[SOLVED] no incoming or outgoing mail

[ArcaneMagus]

The file may exist, but for some reason your server is not finding them when querying itself. Try enabling logging on BIND and seeing if you find any errors on startup.

[phoenix]

Are th foiles you're modifying in the correct directory and have the correct names? I don't use Ubuntu so I don't know if the following is correct: Installing An Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 LTS DNS Server With BIND - Page 4 | HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials but it seems to imply the files are in a different location than the one you're modifying.

If you're having problems with it then you might like to install webmin to manage your server, it also has a DNS configuration page which may help.

[anuvatec]

ya, a couple of steps ahead of ya... I did install webadmin and I neglected to mention I found out bind wasn't starting (at least I think it wasn't starting) and got the out of range error. my serial was too high, lowered it and the solved that problem (so that proves db.example.com is being registered and used), but the SERVFAIL problem was still occurring.

So I found some piece on the whole $ORIGIN/@ thing and between playing with that (commenting/un-commenting "@ORIGIN example.com." in db.example.com) and commenting/un-commenting "@ IN NS mail" I got rid of the SERVFAIL problem (un-commenting both seems to have done the trick).

But now I still get the "Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)" error message when running "host `hostname`". Any ideas on why that's still occurring?

Here's my dig and host results/outputs:

anuvatec@mail:~$ dig example.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> example.com mx
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21862
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.             IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.      604800  IN      MX      10 mail.example.com.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.      604800  IN      NS      mail.example.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.example.com. 604800  IN      A       192.168.0.10

;; Query time: 4 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.10#53(192.168.0.10)
;; WHEN: Fri Nov 20 17:27:41 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 86

anuvatec@mail:~$ dig example.com any

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> example.com any
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16292
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

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

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.      604800  IN      SOA     mail.example.com. admin.example.com. 2009112013 604800 86400 2419200 604800
example.com.      604800  IN      NS      mail.example.com.
example.com.      604800  IN      A       192.168.0.10
example.com.      604800  IN      MX      10 mail.example.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.example.com. 604800  IN      A       192.168.0.10

;; Query time: 4 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.0.10#53(192.168.0.10)
;; WHEN: Fri Nov 20 17:27:46 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 144

anuvatec@mail:~$ host `hostname`
Host mail not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

[ArcaneMagus]

What does your /etc/nsswitch.conf file look like? Your "hosts:" line in this file should look like this

hosts:          files dns

[anuvatec]

Yup, my /etc/nsswitch.conf looks like that

[ArcaneMagus]

Try running this:

host -v `hostname`

[anuvatec]

anuvatec@mail:~$ host -v hostname
Trying "hostname"
Host hostname not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Received 101 bytes from 192.168.0.10#53 in 49 ms

[phoenix]

Post the output from these commands again and also your DNS configuration files.

[anuvatec]

So its apparently working now and I didn't even know it. Mail has been flowing properly since around post #23 (I never checked Zimbra since I was consumed with resolving the SERVFAIL and hostname not found errors).

Thanks everyone for your help and patience!

[phoenix]

Glad you've fixed it, have a peaceful week-end.