I cannot receive or send any mails from my installation

[neoel]

I have installed zimbra on our home server, it was a bit of a hassle, because we don't have a local dns server running.
Our situation is as follows, we have a router, with all the necessary ports forwarded, and a server running behind that.
The installation gave quite some errors involving the DNS, but in the end, I managed to get the installer to complete successfully with the help of bind9.

I think its solved it as following, when the installer requests the ip in the mx records of our provider, bind9 says its local, since thats the same ip as our machine, it succeeds.
So we have the webclient running now, the only problem is that we cannot send or receive mail from/to the outside. From one local user to another works fine.

Do you have any idea in what direction to look to tackle this problem?

I have installed zimbra 6.08 on an ubuntu 10.04 installation (64 bit)

Thanks in advance for your help.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by neoel

Do you have any idea in what direction to look to tackle this problem?

The answswer to theis problem is all over the forums and wiki, you need to set-up a Split DNS on your LAN. Go to the article and verify that your current DNS configuration is working correctly, you can also check the log files for errors.

[odeleon]

It seems to me your problem is with all this DNS trickery you're doing. I think you should use real domainname resolution and MX records for them

....or, at the very least, some kind of external delivery method through your ISP (be careful they don't consider your actions as spamming). You'll still need a real domain with DNS MX records to receive from the outside world.

[neoel]

I guess I have set up a fine split dns setup.

the only difference is that bind9 is changed on my system (I have ubuntu 10.04).
There is no service named in /etc/init.d/ but only bind9, also that there is no folder named /var/named/,
This is how I think bind9 is setup here.

this is all in folder /etc/bind/
- named.conf includes :
- named.conf.default-zones
- named.conf.local
- named.conf.options

My named.conf.options looks like this

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

        // If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
        // to talk to, you may need to fix the firewall to allow multiple
        // ports to talk.  See http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800113

        // 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 {
        //      0.0.0.0;
        // };

        forwarders {
                212.54.40.25; 212.54.35.25;
        };

        auth-nxdomain no;    # conform to RFC1035
        listen-on-v6 { any; };
};

My named.conf.local looks like this.

zone "fruitvlieg.net" {
        type master;
        file "/etc/bind/db.fruitvlieg.net";
};
zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
        type master;
        file "/etc/bind/db.1.168.192";
};

I hope this helps, But I think this is allright

[phoenix]

In the Split DNS article there's a section on how to verify the installation of your DNS, check that and post all the information from that section of the article.

[neoel]

Okay, here they are.

$ dig fruitvlieg.net mx

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> fruitvlieg.net mx
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 38161
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;fruitvlieg.net.                        IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      MX      0 mail.fruitvlieg.net.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      NS      mail.fruitvlieg.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.fruitvlieg.net.    604800  IN      A       192.168.0.103

;; Query time: 8 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.103#53(192.168.1.103)
;; WHEN: Wed Sep  8 18:46:16 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 83

$ dig fruitvlieg.net any

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> fruitvlieg.net any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16342
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;fruitvlieg.net.                        IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      SOA     mail.fruitvlieg.net. admin.fruitvlieg.net. 100907 604800 86400 2419200 604800
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      NS      mail.fruitvlieg.net.
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      MX      0 mail.fruitvlieg.net.
fruitvlieg.net.         604800  IN      A       192.168.0.103

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.fruitvlieg.net.    604800  IN      A       192.168.0.103

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.103#53(192.168.1.103)
;; WHEN: Wed Sep  8 18:46:53 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 141

$ host $(hostname)
fruitvlieg.net has address 192.168.0.103
fruitvlieg.net mail is handled by 0 mail.fruitvlieg.net.

This appears to be okay,

I don't know if it makes any difference, but we put a MX 0 record on our provider, so did I put a MX 0 record in the bind configuration (db.fruitvlieg.net)

[neoel]

Wow, it helps to put thing like this on the forum.

I probably finally saw what was wrong, I put the wrong local ip in db.fruitvlieg.net, (192.168.0.103 instead of 192.168.1.103)

I'll post the final answer when I have confirmation that it works.

Just another question, We have a dualcore atom processor, and just 2 GB of ram, I noticed that zimbra is quite heavy on this system, maybe some recommendations to lighten up zimbra? Because I think a mailserver shouldn't be so heavy.

Thanks for all your help


Edit:

Well, it still doen't work, :S. I got the ip right and everything, but I'm still getting the connection timed out messages. Grrr
Any ideas?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by neoel

Just another question, We have a dualcore atom processor, and just 2 GB of ram, I noticed that zimbra is quite heavy on this system, maybe some recommendations to lighten up zimbra?

Reducing the functions of Zimbra isn't a good idea as you may lose functionality and depending on your users (number and usage profile) 2GB should be a good starting point. There are several threads and wiki articles on reducing the services zimbra uses.

Originally Posted by neoel

Because I think a mailserver shouldn't be so heavy.

Zimbra isn't just a 'mailserver', it's much more than that.

Originally Posted by neoel

Well, it still doen't work, :S. I got the ip right and everything, but I'm still getting the connection timed out messages. Grrr

You didn't post the output of the hosts file and resolv.conf and the host command you ran above is incorrect. The command you should have run is this:

host `hostname`

Use that exact command do not add or modify the 'hostname' and use backticks not single quotes.

I'm also assuming you have the firewall and AppArmor disabled on this server?

[Hivos]

You say you installed this on a "home server", does that also mean a "home internet connection"? Before you spend too much time on this, please make sure your ISP allows traffic on port 25. Most ISP's block port 25 for non-business subscriptions. Try doing an outgoing telnet to gmail on port 25 for example ( "telnet smtp.gmail.com 25" ). If you get a connection you're fine. Also try the other way around (if you need someone to test, PM me).

[rsw686]

Have you verified your external DNS A and MX records are setup correctly? Otherwise you will not be able to receive external email. Also some email servers will block email if you do not have a reverse DNS entry, which your ISP can setup for you.