sendmail - unable to qualify my own domain name

[Habib_4]

Hi guys, my server is saying the following:

Apr 11 20:02:30 ftp1 sendmail[1535]: unable to qualify my own domain name (ftp1) -- using short name

What does this mean and why does it happen?

Cheers

[Alex Glennie · Accepted solution]

1. Perhaps patches have been applied and your version of sendmail.cf does not match the version of sendmail you are actually running. It has to be copied over from newconfig.

2. Also check whether DNS is being used:

# ls -l /etc/resolv.conf

If this file is not present, DNS is disabled.

3. Check /etc for the file nsswitch.conf:

# ls -l /etc/nsswitch.conf

If it is not there, copy it into /etc from:

/usr/newconfig/etc/nsswitch.conf

4. Edit the nsswitch.conf file to remove any reference to DNS. The host
lookup line should be simply:

hosts: files

NOTE: If NIS is used, DNS should be removed but NIS left in place. For example:

hosts: nis files
services: nis files
protocols: nis files
networks: nis files
rpc: nis files
netgroup: nis files

5. Edit the /etc/hosts file and add an alias, for example:

123.45.6.78 uxhost uxhost.

The alias is the hostname with a trailing dot - this is important: the dot
represents a place holder for a domain name.

6. Edit /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Look for the following lines:

# my official domain name
# ... define this only if sendmail cannot automatically determine your domain
#Dj$w.Foo.COM

Uncomment the Dj line and remove the Foo.COM (but leave the dot after the w):

Dj$w.

7. Stop and re-start sendmail:

# /sbin/init.d/sendmail stop
# /sbin/init.d/sendmail start

# tail -20 /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Habib,

Perhaps, you need to put FQDN /etc/hosts file and try one more time. Also, check /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/nsswitch.conf

-Arun

[Peter Godron]

Habib,
have you checked your /etc/hosts file for the line starting
127.0.0.1 fullname shortname
e.g.
127.0.0.1 test.yahoo.com fred
Then restart your sendmail daemon

[melvyn burnard]

It would help folks a lot if you used thread titles that were a bit more informative than just Error!

I have changed the thread title.

[sysadm_1]

check /etc/hosts file have fully qualified name .eg:

112.1.143.120 apps.hp.com apps


Also check /etc/nsswitch.conf
eg:

hosts: files dns [NOTFOUND=return]

this line will look for /etc/hosts then DNS for name resolution.

also check /etc/resolv.conf and confirm DNS server name and domain name is correct
eg:
domain hp.com
nameserver domain qu.edu.qa
nameserver 122.167.43.20


-sysadm-