Mail issues

[Marie-Josee Cormier]

A few of our developers uses the mailx utility to send bath mails to other users..

This is the syntax they use
echo "bla bla bla" | mailx -FUm -s "test mail from unix" -r addsrc@bla.com adddest@bla.com

Once in a while, mail gets stuck in the system, and they're only delivered a few days later.

On another thread, someone mentioned puting
/usr/sbin/sendmail -q
in a crontab wich forces e-mail out of the mail box.

It doesnt work..

Here's a part of the mail.log file.
___________
Dec 6 15:00:03 HPUNIXA sendmail[29981]: PAA29981: from=mcgrr, size=244, class=0, pri=90244, nrcpts=3, msgid=<200512061900.PAA29981@HPUNIXA.acadie.com>, relay=mcgrr@localhost
Dec 6 15:00:03 HPUNIXA sendmail[29981]: PAA29981: to=denise.hebert@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
Dec 6 15:00:03 HPUNIXA sendmail[29981]: PAA29981: to=melanie.theriault@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
Dec 6 15:00:03 HPUNIXA sendmail[29981]: PAA29981: to=roseline.cormier@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
Dec 6 15:00:04 HPUNIXA sendmail[142]: PAA00142: from=root, size=439, class=0, pri=30439, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200512061900.PAA00142@HPUNIXA.acadie.com>, relay=root@localhost
Dec 6 15:00:04 HPUNIXA sendmail[134]: PAA00134: from=mcgrr, size=225, class=0, pri=90225, nrcpts=3, msgid=<200512061900.PAA00134@HPUNIXA.acadie.com>, relay=mcgrr@localhost
Dec 6 15:00:04 HPUNIXA sendmail[134]: PAA00134: to=denise.hebert@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
Dec 6 15:00:04 HPUNIXA sendmail[134]: PAA00134: to=melanie.theriault@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
Dec 6 15:00:04 HPUNIXA sendmail[134]: PAA00134: to=roseline.cormier@acadie.com, delay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, stat=queued
_____________________

How can I push those queued mail away?

Thanks

[Rick Garland · Accepted solution]

There are several reasons mail can be queued. Example, the CPU load is too high.

These settings (and more) are in the sendmail.cf file.

Look at some of the reasons the mail might be queued and see if there match any system characteristics.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom Marie,

sendmail -v -q

It will push the sendmail queue.

Most likely the mail will not go out, but you will get the information you need to correct the problem.

1) The number one cause for mail not being deliverable is bad DNS resolution. If you can not resolve the hostnames acadie.com in this case sendmail can't deliver the mail
2) Firewall/SMTP relay setup. Firewalls often block port 25. If you use a SMTP relay server, which is set by the DS directive in sendmail.cf then firewalls and the relay server itself must explicity permit traffic from this server.

What the issue is will be apparent from the sendmail -v -q command output.

mailq

Shows the size of the mail queue.

SEP

[Kent Ostby]

The other cause is the load average on the system.

Check the load average during the time that the messages seem "stuck."

You can scroll down in this document as well and read what the sendmail org says about load average:

http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/doc8.9.3/op-sh-6.html

[Marie-Josee Cormier]

Thanks for your help. I'll try all of your suggestions.