Sendmail

[Joe Hege]

I've got sendmail running on one server but can not get the other one to run. Here's the error in the queue:
host map: lookup (Foo.com): deferred

Used the sendmail trouble shooting doc from HP but no luck.

hosts file looks good, sendmail.cf is the same on both servers.

Any Ideas?

Thanks
Joe

[David Burgess]

Hi,

Sounds like you can't look up your host. Either add it to DNS or /etc/hosts.

This is how I've got sendmail set up :-

I mail to Novell Groupwise server. I set this up :-

in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

Define your domain nmae
Dj$w.yourdomainname.com

and / or

in /etc/hosts make sure the line for your hostname is fully qualified

x.x.x.x svrname svrname.yourdomainname.com

Add an entry in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf for the smart relay host. This is where to send mail that cannot ne delivered locally. Make it the ip address of your Exchange server

You could add the address to /etc/hosts or DNS to mailgate

DS1.2.3.4 = ip address of Exchange server.
DSmailgate

Alias the mailgate entry in /etc/hosts to be yourdomainname ie

1.2.3.4 mailgate yourdomainname.com

Try and ping mailgate

Now try /usr/sbin/sendmail -v user@yourdomainname.com
It should connect and send a blank message.

One thing to note is that you need to make sure the Exchange server isn't rejecting your email.

Hope this makes sense.

Regards,

Dave.

[Barry O Flanagan]

Could it be a name resolution problem? Is the /etc/nsswitch.conf the same on both machines and is the /etc/mail/service.switch the same on both?

[Helen French · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe:

The problem can be because of the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. Check and see if this file exists. If not, copy from the other system and make the proper changes needed.

If you don't have the file, then:

# cd /etc
# cp nsswitch.files nsswitch.conf

and change the "hosts" line to:

hosts: files [NOTFOUND=continue] dns

HTH,
Shiju

[Barry O Flanagan]

Also, is your own hostname qualified in your /etc/hosts? If not, qualify it or just leave it as yourname. <- note the dot!

[harry d brown jr]

What does your sendmail.cw look like?

live free or die
harry

[Joe Hege]

All files are the same except for the host name and IP address in /etc/hosts

Made this change in sendmail.cf:
Dj$w.ellisonwindow.com

I can ping the address of the mail server
I can ping the alias: mail.ellisonwindow.com

Here's another error:
jhege@ellisonwindow.com... ellisonwindow.com: Name server timeout
jhege@ellisonwindow.com... Transient parse error -- message queued for future de
livery

thanks

[Kevin Wright]

The nameserver timeout error means that your dns resolution didn't work. Do you have the right servers in /etc/resolv.conf? and nsswitch.conf does have dns after hosts NOTFOUND right?