[SOLVED] Fresh Installation cant recieve email

[turbolad]

Hi all,

sorry to ask what is most likely a very common question here.
I did have a quick search but couldnt find the solution.

I have just today installed the network trial version of Zimbra on top of Ubuntu 8.04 32bit. I followed this guide and everything went smoothly.
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server (Hardy Heron) Install Guide - Zimbra :: Wiki

I can send external email and internal email works fine.
However I am not able to receive email to my zimbra server.
SMTP Port (25) is forwarded, mx records setup and everything resolves to my WAN IP. When i send an email from hotmail or similar the email goes and I don't receive a bounce back?

Any ideas what i can do next to diagnose this?

[phoenix]

SMTP Port (25) is forwarded, mx records setup and everything resolves to my WAN IP.

If you've read the wiki article then you should see that your IP address on the LANP IP address of your server is what your DNS should resolve to and not to your WAN IP, this has been answered many times in the forums. I am assuming that your server is behind a firewall and/or NAT router, would that be correct?

[turbolad]

Hello phoenix, I had a feeling that you would reply as I have read a few of your posts.

Sorry I should have stipulated that I was referring to a DNS lookup in the outside world - which resolves to my WAN IP. So my MX records are correctly setup etc.

Yes an NSlookup within the zimbra host OS does infact resolve to my Internal IP: -192.168.1.112. so I think that my split DNS is working well. Internal email works well enough.

Is there any information I can gather from my setup that may help people to help me

[phoenix]

Hello phoenix, I had a feeling that you would reply as I have read a few of your posts.

Then I guess you'll know what my first questions will be.

Any firewall likely to be blocking inbound port 25? Is port 25 forwarded through your router to the Zimbra server? Post the output of the following commands (run on the Zimbra server):

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

[turbolad]

Then I guess you'll know what my first questions will be.

Any firewall likely to be blocking inbound port 25? Is port 25 forwarded through your router to the Zimbra server? Post the output of the following commands (run on the Zimbra server):

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

No Port 25 is open and online tests I have used seem to confirm that.
OK 2 mins and i will post command results - thanks

adam@mail:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.112

adam@mail:~$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain           localhost
192.168.1.112   mail.amendedmydomain.info        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

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> amendedmydomain.info mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 31747
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;amendedmydomain.info.           IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      MX      10mail.amendedmydomain.info.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      NS      mail.amendedmydomain.info.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.amendedmydomain.info. 604800 IN     A       192.168.1.112

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.112#53(192.168.1.112)
;; WHEN: Wed May 13 07:59:24 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 88

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> amendedmydomain.info any
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 34836
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;amendedmydomain.info.           IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      SOA     mail.amendedmydomain.info. admin.amendedmydomain.info. 70725 604800 86400 2419200 604800
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      NS      mail.amendedmydomain.info.
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      MX      10 mail.amendedmydomain.info.
amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      A       192.168.1.112

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.amendedmydomain.info. 604800 IN     A       192.168.1.112

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.112#53(192.168.1.112)
;; WHEN: Wed May 13 08:01:27 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 146

and the final command i couldn't run with the backticks "host `hostname`" but i ran "host mail" which returned what is perhaps my problem?

adam@mail:~$ host mail
mail has address 67.215.65.132
Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

[phoenix]

and the final command i couldn't run with the backticks "host `hostname`" but i ran "host mail" which returned what is perhaps my problem?

adam@mail:~$ host mail
mail has address 67.215.65.132
Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Yes, that's the problem. What happened when you tried to run the host command with backticks that I gave you?

In your output for the dig .. mx you have this:

amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      MX      10mail.amendedmydomain.info.

There's a space missing between the '10' and the word 'mail', is that a typing error or is you MX record actually like that? If it's like the example then fix it and try again.

BTW, the reason you couldn't post your replies is because you're a new member and there's a moderation system on certain posts it just needs approval by a moderator.

[turbolad]

OK I thought that the hostname needed changing for my actual hostname in the command;

host `hostname`

which is why the command prob didn't work. I didn't realise it was a cleaver command that figured out the actual hostname.

If i run

host `hostname`

or

host mail

I get the same result:

adam@mail:~$ host mail
mail has address 67.215.65.132
Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
adam@mail:~$ host `hostname`
mail has address 67.215.65.132
Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

Also you are correct the 10mail was a typo, the space does infact exist within the actual configuration.

Where do I go from here to correct the above then?
I was pretty sure I followed that guide to the letter - but then everyone say that don't they!

[phoenix]

OK, one point I missed earlier. The following line:

amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      NS      mail.amendedmydomain.info.

should have the IP address of the nameserver in it rather than a FQDN. It should read as follows:

amendedmydomain.info.    604800  IN      NS      192.168.1.112

It doesn't actually relate to your current problem but it's better to use the IP.

Can you post the output of the following command:

cat /etc/nsswitch.conf

Can you send me details of your domain name (if you don't want to post it in the forums) so I can check your DNS records from here? Are there any emails in the deferred queue (see the Admin UI)? Is there any messages in the log files to indicate any connection from an external mail server?

[turbolad]

Thanks for getting back to me:

adam@mail:~$ cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.

passwd:         compat
group:          compat
shadow:         compat

hosts:          files dns
networks:       files

protocols:      db files
services:       db files
ethers:         db files
rpc:            db files

netgroup:       nis

I will adjust the FQDN to an IP and PM you details.
EDIT:
I think that I may have found my mistake in my DNS registrar? I will post back to confirm.
Where do I edit that entry for the IP Phoenix? looking back at my guide Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server (Hardy Heron) Install Guide - Zimbra :: Wiki
Is it here: /etc/bind/db.amendeddomain.info ?

[phoenix]

The file you want to edit (described in the wiki article) is this one:

/etc/bind/db.mydomain.com

It's the NS record in there.