forward here with resolution, specific information on the application software and on how the SMTP server(s) are configured and operated is now needed. That information is site-specific.

Re: vms mail

Joseph Huber_1 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:21:37 GMT

This means the incoming Linux mail server needs to know where to send the mail for the VMS userids.
I don't know how it is done in a particular mailserver system, on my organization there is a mail alias file, which basically has an entry for each user which looks like this:

vmsuserid,firstname.lastname vmsuser@vms.ourdomain.

vms.ourdomain is the TCPIP cluster alias, where the VMS SMTP receiver is running.