Issues getting Zimbra to receive email

[stuffman]

Okay, I followed the instructions on the wiki for split-horizon DNS. The instructions are a bit different for Ubuntu, but I think I got it right. Even with bind running and the named.conf files configured, I'm having the same problem. Here is my named.conf.local:

//
// Add local zone definitions here.
// We are the master server for mail.maximumhobopower.com
zone "mail.maximumhobopower.com" {
type master;
file "db.mail.maximumhobopower.com";
};

Here is my named.conf.options:

options {
directory "/var/cache/bind";

// from bind 9:
// [fetch-glue] is obsolete. In BIND 8, fetch-glue yes caused the
// server to attempt to fetch glue resource records it didn't have
// when constructing the additional data section of a response.
// This is now considered a bad idea and BIND 9 never does it.

fetch-glue no;

// If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
// to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source
// directive below. Previous versions of BIND always asked
// questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 and later use an unprivileged
// port by default.

// query-source address * port 53;

// If your ISP provided one or more IP addresses for stable
// nameservers, you probably want to use them as forwarders.
// Uncomment the following block, and insert the addresses replacing
// the all-0's placeholder.

forwarders {
66.60.130.158;
};
};

Here is my named.conf file:

// This is the primary configuration file for the BIND DNS server named.
//
// Please read /usr/share/doc/bind/README.Debian for information on the
// structure of BIND configuration files in Debian for BIND versions 8.2.1
// and later, *BEFORE* you customize this configuration file.
//

include "/etc/bind/named.conf.options";

// reduce log verbosity on issues outside our control
logging {
category lame-servers { null; };
category cname { null; };
};

// prime the server with knowledge of the root servers
zone "." {
type hint;
file "/etc/bind/db.root";
};

// be authoritative for the localhost forward and reverse zones, and for
// broadcast zones as per RFC 1912

zone "localhost" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.local";
};

zone "127.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.127";
};

zone "0.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.0";
};

zone "255.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.255";
};

// add local zone definitions here
include "/etc/bind/named.conf.local";

and finally, here is my db.mail.maximumhobopower.com file:

;
; Addresses and other host information.
;
@ IN SOA mail.maximumhobopower.com. hostmaster.mail.maximumhobopo
wer.com. (
10118 ; Serial
43200 ; Refresh
3600 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
2592000 ) ; Minimum
; Define the nameservers and the mail servers
IN NS xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
IN A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
IN MX 10 mail.maximumhobopower.com.

The first three files are in /etc/bind/, and the last (db.mail.maximumhobopower.com) are in the /var/cache/bind/ directory. The db file looks incomplete to me, but I configured it as best I could given the instructions I found. BTW, when I ping mail.maximumhobopower.com from the server running bind/zimbra, it resolves to the internal ip, which is 192.168.1.106. Any ideas? Thanks,
Shawn

Oops - one last thing -- here is the output from "nslookup mail.maximumhobopower.com":

Server: 192.168.1.106
Address: 192.168.1.106#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mail.maximumhobopower.com
Address: 69.62.216.28

[stuffman]

Okay, I got it working! I found the following advice on the forums:

Ignore your external DNS issues, you need to get internal DNS working, that is the key.

'dig mail.jzeller.com' is the correct command to run. you need to get a correct response to this question before you can proceed, it should return an A record with the IP address 192.168.1.110. Put the record in your internal DNS - in your jzeller.com zone should be something like 'mail IN A 192.168.1.110', if you're using BIND.

from your dig responses, you seem to be confused about split-DNS. split-horizon (split-brain in M$ parlance) DNS means that on your internal network, you 'fake' responses for domains you are authoritative for with internal addresses. currently, you have set your internal DNS server to respond with external addresses, which defeats the point of having the internal DNS server, and you have a single @ A record.

change the internal jzeller.com zone to have the following:

mail IN A 192.168.1.110
IN MX 10 mail.jzeller.com.

this should be all you need.

'dig mail.jzeller.com' should return 192.168.1.110
'dig mx jzeller.com' should return 10 mail.jzeller.com.

The full thread can be found here:

DynDNS and Zimbra

Though I'm not using dyndns, this still applied to me. I had to make sure that when running "dig mail.maximumhobopower.com" it was pointing to 192.168.1.106 instead of the public IP. This was accomplished by editing the db.mail.maximumhobopower.com file that I created and pointing the A record to my internal IP rather than the public one. Hopefully this helps someone else who's having problems receiving but not sending. If I can be of any assistance, you can now reach me at shawn@maximumhobopower.com Thanks again,

Shawn