sendmail is translating my "list" emails in ruleset $96

[Stuart Abramson_2]

We have a "list" email service on our MS Exchange Mail Server.

Our UNIX sendmail is translating addresses of the form:

erpissues@lists.wabtec.com

to:

erpissues@wccexc003.wabtec.com

becuase our list server is defined in DNS as an alias to our MS Exchange Server:

# nslookup lists.wabtec.com
Using /etc/hosts on...
looking up FILES
Trying DNS
Name: wccexc003.wabtec.com
Address: .....
Aliases: lists.wabtec.com

The translation comes out of ruleset #96:

# sendmail -bt erpissues@lists.wabtec.com
ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
Enter

>
> 3
No address!
> erpissues@lists.wabtec.com
No address!
> 3 erpissues@lists.wabtec.com
rewrite: ruleset 3 input: erpissues @ lists . wabtec . com
rewrite: ruleset 96 input: erpissues < @ lists . wabtec . com >
rewrite: ruleset 96 returns: erpissues < @ wccexc003 . wabtec . com . >
rewrite: ruleset 3 returns: erpissues < @ wccexc003 . wabtec . com . >
>

How do I fix this? All of our list emails sent from UNIX are bouncing.

[Steven E. Protter]

Perhaps the Dj directive will help.

#Dj.foo changes to
Djwabtec.com

in sendmail.cf

/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

Try it again.

Run diags with

sendmail -v -d8.99 -d38.99 schmo@yourdomain.net

Type a line of text
.

You might get more info for problem resolution.

SEP

[Stuart Abramson_2]

That was really cool!

text_getcanonname(lists.wabtec.com)
getcanonname(lists.wabtec.com), trying dns
dns_getcanonname(lists.wabtec.com, trymx=1)
dns_getcanonname: trying lists.wabtec.com. (ANY)
YES
dns_getcanonname: trying wccexc003.wabtec.com. (ANY)
YES
dns_getcanonname: wccexc003.wabtec.com
getcanonname(wccexc003.wabtec.com), found
test

However, what do I do with that now? I knew already that sendmail was getting the translation from DNS, and this proves it, but what do I change in sendmail.cf?

I know that the rule involved in ruleset 96, but I don't know what to do with it.

[Stuart Abramson_2]

BTW, results are same with Dj set or not.

I don't normally set Dj, because we haven't had any trouble recognizing our domain.

So, I will set it back.

Thanks for help..

[Christopher Caldwell]

You've got a few options, but they all center around making lists.wabtec.com a canonical name instead of an alias.

sendmail looks up the lists.wabtec.com and sees that the lists.wabtec.com points to a CNAME (i.e. it's an alias).

sendmail canonicalizes lists.wabtec.com by replacing lists.wabtec.com with it's CNAME (wccexc003.wabtec.com).

sendmail continues to canonicalize the name until it finds an A record (in case of aliases that point to aliases).

From the Bind book 4th Edition page 117: "sendmail uses canonicalization several times when processing an SMTP message; it canonicalizes the _destination_ address and several fields in the SMTP headers.

In short - make lists.wabtec.com a canonical name instead of an alias:

@webtec.com

lists IN A 1.2.3.4
and probably
lists IN MX 10 wccexc003.wabtec.com.
for good measure.

[Stuart Abramson_2]

We worked it out.

We put an entry in our /etc/hosts like this:

nnn.nnn.nnn.nn lists.wabtec.com

Our nsswitch.conf says look in /etc/hosts first, then DNS.

Our DNS is run on NT servers by the DNS group.

Becuase "lists.wabtec.com" is found in /etc/hosts, sendmail doesn't ask DNS to translate it, and the address passed through unchanged.

So, I'm good for now.

Thanks for all your help.