syslog message - identd: remote owner request failed

[Rod McLean]

I have 2 machines running HP-UX 11.0. When I send an email from A to B, I get a message in the syslog of A
identd: remote owner request failed : No such file or directory
It seems that when B recieves the email, sendmail asks A, via ident, who sent it but A can't answer for some reason and so drops a message into syslog. So the question is, what file or directory is identd looking for?

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
I'm not sure what the problem is exactly, but strictly speaking identd may be disabled.
See http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x9ed8d08cc06fd511abcd0090277a778c,00.html

It's not a straight answer ... but I hope it helps anyway :-)

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Rod McLean]

Thanks Tom, so what effect does disabling identd have on sendmail?

Rod

[Roger Baptiste]

hi,

I dont see that message in my system syslog file, even though identd is disabled in the system (both in inetd.conf and /etc/mail/sendmail.cf)

here is a sample test output from running
#sendmail -vt userid@gussy.domain.com
220 serverm.domain.com ESMTP Sendmail Switch-2.2.0/Switch-2.2.0; Fri, 15 Mar 2002 05:02:33 -0500 (EST)
>>> EHLO client.dco.domain.com
250-serverm.domain.com Hello client.dco.domain.com [21.99.99.98], pleased to meet you
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ONEX
250-ETRN
250-XUSR
250 HELP
>>> MAIL From: SIZE=5
250 2.1.0 ... Sender ok
>>> RCPT To:
250 2.1.5 ... Recipient ok
>>> DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
>>> .
250 2.0.0 g2FA2Xf19689 Message accepted for delivery
userid@gussy.domain.com... Sent (2.0.0 g2FA2Xf19689 Message accepted for delivery)
Closing connection to hao.domain.com.
>>> QUIT
221 2.0.0 serverm.domain.com closing connection


****

If you notice, nowhere is the IDENT command present. What is the output when you run the same on your system. What version of sendmail do you have? Check at the sendmail end and make sure it is the latest/stable one.

HTH
raj

[Rod McLean]

Getting rid of the ident line in /etc/inetd.conf on the sending machine or adding the line "O Timeout.ident=0s" to /etc/mail/sendmail.cf on the destination machine both got rid of the message in the syslog

The output from the sendmail -vt command is
root@dev:/etc # sendmail -vt rod@prod
.
rod@prod... Connecting to prod.au.domain.com. via esmtp...
220 prod.au.domain.com ESMTP Sendmail 8.9.3 (PHNE_24419)/8.8.6; Mon, 18 Mar 2002 12:49:32 +1100 (EDT)
>>> EHLO dev.au.domain.com
250-prod.au.domain.com Hello dev [12.34.56.78], pleased to meet you
250-EXPN
250-VERB
250-8BITMIME
250-SIZE
250-DSN
250-ONEX
250-ETRN
250-XUSR
250 HELP
>>> MAIL From:
250 ... Sender ok
>>> RCPT To:
250 ... Recipient ok
>>> DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
>>> .
250 MAA00924 Message accepted for delivery
rod@prod... Sent (MAA00924 Message accepted for delivery)
Closing connection to prod.au.domain.com.
>>> QUIT
221 prod.au.domain.com closing connection

However it's not really a sendmail problem, identd seems to be unable to access a file or directory

[Sanjay_6 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rod,

There is an issue with one of the patch on the system,

//Quote//

The latest HP-UX 11.00 patch for sendmail(1M), PHNE_24419, has a documented patch dependency on PHNE_24715. If PHNE_24715 is removed from systems on which PHNE_24419 is installed, the only loss of functionality with sendmail(1M) is that identd(1M) will fail. The failure of the advisory identification mechanism provided by identd(1M) will not negatively impact the distribution of mail, but will cause messages similar to the following in /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log:

identd: remote owner request failed : No such file or directory

These messages are harmless and can safely be ignored.

//EndQuote//

Look at the patch PHNE_25423

http://us-support2.external.hp.com/wpsl/bin/doc.pl/screen=wpslDisplayPatch/sid=6b2ca7f50706911c9c?PACH_NAM=PHNE_25423

Hope this helps.

Regds