sendmail - host unknown

[Wamaitha]

Hello, getting this error when i try to send an e-mail to myself from the hp-ux server running 11i.
username@company.com... Host unknown (Name server: company.com: host not found)
/root/dead.letter... Saved message in /root/dead.letter.

i have stopped and started the sendmail daemon.
thanks in advance.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

You don't have DNS hostname resolution.

Check /etc/nsswitch.conf to see how host resolution is done.

If DNS is first then check /etc/resolv.conf and make adjustments until commands like nslookup hp.com work and provide you an answer.

Your internal mail setup may require that you relay mail through a firewall or exchange server. This is done with the DS directive in sendmail.cf, followed by a restart of sendmail.

Note though that the server you point to in the DS directive must specifically be configured to allow relay from your hpux host.

SEP

[Wamaitha]

SEP, i verified tjat hosts existed on the nsswitch .conf file, it does and it is the 3rd one down. resolv.conf has the domain and IP address for the nameserver.
as for the sendmail.cf file, it is a copy of a file working on another hp-ux server.
thanks in advance.

[Ivan Ferreira]

Your nsswitch.conf should look like:

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

Test your name resolution with nslookup, for example:

nslookup -query=MX company.com

[Wamaitha]

Ivan i did add the NOTFOUND=continue on the hosts, did npt find the ipnodes.
when i do nslookup i get the nameserver ip and a prompt >. when i do mailx username@company.com, i am not getting an error, but no mail is been delivered.
thanks in advance.

[Mark Greene_1]

Verify that the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf has the DS entry pointing to your mail server; you may also need to have DM set to your domain name if host masquerading is a requirement for your mail setup. Then stop and restart sendmail so you know you've got the current sendmail.cf in play.

mark