[SOLVED] proper hostname configuration questions

[edwaa]

Here is the scenario:

• I have a domain name (myDomain.com) registered
• myDomain.com's DNS is hosted out on the internet somewhere on a server which provides DNS, SMTP, POP/IMAP and HTTP services
• I've created a subdomain, home.myDomain.com, which points to a dynamic IP address. DNS records are updated with IP address changes
• I'd like to install Zimbra on a server at the dynamic IP address and have it aggregate e-mails from myDomain.com. (I'd install Zimbra on the internet server that serves DNS, etc. but I'd run out of storage space quickly)

Here are my main questions:

• Can Zimbra send e-mail from myDomain.com even though it will be configured at host: home.myDomain.com? If yes, how can I accomplish this?
• Should the Zimbra domain be myDomain.com or home.myDomain.com?

Where I'm at:

• I have Zimbra installed and it runs
• I can send/receive e-mails within the home.myDomain.com
• I cannot send e-mails to anywhere on the internet (I've configured the relay MTA but the logs show the relay refusing my connection. I know it is not authentication related. I'd like to check what postfix is actually saying to the relay MTA but I don't know where to look for that information!)
• I was able to set up an "external account" which successfully grabbed e-mail from the server off the internet. However, I can't configure the "from" address to read: account@myDomain.com (it will only let me select account@home.myDomain.com)

I want to continue to have mail delivered to the server on the internet because I cannot count on my home.myDomain.com internet connection always being there. Also, I don't care to ever receive e-mail at account@home.myDomain.com. I only care to receive e-mail at account@myDomain.com

[Mccreations]

Here is the scenario:

• I have a domain name (myDomain.com) registered
• myDomain.com's DNS is hosted out on the internet somewhere on a server which provides DNS, SMTP, POP/IMAP and HTTP services
• I've created a subdomain, home.myDomain.com, which points to a dynamic IP address. DNS records are updated with IP address changes
• I'd like to install Zimbra on a server at the dynamic IP address and have it aggregate e-mails from myDomain.com. (I'd install Zimbra on the internet server that serves DNS, etc. but I'd run out of storage space quickly)

Here are my main questions:

• Can Zimbra send e-mail from myDomain.com even though it will be configured at host: home.myDomain.com? If yes, how can I accomplish this?
• Should the Zimbra domain be myDomain.com or home.myDomain.com?

Where I'm at:

• I have Zimbra installed and it runs
• I can send/receive e-mails within the home.myDomain.com
• I cannot send e-mails to anywhere on the internet (I've configured the relay MTA but the logs show the relay refusing my connection. I know it is not authentication related. I'd like to check what postfix is actually saying to the relay MTA but I don't know where to look for that information!)
• I was able to set up an "external account" which successfully grabbed e-mail from the server off the internet. However, I can't configure the "from" address to read: account@myDomain.com (it will only let me select account@home.myDomain.com)

I want to continue to have mail delivered to the server on the internet because I cannot count on my home.myDomain.com internet connection always being there. Also, I don't care to ever receive e-mail at account@home.myDomain.com. I only care to receive e-mail at account@myDomain.com

Hey,

I'm not a zimbra expert but have been using it for some time. I can answer most of your questions from personal experience.


Zimbra can host the email for mydomain.com even though the actual server name is host.mydomain.com. The way you would accomplish that is setting your MX records for mydomain.com to point to host.mydomain.com and having zimbra host the mydomain.com domain. I'd guess you could safely delete the host.mydomain.com domain from the admin interface.

The one thing I do not know how to do would have mail still be delivered to your other server? The whole both server situation doesn't sound so great. One thing I can tell you as another person stuck with a dynamic IP is that if you update your DNS often through cron (I do 15 minutes) all of the email is still delivered to the server even with downtime between, it all comes back once the server is back online.

[uxbod]

Welcome to the forums edwaa

If you are only going to have a couple of local accounts then you could setup Zimbra, from the web client, to collect your email from a remote server IMAP/POP. Though if you are going to have lots of accounts then you could use fetchmail to grab the remote mail and pass into Zimbra for local delivery. Either option will work just fine.

[edwaa]

Welcome to the forums edwaa

If you are only going to have a couple of local accounts then you could setup Zimbra, from the web client, to collect your email from a remote server IMAP/POP. Though if you are going to have lots of accounts then you could use fetchmail to grab the remote mail and pass into Zimbra for local delivery. Either option will work just fine.

Could you elaborate as to why I should use fetchmail only if I have "lots of accounts"?

[edwaa]

Can anyone give me some tips on how to troubleshoot my MTA relay troubles? I'm getting all connections to my ISP's SMTP server rejected and I don't know why. I've searched and searched and reset all the different postfix variables I think might affect the issue but to no avail. Thank you!

[phoenix]

You need to look in the log files for any error messages from the ISPs mail server.

[uxbod]

From the command line try telneting to your ISPs SMTP server on port 25 and push a message through manually. Are you sure they are not blocking port 25 ??

[edwaa]

From the command line try telneting to your ISPs SMTP server on port 25 and push a message through manually. Are you sure they are not blocking port 25 ??

Here is a copy of my telnet session:

[root@home /var/log]# telnet smtp.myISP.com 25
Trying xx.xx.xx.xxx...
Connected to smtp.myISP.com (xx.xx.xx.xxx).
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.myISP.com ISPname ESMTP server ready
HELO home.myDomain.com
250 smtp.myISP.com hello [yy.yy.yy.yyyy], pleased to meet you
MAIL FROM: account@home.myDomain.com
250 2.1.0  sender ok
RCPT TO: account@myDomain.com
250 2.1.5  recipient ok
DATA
354 enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
Subject:Test
This is a test
.
250 2.0.0 B5r11b0054hueEX8R5rFk8 mail accepted for delivery
quit
221 2.0.0 smtp.myISP.com ISPname closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

Here is a copy of the postfix variables via zmlocalconfig:

postfix_alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
postfix_broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
postfix_command_directory = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/sbin
postfix_daemon_directory = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/libexec
postfix_enable_smtpd_policyd = no
postfix_header_checks = pcre:${zimbra_home}/conf/postfix_header_checks
postfix_in_flow_delay = 1s
postfix_lmtp_connection_cache_destinations =
postfix_lmtp_connection_cache_time_limit = 4s
postfix_lmtp_host_lookup = dns
postfix_mail_owner = postfix
postfix_mailq_path = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/sbin/mailq
postfix_manpage_directory = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/man
postfix_maximal_backoff_time = 4000s
postfix_minimal_backoff_time = 300s
postfix_newaliases_path = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/sbin/newaliases
postfix_policy_time_limit = 3600
postfix_queue_directory = ${zimbra_home}/data/postfix/spool
postfix_queue_run_delay = 300s
postfix_sender_canonical_maps = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-scm.cf
postfix_sendmail_path = ${zimbra_home}/postfix/sbin/sendmail
postfix_setgid_group = postdrop
postfix_smtp_helo_name = home.myDomain.com
postfix_smtpd_banner = $smtp_helo_name ESMTP $mail_name
postfix_smtpd_client_restrictions = reject_unauth_pipelining
postfix_smtpd_data_restrictions = reject_unauth_pipelining
postfix_smtpd_helo_required = yes
postfix_smtpd_tls_cert_file = ${zimbra_home}/conf/smtpd.crt
postfix_smtpd_tls_key_file = ${zimbra_home}/conf/smtpd.key
postfix_smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1
postfix_transport_maps = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-transport.cf
postfix_version = 2.4.7.5z
postfix_virtual_alias_domains = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-vad.cf
postfix_virtual_alias_maps = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-vam.cf
postfix_virtual_mailbox_domains = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-vmd.cf
postfix_virtual_mailbox_maps = proxy:ldap:${zimbra_home}/conf/ldap-vmm.cf
postfix_virtual_transport = error

Here is a snippet of my zimbra.log file where the connection is refused:

Jan 31 15:45:35 home amavis[9488]: (09488-02) ESMTP::10024 /opt/zimbra/data/amavisd/tmp/amavis-20090131T153923-09488:  ->  SIZE=610 Received: from zimbra.edwaa.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.edwaa.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP for ; Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:45:35 -0800 (PST)
Jan 31 15:45:35 home amavis[9488]: (09488-02) Checking: iu2pFgRU3xrW [192.168.0.10]  -> 
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtpd[13871]: connect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtpd[13871]: 830B33202B7: client=localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/cleanup[13867]: 830B33202B7: message-id=<24230975.01233445535395.JavaMail.root@home.myDomain.com>
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/qmgr[10257]: 830B33202B7: from=, size=1048, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtpd[13871]: disconnect from localhost.localdomain[127.0.0.1]
Jan 31 15:45:36 home amavis[9488]: (09488-02) FWD via SMTP:  -> ,BODY=7BIT 250 2.6.0 Ok, id=09488-02, from MTA([127.0.0.1]:10025): 250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 830B33202B7
Jan 31 15:45:36 home amavis[9488]: (09488-02) Passed CLEAN, LOCAL [192.168.0.10] [192.168.0.10]  -> , Message-ID: <24230975.01233445535395.JavaMail.root@home.myDomain.com>, mail_id: iu2pFgRU3xrW, Hits: -4.399, size: 610, queued_as: 830B33202B7, 659 ms
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtp[13868]: D5ECC3202B6: to=, relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1]:10024, delay=0.72, delays=0.04/0.02/0.03/0.64, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 830B33202B7)
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/qmgr[10257]: D5ECC3202B6: removed
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtp[13872]: connect to smtp.myISP.com[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]: Connection refused (port 25)
Jan 31 15:45:36 home postfix/smtp[13872]: 830B33202B7: to=, relay=none, delay=0.3, delays=0.02/0.05/0.23/0, dsn=4.4.1, status=deferred (connect to smtp.myISP.com[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]: Connection refused)
Jan 31 15:46:07 home zmmailboxdmgr[14426]: status requested
Jan 31 15:46:07 home zmmailboxdmgr[14426]: status OK

Any ideas? How can I get Zimbra (postfix) to log the actual SMTP transaction?

[edwaa]

Wow. I finally figured it out. There way a typo in the field for relay MTA (I left out one character). Funny enough, someone actually registered that typo'd TLD so it actually resolved to an IP address! I finally caught it when I noticed a totally different address range in the log file vs. my manual telnet session.

Thanks to everyone who helped out!