Transient Parse Errors in Sendmail

[Prasanna_1]

We are installing a new version of sendmail 8.12.8 in place of existing 8.11.0. This sendmail acts as a relay server accepting mail from exchange and sending it to the outside world. This sendmail is behind the firewall which also acts as the split dns server. Whenever we try to send mails to some of the domains it gives me transient parse errors. However the mails to the same domain flows perfectly from 8.11.0 ver of sendmail.
Whenever i type sendmail -v -qRmantraonline.com -d8.20 , it gives "; Querying server (# 2) address = 192.168.200.3
server rejected query:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 62781
"

Litte bit confused about this.
pl help

[Christopher Caldwell]

Try this

$nslookup -d2
>server 192.168.200.3
>mantraonline.com

To see any errors. This lookup tests the resolver and the distant server.

If you get a failure, there's most likely an issue with the DNS configuration of 192.168.200.3 or the DNS that serves mantraonline.com.

As a general configuration practice for sendmail hosts, I recommend that you run _at_least_ a caching only name server on the sendmail hosts.

In resolv.conf, you should reference more than one well connected name server.

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

Do a nslookup and see if your system is able to resolve mantraonline.com. If not, check your hostname resolution.

nslookup

> mantraonline.com
> exit


Hope this helps.

[Prasanna_1]

Hi,
1) My earlier sendmail version also refers to the same dns server and it works perfectly well.

2) This is the output of nslookup from the new sendmail server. As you see it resolves mantraonline.com ok.
;; res_mkquery(0, mantraonline.com, 1, 1)
------------
SendRequest(), len 34
HEADER:
opcode = QUERY, id = 43849, rcode = NOERROR
header flags: query, want recursion
questions = 1, answers = 0, authority records = 0, additional = 0

QUESTIONS:
mantraonline.com, type = A, class = IN

------------
------------
Got answer (66 bytes):
HEADER:
opcode = QUERY, id = 43849, rcode = NOERROR
header flags: response, want recursion, recursion avail.
questions = 1, answers = 2, authority records = 0, additional = 0

QUESTIONS:
mantraonline.com, type = A, class = IN
ANSWERS:
-> mantraonline.com
type = A, class = IN, dlen = 4
internet address = 202.56.230.162
ttl = 3600 (1H)
-> mantraonline.com
type = A, class = IN, dlen = 4
internet address = 202.56.230.225
ttl = 3600 (1H)

------------
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mantraonline.com
Addresses: 202.56.230.162, 202.56.230.225.

I would try the caching only server, but how does the mail flow from old sendmail version.

[Kasper Haitsma]

Hi, Some (maybe not so) obvious questiouns:
1. What OS are you running this on?
2. Where did you get 8.12.8, HP supplies 8.11.1 as far as I can tell.
3. On what network type, with or without IPv6 (there was a transient parse error issue with 8.11.1 on hp-ux 11i, when IPv6 was enabled, which has been fixed)
4. When mail is queued, and you resolve one of the domains (nslookup -q=mx .com), and next you force the queue (sendmail -q), do the messages get processed now? (this worked for 8.11.1 on 11i with IPv6)

[Prasanna_1]

Hi,

1) OS I am currently working on HP-UX 10.20 and Solaris 7. I get this problem on both these system

2) I have downloaded the latest version from sendmail.org.

3) I try forcing the queue later . it does not work.