Mail messages to Root

[Jeffrey W. Stewart]

Attached is a file showing the mail messges received. I have no idea how these messages are being generated. I used SAM to check CRON, but nothing is there. Previously this system would off load data files at midnight. I assusmed this would be a CRON task?

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

Hello,

This could be from your mail/DNS server. Check if you have any different mail server.

Also I suggest you to check the sendmail.cf file.

GoodLuck..

USA..

[Bernie Vande Griend]

Perhaps you have other cron jobs running as users other than root that are sending mail.

Look in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*

Otherwise, perhaps an application via a daemon is kicking this off somehow. Try to determine what processes are run on this machine.

And yes take a look at your sendmail setup as well as DNS. It looks like it can't resolv the hostname of hp3070t1. Check your /etc/resolv.conf and/or /etc/hosts depending on what you are using for name resolution.

[Santosh Nair_1]

Looks like there was an email sent to root@hp3070t1, but sendmail couldn't resolve the hostname is bouncing the message back to itself and it can't send the email because it can't resolve and is bouncing...etc.

Make sure that your machine can resolve that host, i.e. hp3070tl. sendmail will keep trying to send the email for either the next four days or until it is successful in delivering the message.

Alternatively, just clear the message que.../var/spool/mqueue.

Hope this helps.

-Santosh

[someone_4]

I agree with everyone.
Maybe hp3070t1 is a host somewhere that the hostname was changed and never updated on DNS or ect hosts. Also maybe you have hp3070t1.site.yourdomain.whatever but not hp3070t1 as an allias in your /etc/hosts.

Richard

[James Beamish-White · Accepted solution]

I would suggest that you have sendmail running bit not configured properly.

From: Mail Delivery Subsystem

...suggests it's from sendmail. Do a ps -ef | grep mail to see if it's running. If it is, and you don't need it (the host does not relay or receive mail), then I suggest you stop it (/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop) and then change the line in /etc/rc.config.d/mailservs to export SENDMAIL_SERVER=0.

If you do need it running, it may be that the relay hosts is not configured properly. Check the sendmail.cf.

Is hp3070t1 the host it's on?

Cheers,
James

[Jeffrey W. Stewart]

Thanks to all for your replies. I will assign points later.

Uday: Can't find sendmail.cf

Bernie: deleted a file, root, in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*

Santosh: cleared all the stuff in mqueue

James: sendmail was running so I stopped it as you suggeted. I also edited the mailservs file.

I don't think I have a DNS. There is a IP for the hp3070T1.

[Wodisch]

Hello Jeffrey,

"senmail" loves DNs, "sendmail" wants DNS, you will have to tell it NOT to use DNS!
There is a "sendmail.sw" file in "/etc/mail/" and in there you can configure the local hostnames, without need for DNS.

BTW, there was a very recent patch about "sendmail" ignoring that file :-(

Additionally you could modify your "/etc/hosts" to add an aliasname for your host, ending with a period - then sendmail thinks it has got a FQDN :-)

And you should set your "/etc/nsswitch.conf" to contain at least a line like this:
hosts: files

HTH,
Wodisch

[someone_4]

If you dont have DNS or not sure ..
and have hosts:files

check /etc/hosts for the entry for the ip for hp3070T1 and make sure that hp3070T1 is somewhere on the line with the ip.

Richard

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

sendmail.cf file can be found in /etc/mail.

[linuxfan]

Hi Jeffrey,

1. You said there is an entry for hp3070T1. but the mails say hp3070t1. so make sure there is an entry for hp3070t1 in your hosts file (remember the names are case-sensitive so hp3070T1 is not the same as hp3070t1)

2. Since you are not using DNS or NIS , check your /etc/nsswitch.conf
Make sure you are only using "files"

3. Make sure you can resolve the hostname hp3070t1.
nslookup hp3070t1

-HTH
Ramesh

[Jeffrey W. Stewart]

I disabled sendmail, and not receiving the messages to root. Thanks to all, as each person who replied had information that helped solve the problem.

[Jeffrey W. Stewart]

Solution is in the Thread