Connection refused when trying to email

[Ravi S. Banda]

Hi,
We're a customer of hp. We're currently running hp ux 11.0.

We see the following message in the mail.log (constantly). Eventhough, we pointed our mail server to be usmail3k2, I don't understand why it is still sending thru usmail3k3. usmail3k3 needed to be brought down by our networking group.

I made the change in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf to look at usmail3k2. usmail3k2 is up and running and pingable from the server.

Which other configuration files I need to change to properly point to usmail3k2 instead of usmail3k3.

Error:
Apr 12 15:01:34 hpn4044 sendmail[8280]: PAA08278: to=, delay=00:00:02, xdelay=00:00:02, mailer=relay, relay=usmail3k3.micros.com. [172.28.196.168], stat=Deferred: Connection refused by usmail3k3.micros.com.

Thanks!
Ravi.

[RAC_1]

nslookup on both systems, do they give different ips?? if yes nslookup on ips do they give diff host names??

What sendmail version do you use?? Do you have /etc/mail/service.switch file?? (This is abolote now.)

How does your /etc/nsswitch.conf look like?? Particualrly hosts and alises directives.
Does the hosts go into /etc/hosts??
If yes how they are defined??

Anil

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

Ravi - You didn't write if You restarted sendmail - did You? :)

[Ravi S. Banda]

Anil,
Thanks for your reply. I also made a change even in /etc/hosts file to point usmail3k3 to usmail3k2. But, still the mail.log file somehow tries to get to usmail3k3 [172.28.196.168], stat=Deferred.

Anyways, the results:

# nslookup usmail3k2
Using /etc/hosts on: hpn4044

looking up FILES
Trying DNS
Name: usmail3k2.micros.com
Address: 172.28.196.180

# nslookup usmail3k3
Using /etc/hosts on: hpn4044

looking up FILES
Name: usmail3k3
Address: 172.28.196.180
Aliases: usmail3k3.micros.com

ping shows the same result as above, to .180 address.

/etc/mail/service.switch EXISTS in our system, i understand it is obsolete, but, I do see some entries at the end of the file:

hosts dns files
aliases files

However, our /etc/nsswitch.conf shows:

hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns
aliases: files

Thanks!
Ravi.

[Ravi S. Banda]

ps -ef|grep sendmail|grep -v grep

root 888 1 0 Jan 26 ? 1:46
sendmail: accepting connections on port 25

[RAC_1]

You nslookup.

usmail3k3 get it from /etc/hosts.
usmail3k2 get it from DNS.
What does "nsquery hosts usmail3k3" dns
does?? Does it resolve to different ip?? Are they the same servers??

Anil

[Ravi S. Banda]

$ nsquery hosts usmail3k3

Using "files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns" for the hosts policy.

Searching /etc/hosts for usmail3k3
Hostname: usmail3k3
Aliases: usmail3k3.micros.com
Address: 172.28.196.180
Switch configuration: Terminates Search

They're physically 2 different servers. But, we're told not to use usmail3k3 forever.

[RAC_1]

you did put the command right, The command is as follows.

nsquery hosts usmail3k3 "dns"

[RAC_1]

I think you have updated /etc/hosts entry for
usmail3k3.micros.com wrongly. It should be what you are getting in mail.log. (usmail3k3.micros.com should accept emails from you)

usmail3k3 172.28.196.168

Hope this helps.

[Ravi S. Banda]

nsquery hosts usmail3k3 "dns"

shows:

Using "dns" for the hosts policy.

Searching dns for usmail3k3
Hostname: usmail3k3.micros.com
Aliases:
Address: 172.28.196.168
Switch configuration: Terminates Search

[Ravi S. Banda]

I think you have updated /etc/hosts entry for
usmail3k3.micros.com wrongly. It should be what you are getting in mail.log. (usmail3k3.micros.com should accept emails from you)


But, shouldn't hosts file contain ip address first and then the hostname followed by alias(es). And, also, there's shouldn't be any references to usmail3k3. That's the whole problem. I don't understand how is it getting to usmail3k3.

nsswitch.conf doesn't say to look in dns first, then, I wonder how come the email requests are still going thru usmail3k3-.168 address.

Also, I've updated the issue with the results of nsquery hosts usmail3k3 "dns" yesterday.

[Ravi S. Banda]

Anybody? We still have the same problem even now. I don't understand. please help!
Thanks!

[RAC_1]

Post for your entry for usmail3k3 in /etc/hosts. (Iam assuming that you are allowed to mail to usmail3k3)
Post your /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

Anil

[SANJAY MANOHAR PATHARE]

How can both the servers having same IP address? You need to check you /etc/hosts entries.

Sanjay

[Ravi S. Banda]

Sanjay,
Because I've forced usmail3k3 and usmail3k2 to use the same ip address. Because usmail3k3 no longer exists. But, the still the email requests are going through the original ip address of usmail3k3 [172.28.196.168]

Anil,
/etc/nsswitch.conf contents:
passwd: files
group: files
hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns
services: files
networks: files
protocols: files
rpc: files
publickey: files
netgroup: files
automount: files
aliases: files

Thanks!

[RAC_1]

Ravi,

Help us to help you. Let's start again.
Now provide the following details and ALL OF IT.

If possible post /etc/hosts entry for both servers.

Post output of following commands.

nsquery hosts usmail3k3 "dns"
nsquery hosts usmail3k2 "dns"

grep -i ^DS /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Anil