Problems with mail

[Olivier Decorse]

Hello,
i'm trying to send mail from a A host, to B host.
A host use Sendmail AIX4.3/UCB 8.8.8/8.8.8 and B host ESMTP Sendmail 8.8.6 (PHNE_17135)/8.8.6.
I can ping B from A, but when i mail to B, the mail stand in the mail queue. mailq says :
RAA32434 1126 Thu Jun 21 17:52 jsp2000
(mappe host : lookup (B) : report)
root@B
thank's in advance for help.

[someone_4]

how are you trying to send the mail?
what is your output if you try to send from the command line?
sendmail -v host@domain
test
.

[Olivier Decorse]

thank's for the command.
It says :
root@B... B: Name server timeout
root@B... Transient parse error -- message queued for future delivery
root@B... queued

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

Hello:
Please check these things:

1. Is sendmail daemon is running on both boxes??
If not start the sendmail process by
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

2. Are you configured resolv.con in /etc

3. try telnet 25 option or sendmail -bv

Later,

Uday

[someone_4]

is server B in your /etc/hosts file ?

[Kevin Wright]

This seems to be a name resolution problem, what do you get when you do
nslookup hostname
and
nslookup IP
are you using DNS, if not, put the hosts in /etc/hosts, make sure /etc/nsswitch.conf file reads
hosts: files dns nis
stop and restart sendmail, and try again.
Or perhaps you can relay through you companies MX record by setting the DS macro?

[Olivier Decorse]

1) is server B in your /etc/hosts file ? : Yes
2) Are you configured resolv.con in /etc ? No, because we don't use DNS : all works normaly with /etc/hosts (and works fine from other box to B)
3) sendmail -bv root@B returns :
root@B... deliverable: mailer esmtp, host B, user root@B
4) sendmail -bv root@B returns :
root@B... B: Name server timeout
root@B... Transient parse error -- message queued for future delivery
5) telnet B 25 works fine !!! and returns :
Trying...
Connected to sdp_prod.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 sdp_prod. ESMTP Sendmail 8.8.6 (PHNE_17135)/8.8.6; Mon, 25 Jun 2001 11:24:36 +0200 (METDST)
helo A
250 B. Hello A. [X.Y.Z.T], pleased to meet you
MAIL FROM: jsp2000
250 jsp2000... Sender ok
RCPT TO: root@B
250 root@B... Recipient ok
DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
test de mail en interactif depuis A !!
.
250 LAA20046 Message accepted for delivery
QUIT
and from B, the mail arrived and is correct !!!

what can i do ?!!
and thank's for your help !!

[Dave Kelly_1]

If you are not using DNS, you need to make sure that /etc/nsswitch.conf does not contain a reference to DNS. Therefore it should contain:

hosts: files


Regardless of which order you specify the host lookup, if you have a reference to DNS sendmail will ALWAYS try to look up MX records using DNS.

[Olivier Decorse]

We do not use DNS, but the A box is a Aix so, there a no /etc/nsswitch.conf file.
Also, we can ping the B HP box, so i think it isn't a name resolution probleme.

Thank's to every one, but it doesn't works better !
Olivier.

[Joseph C. Denman]

The nameserver timeout error leads me to believe you have a problem on the AIX server. It looks like sendmail is attempting to use DNS to find the B server. I'm not a aix guru, but I think the problem is on that system.

...jcd...

[Olivier Decorse]

Yes, but how is it possible to force sendmail 8.8.8 to use /etc/hosts, for resolving addresses, unstead DNS ?

Olivier.

[Joseph C. Denman · Accepted solution]

OK,

I troubleshot a little. Here is what i did.

1. set my system up to not use dns (removed resolv.conf)
2. Modified nsswitch.conf
3. added remote system to hosts file

Problem:
SAME AS YOU!!!

Solution.

1. read the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file
When not using dns, sendmail has a problem translating system name. You must uncomment and correct the Dj$w macro to let the system know your domain name.

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

Hope this helps

...jcd...

[Olivier Decorse]

Closed !