relay mail problems

[doug kirk]

I am using my hp server to send mail from my telalert application to another mailserver to relay to the internet. from my HP server I get the following error messages: "failed call, connected but message not sent"

On the remote mail server the log shows:

@400000004124ba5c1ead532c tcpserver: pid 27405 from 204.44.X.XX(my hp server)
@400000004124bab8348899cc tcpserver: ok 27405 :204.44.X.XX:25(remoteserver):204.44.X.XX(my hp server)::60699
~
The message seems to get lost.

This is what it should look like:
@400000004124bb3920189f14 tcpserver: pid 27788 from 204.124.84.48
@400000004124bb392026c044 tcpserver: ok 27788 :204.44.X.XX:25(remote server)
mail.firstdatacorp.com:204.124.84.48::1765
@400000004124bb392fb43a14 tcpserver: end 27788 status 0

What could be the cause of this? Is it a problem with my hp server or the remote server?

[Rick Garland]

If you send mail from the HP server to your mail relay (not telalert) does that mail get through?

[D Block 2]

test using direct: sendmail

sendmail -v @domain.com < test.msg

also try:

sendmail -bv @domain.com

[doug kirk]

I am only using telalert to send the email. I do not have sendmail configured on my hp server.

[Rick Garland]

If sendmail is not configured on your server, then telalert will have problems as well. The telalert can use the email capabilities of your server to send messages but only if the email is setup.

[doug kirk]

OK, Maybe this will help better explain my problem a little bit. First, I don't fully understand sendmail. I was pointing telalert to a sidwinder firewall that was relaying mail. This was working fine. They took the sidewinder out and put in a new mailserver. I am now trying to point telalert to it and I get the errors described above.

When I do a sendmail -v @mydomain.com < test.msg I get mydomain.com: Name server timeout
user@mydomain.com... Transient parse error -- message queued for future delivery

sendmail -bv @domain.com -- I get user@mydomain.com... deliverable: mailer esmtp, host mydomain.com, user user@mydomain.com
Hope this helps

[RAC_1]

Is the new mail server accessible form this box?? From this box can you telnet to new mail server on port 25???

Anil

[doug kirk]

Yes, I can telnet to the mailserver, I when I get there it hangs. sometimes it responds, but it usually hangs

[Rick Garland]

The transient parse error is usually a sign of not resolving.

In the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file, do you have the DS defined? This is for the smart relay host. If not can you input the value for the new mail server? This way all mail will be directed to the mail server, including the telalert mail.

[doug kirk]

Do I really want to change the DS when I have telalert sending mail to some exchange servers as well for internal mail?

[Rick Garland]

I'm curious how it is sending mail now if you do not have a mail relay defined?

The mail relay that you define, will it know about the other exchange servers. Can it forward the mail to those exchange servers?

Are you defining the mail destinations within telalert? If so, can you add additional mail servers?

[doug kirk]

I have defined what the email servers are within the telalert application. I have the exchange servers for internal email and had the firewall as the external email relay for pager and cellphones. I am trying to move to a new email relay server for external mail. Internal mail is still working fine. If I point to the old firewall to send mail it works great. If i point to the new mailserver it hangs. They think it is an issue on my server since it is relaying all other outbound mail except mine.

[RAC_1 · Accepted solution]

I think here the problem with new server. Would advise you compare the config between the old working mail server and new server.

HP-UX just does not come in picture in this setup. Tearalert is just pointing the email to new email server(without sendmail) So at most it is just the nic through which it is going. So make sure on new mail server your hp-ux box is known as it was known to old (working) mail server. Is the new cpable of resolving the external mail properly??

Anil

[doug kirk]

The new mail relay server is handling all outbound mail except mine. That is why they think it is a problem with my server.

[Rick Garland]

There are 2 possible fixes that I can see right now.

1) The new mail server is setup to only accept mail from specified host/IP addresses.

If this is true then the new mail server needs to have added to its list that mail is to be accepted from this specific host/IP.

2) The new mail server is setup to accept mail only from specified domains or has a specific mail envelope setting.

If this is true then you will need to modify the sendmail.cf file to specify those specific values for the domain and/or the mail envelope.