Re: [cobalt-users] Outoing SMTP dead - Incoming POP appears OK

[Christopher Jay Manders <Chris.Manders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

More data:

If you run 'sendmail -v -q' you should see the queue being processed. This goes
around the running and listening sendmail process.

The fact that most sendmail procs are started with both the -bd and the -q15m
flags sometimes can make it where if the incoming listening side is not working
that the queue is no longer processed (since the daemon may have died). I tend
to suggest running one process 'sendmail -bd', which listens on port 25, and
another instantiation (or instantiations, one per queue) of sendmail 'sendmail
-q15m' which will process the queue every 15 minutes. If you have different
queues locations, though, you will need to add -oQ/var/spool/mqueue1 (or where
ever) and run a different 'sendmail -q15m -oQ/var/spool/mqueue2' for each queue.
Perhaps this is how yours is set up, though.

Meanwhile, Gerald asked the right question about the error message. I think that
your error message says it all. There is a DNS lookup problem, most likely.

Can you do nslookup (or dig) on the 'diferred' host (in this case:
burchellfamily.ca)?

I think you point to the source...the ISP may have an error in the DNS config,
or you may need to have more than one 'nameserver 11.22.33.44' line in your
/etc/resolv.conf. Normally, three is my favorite number, with only two being
somewhere nearby; the third being someone else's DNS server (like one of the
State University's..;). Try: 131.243.64.2. That is one at NERSC.GOV.

Better yet? :-)

I hope that helps more.


Cheers!

Christopher





C Burchell wrote:

> In addition to the stuff below (btw...thanks for the reply Gerald) there is
> now another error... I got an email this morning from the RAQ that said:
>
> "The SMTP (mail) server appears to be down. The mail server may shut itself
> down temporarily under extreme load, so you should also check the CPU load
> on the server. If the load does not appear to be the problem, try turning
> mail service off and then on within the Cobalt server Control Panel to see
> if this corrects the problem. If not, try rebooting the server itself. If
> this still does not correct the problem, contact Cobalt Technical Support."
>
> Hmmm.... I seem to recall somone spoke of this error before, but I can't
> seem to find the article...
>
> Chris
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gerald Waugh" <gerald@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 11:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [cobalt-users] Outoing SMTP dead - Incoming POP appears OK
>
> > > I do not know sendmail very well, but a quick glance at mailq reveals a
> > > whole ton of messages with a whole bunch of (host map:  lookup
> (domain.com);
> > > deferred) error messages.  There are 4 mail queues under
> > > var/spool/mqueue  - all of which are full of 50-200 messages in each   -
> all
> > > with the same error.
> >
> > What is the error?
> >
>
> The error in all the messages is similar to the following:
>
> f8QIhCI22479     2718 Wed Sep 26 12:46 <cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>                  (host map: lookup (burchellfamily.ca): deferred)
>                                        <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> > > There were some minor DNS RR changes made recently as a result of an ISP
> IP
> > > change, but these changes should have all propogated by now - nslookup
> and
> > > ping tests of many name servers (and from diff. ISP networks) reveal
> this is
> > > true.
> > >
> > /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail restart
> > OR
> > /etc/rc.d/init.d/sendmail hard-restart
> >
>
> Tried both - no luck.
>
> > You also should try
> > ps ax | grep sendmail
> >  2158 ?        S      0:00 sendmail: accepting connections
> > You should see something like the above!
>
> This is what I get:
>
>  5849 ?        S      0:00 sendmail: accepting connections
>
> >
> > Gerald
> >
> >
> >
>
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