mail transport unavailable error

[newbie79]

Morning,

i am able to recieve email but i annot send out. Everything gets stuck in my deferred box. Can someone please help me. I am very new to this and do not know where to start. I have restarted the sever several times already. i don't even know how to check the logs.

[phoenix]

Look in the log files and see what errors you are getting, you could also check that the services are running with the following:

su - zimbra
zmcontrol status

and while you're at it, update your forum profile (don't post it in this thread) with the output of the following:

zmcontrol -v

You could also give some details about whether this is a new install or an upgrade, which operating system you're using, whether this problem has just happened, whether you're behind a NAT router and if you are have you got a Split DNS set-up and does it work correctly?

Have you searched the forums for this type of problem and have you tried any of the solutions there?

[newbie79]

Hi Bill
1. i have updated my profile with the stuff you asked me to.
2. Its an old installation, my mail has just been acting up recently, on one day it sends out with not errors and on another day it bounces back into deferred
3. i have tried other searches, i tried unchecking the enable dns option and restarting but mail still doesn't move out. I have no problem with incoming
4. I'm not sure if we have split DNS, i'm not the one who installed. How do i check?
5. We have an iPCorp firewall
6. i can ping our ISP from the server and i get replies

Thanks
B

[phoenix]

You need to leave the 'Enable DNS lookups' box checked as it's needed for mail delivery. You need to look in the logs and see what the error is that causes the mail to be deferred, it will tell you why it can't deliver it.

You can check your DNS with the following commands, please run them on the zimbra server and post the output here:

cat /etc/hosts
cat /etc/resolv.conf
dig yourdomain.com mx
dig yourdomain.com any
host `hostname`  <-- use that exact command with backticks not single quotes

I fully expect that to return valid results as what you're describing is an intermittent problem that (most likely) is caused by a network problem but let's see how we get on with that output.

Please also post the output of the command I gave you earlier:

su - zimbra
zmcontrol status

[newbie79]

root@mail:~# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost
10.0.1.2 mail.pgtim.bw mail

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts


root@mail:~# cat /etc/resolv.conf
search pgtim.bw
nameserver 10.0.1.1


root@mail:~# dig yordomain.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> yordomain.com mx
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached


root@mail:~# dig yordomain.com any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> yordomain.com any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 49106
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;yordomain.com. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
yordomain.com. 300 IN A 74.86.203.162
yordomain.com. 43118 IN NS ns1.storeyourdomain.com.
yordomain.com. 43118 IN NS ns2.storeyourdomain.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
yordomain.com. 43118 IN NS ns2.storeyourdomain.com.
yordomain.com. 43118 IN NS ns1.storeyourdomain.com.

;; Query time: 2079 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.1.1#53(10.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Wed Sep 9 18:47:04 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 127


root@mail:~# host `hostname`
mail.pgtim.bw has address 10.0.1.2


zimbra@mail:~$ zmcontrol status
Host mail.pgtim.bw
antispam Running
antivirus Running
ldap Running
logger Running
mailbox Running
mta Running
snmp Running
spell Running
stats Running

[phoenix]

Well, the first thing about the output is the hosts file is incorrect. The file should look like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.0.1.2 mail.pgtim.bw mail

The other output you've provided for the MX and A records show that there aren't any on that DNS server.

What does the output of the following show:

dig mail.yourdomain.com mx
dig mail.yourdomain.com any

where mail.yourdomain.com is the FQDN of your server.

[newbie79]

hi,

how do i correct the hosts file?


zimbra@mail:~$ dig mail.pgtim.bw mx

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> mail.pgtim.bw mx
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 56992
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mail.pgtim.bw. IN MX

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
pgtim.bw. 38400 IN SOA rootsrv.pgtim.bw. sysadmin.pgtim.bw. 1212327721 10800 3600 604800 38400

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.1.1#53(10.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Sep 10 08:05:37 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 84



---------------------------------------------------------

zimbra@mail:~$ dig mail.pgtim.bw any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> mail.pgtim.bw any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 63397
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mail.pgtim.bw. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mail.pgtim.bw. 38400 IN A 10.0.1.2

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
pgtim.bw. 38400 IN NS rootsrv.pgtim.bw.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
rootsrv.pgtim.bw. 38400 IN A 10.0.1.1

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.1.1#53(10.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Thu Sep 10 08:06:46 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 85

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by newbie79

how do i correct the hosts file?

You have to edit the file with a text editor such as vim. The DNS records you show are still incorrect, this has been set-up incorrectly. I'm assuming this is a working production server? Is there anyone in your company that understands DNS and can make configuration changes to your current set-up?

[newbie79]

hi,
i managed to find my way around and edited the hosts file. i now get the following
root@mail:~# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.0.1.2 mail.pgtim.bw mail

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Unfortunately i am the only one. But i'm pretty switched on. If you can tell me where to go i can do it.

Regards
B

[phoenix]

OK, a couple more questions before we move forward. Is this a working production server? I'm assuming it is. Is you server unable to send any mail externally? When did this start and what happened to cause this problem? I assume that it was working OK before this problem? Are you still running 5.0.6 NE version of Zimbra?