Sendmail/Relay/Exchange addressing problem

[Kevin (Gonzo) Bushman]

We have two old systems (HP 11.11) in we'll call Domanin-A and two new systems (HP 11.31) in Domain-B. They were all configured to send email out to our Exchange server (address not brought up here - that's my question).

All four systems sent mail and emails were received. The DS entries in sendmail.cf is configured to go to our Exchange server. We recently updated our Exchange server by installing a new Exchange server on Domain-B.

When I changed the entries in the sendmail.cf file to point to the new Domain-B Exchange server, sendmail was bounced (if it was running - these HP systems do NOT receive mail from the outside so sendmail isn't generally running). Prior to the mod to the sendmail.cf file, the DS entries pointed to the old Exchange server on Domain-A. After the mod, they point to the new Exchange server on Domain-B.

Here's where it get's sticky. Over the weekend, the Windows guys migrated the old Exchange server data (Domain-A) to the new Exchange server (Domain-B). When they did this, emails from the old HP's (Domain-A) were no longer delivered. Emails from the new HP's (Domain-B) were. All mail queues are empty. That is, email is going out and is no longer on the HP's. Nor is there any bad entries that I can see in mail.log either.

During troubleshooting, the Windows guys claim that email from the HP's (all 4) is still being sent to the OLD exchange server. I've checked DNS (did a lookup of the new Exchange server name) to make sure it's being resolved. All is OK there. On one system I even changed the full domain name to the IP address of the new Exchange server. They still claim emails going out are going to the old system.

Before anyone says this can't be so, they put in a redirect rule on the old Exchange server to redirect anything coming from the HP's to go to the new Exchange server and we started getting emails. So there is some credence to the idea that emails ARE going to the old Exchange server.

So, my question is, how can this be? I've tried using the IP address instead of the FQDN. No difference. I tried putting the new Exchange server in the /etc/rc.config.d/mailservrs file. No difference. I've made sure that sendmail was bounced or not running when I made changes to the sendmail.cf file. Still, they claim that emails go to the old Exchange server.

I've also made sure that there isn't any entriesd in /etc/hosts to confuse matters either.

Any ideas? I'm lost on this one.

Thanks. Points will be given where appropriate.

-Gonzo

[Dennis Handly · Accepted solution]

>I've made sure that sendmail was bounced or not running when I made changes to the sendmail.cf file.

That's a good step.

>Nor is there any bad entries that I can see in mail.log either.

Does it mention where the mail is being sent?

[Kevin (Gonzo) Bushman]

Yes. Now that I look, there are entries that show that the relay is the old Exchange server (Domain-A).

So, my question is, why? What am I missing? What am I not changing that I need to?

Thanks,
-Gonzo

[Kevin (Gonzo) Bushman]

Dennis - Thanks for the push. I found the problem. I was making the needed changes to the sendmial.cf file, but ignoring the submit.cf file. It still had the old Exchange server listed. So, it was going there. I changed that and sent myself a test email and Viola!, the log shows that it was relayed to the new Exchange server.

Problem solved.

Thanks a bunch. Points given.

-Gonzo