MAIL on Alpha VMS

[Anthony Tyrell_1]

Hi there, I am looking for some guidance in getting SMTP mail working on alpha vms 7.3-1. Previously our users made use of wollongong tcp on an old VAX system (vms 5.5-2) which has an 'fmail' function. Now however, we are migrating to new alpha platform and users are looking to use the MAIL function, which has not been configured, to email files to external email addresses. I have ran a few tests but keep hitting a problem with following error message:-

%MAIL-E-ERRACTRNS, error activating transport SMTP
%LIB-E-ACTIMAGE, error activating image $1$DGA20:[SYS0.SYSCOMMON.][SYSLIB]
SMTP_MAILSHR.EXE;
-RMS-E-FNF, file not found

I thought I may have remedied this when I discovered that the smtp_mailshr.exe file was actually called TCPIP$SMTP_MAILSHR.EXE and made a copy of it calling it smtp_mailshr.exe. However, this now gives me the following output :-

MAIL> send $1$dga20:[test]test.com
To: xxx.xxx@xxxx.com
%RMS-E-RNF, record not found
%RMS-E-RNF, record not found

I have tried to run the script SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]TCPIP$SMTP_STARTUP.COM;1 but this comes back with the following output:-

LEDA20> @TCPIP$SMTP_STARTUP.COM
%TCPIP-I-INFO, image SYS$SHARE:TCPIP$SMTP_MAILSHR.EXE installed
%TCPIP-I-INFO, image SYS$SHARE:TCPIP$SMTP_PARSESHR_TV.EXE installed
%TCPIP-I-INFO, image SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$SMTP_RECEIVER.EXE installed
%TCPIP-I-INFO, logical names created
%TCPIP-E-STARTERROR, error starting SMTP service
-TCPIP-E-CONFIGERROR, error processing configuration request
-TCPIP-E-NOQUEUE, no queue information for host LEDA20
-RMS-E-RNF, record not found
%TCPIP-E-STARTFAIL, failed to start TCPIP$SMTP
-TCPIP-E-QUESTRTERR, error starting service queues

Is there anything that I can do to get this to work ?

Many thanks in advance.
Ant

[Lokesh_2]

Hi Ant,

You need to configure SMTP service before starting SMTP. Please see the TCPIP manual for detail explanation.

Thanks & regards,
Lokesh Jain

[Willem Grooters · Accepted solution]

First of all, enable SMTP:

$ @SYS$MANAGER:TCPIP$CONFIG
Option 2 (Client components)
Option 5 (SMTP)

This should read "Enabled Started", if not enabled, enable it (option 1, presumably) and start it eventually. That will add required resources (user: TCPIP$SMTP, queue TCPIP$SMTP__ and service SMTP on port 25).
You may also need to adapt the service to your site's needs. Check TCPIP HELP SET CONFIGURATION SMTP for details on that.
Don't forget to stop and start SMTP if this has changed (you can user above commandprocedure, but for a shortcut, you can do:

$ @SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$SMTP_SHUTDOWN
$ @SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$SMTP_STARTUP

Eventually, you can edit TCPIP$SMTP_COMMON:SMTP.CONFIG (read TCPIP$SMTP_COMMON:SMTP_CONFIG.TEMPLATE for details) for blocking SPAM from known sites.
If you have PERL installed, you can also install a VMS-port of Spamasassin. Contact Karol.Zielonko@hp.com for details on this.

After changing this file, you won't need to stop and start SMTP.

Willem

[Anthony Tyrell_1]

thanks guys..... service had not been setup as you mentioned. Machine was bought in pre-configured without smtp enabled. All seems to working ok now. Thanks very much.