[comp.mail.sendmail] IDA Sendmail on Sun bounce mail not imm. deliverable

aem@paris-gw.CS.Miami.EDU (a.e.mossberg) (06/24/91)

Sendmail 5.65 + IDA 1.3.5 on Sun 4 running SunOS 4.1.1

System is an MX for mthvax.cs.miami.edu, when mthvax.cs.miami.edu
is down, as is happening more and more frequently, paris accepts the
mail, but instead of holding it on the queue until mthvax is up again,
it bounces the mail to postmaster with the error "Service unavailable"

Why???

Here's the m4 used to generate the .cf file:


# sendmail configuration file for paris.cs.miami.edu
# which is the main mail gateway for all of our suns and a secondary
# mx for cs.miami.edu
dnl #
define(ALIASES, /etc/aliases)
define(BANGIMPLIESUUCP)
define(FORCE_NAMED)
define(DOMAINTABLE, LIBDIR/domaintable)
define(HIDDENNET, LIBDIR/hidden_hosts)
define(HIDDENNETHOST, math.miami.edu)
define(MAILERTABLE, LIBDIR/mailertable)
define(PSEUDODOMAINS, BITNET SPAN UUCP)
define(POSTMASTERBOUNCE)
define(NIS_MAILALIASES)
define(TRUSTEDUSERS, aem)
define(UUCPNAME,paris)
define(PSEUDONYMS, [deleted])
include(Sendmail.mc)

--
a.e.mossberg   -   aem@paris.cs.miami.edu   -   aem@umiami.bitnet
University of Miami Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (06/24/91)

In article <1991Jun24.150150.2148@mthvax.cs.miami.edu> aem@paris-gw.CS.Miami.EDU (a.e.mossberg) writes:
>Sendmail 5.65 + IDA 1.3.5 on Sun 4 running SunOS 4.1.1
>
>System is an MX for mthvax.cs.miami.edu, when mthvax.cs.miami.edu
>is down, as is happening more and more frequently, paris accepts the
>mail, but instead of holding it on the queue until mthvax is up again,
>it bounces the mail to postmaster with the error "Service unavailable"
>
>Why???

  Basically it is a case of split personality.

  You have told your system to call itself 'paris-gw.cs.miami.edu', but
the MX record says 'paris.cs.miami.edu'.  When sendmail compares the MX
record against its own name, they do not match, so it does not recognize
this as a local MX, but instead persists and mails to itself, then recognizes
the error and aborts the transaction.

  Possible solutions:

  1.	Change the MX record to list paris-gw instead of paris.  However this
	may cause other problems, since at present you don't have an accessible
	address listed for paris-gw.

  2.	Change the hostname to paris instead of paris-gw.  Or at least change
	the name known to sendmail (the definition of $w).  This can be
	defined with DEFAULT_HOST in your m4 file.

  3.	Punt.  As a work around, install the following in your MAILERTABLE

		TCP,[129.171.32.5]	mthvax.cs.miami.edu

	This has the effect of bypassing the MX lookup.

   4.	Wait for the new version of the binary, which Paul Pomes should be
	announcing in the near future.  It should resolve your problem.

-- 
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940