mx record resolution issue with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

[jbond1967]

Hello:

I have spent a bit of time looking for a thread with the answer to this question, and I have gone through the documentation. FYI, I have successfully installed zimbra on several servers and have a fully functional server in our server room, and I have not seen this particular problem before. However, since our 'server room' is a fire-hazard, not to mention that our 'servers' are made of spare parts, I've been tasked with creating a mail server on a leased host (it's a virtual host).

The virtual host is located at mediatemple.net and is a minimal install. It is not hosting anything but zimbra (sendmail, postfix, and mysql aren't installed.)

So, the short version: the installation script can't resolve my MX record (not my actual domain name).

DNS ERROR resolving MX for mail2.hamster.com
It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS
Change domain name? [Yes]

I suspect that the problem is that I'm trying to make a second mail server named 'mail2' so I can test it before switching 'mail' off, but I'm unsure. BTW, the MX and A records were edited a little over 24 hours ago, so I'm assuming that it isn't a DNS server propagation issue. The other uncontrolled variable is my hosting provider, which is media temple. The server is a virtual server, and the OS is a canned installation of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS provided by them, which may or may not be particularly standard. I have updated apt-get and installed the prerequisites that the install script warns about.

I know that the installer needs to be able to resolve my host name, but it isn't. In searching through the forums, I've compiled a list of info that I think will be helpful (actual names and IP addresses slightly mangled -- if actual names are needed, please let me know).

I even tried ignoring the MX record lookup errror... of course the zimbra installation doesn't work, but I figured it was worth a try.

Thanks in advance for any help. Once I figure this out, I'll write up an entry in the wiki -- I'm sure I'm not the only person to see this issue. Further, I'm a regular contributor to Media Temple's wiki, and I'll write up a full article there on how to install Zimbra on their particular Ubuntu install.

Regards,
Joe Bond

______________________________
Begin troubleshooting info:

I think I have the right installer:

zcs-7.0.1_GA_3105.UBUNTU10_64.20110304205444.tgz

I believe that the A record and MX record matches the hosts IP address and hostname. Here is the output of the commands I used to troubleshoot.

my hostname:

# echo `hostname`
mail2.hamster.com

contents of /etc/hosts

# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
# Auto-generated hostname. Please do not remove this comment.
99.99.148.227 mail2.hamster.com mail2

Contents of my /etc/resolv.conf (I added the 8.8.8.8 server, which is google's public DNS server)

# cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 70.32.65.21
nameserver 99.99.128.22

Output of ifconfig (matches the IP address in the hosts file)

# ifconfig
venet0:0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          inet addr:99.99.148.227  P-t-P:99.99.148.227  Bcast:0.0.0.0  Mask:255.255.255.255
          UP BROADCAST POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP  MTU:1500  Metric:1

Output of dig (the dig is run on the actual server upon which I'm trying to install Zimbra, again the IP address and hostname match)

# dig mail2.hamster.com
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mail2.hamster.com.                IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mail2.hamster.com. 300     IN      A       99.99.148.227

Output of dig with the mx option (note that the list includes my old email server, which is still running.)

# dig hamster.com mx

; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> hamster.com mx
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 5582
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

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

;; ANSWER SECTION:
hamster.com.       236     IN      MX      10 mail.hamster.com.
hamster.com.       236     IN      MX      5 mail2.hamster.com.

Just for kicks, the output of nslookup

# nslookup mail2.hamster.com
Server:         8.8.8.8
Address:        8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   mail2.hamster.com
Address: 99.99.148.227

And, nslookup with the mx option turned on

# nslookup
> set type=mx
> hamster.com
Server:         8.8.8.8
Address:        8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:
hamster.com        mail exchanger = 10 mail.hamster.com.
hamster.com        mail exchanger = 5 mail2.hamster.com.

And, finally, the installer log, up to the point where the mx record lookup fails:

Wed Apr  6 10:04:58 2011 Operations logged to /tmp/zmsetup.04062011-100458.log
Wed Apr  6 10:04:58 2011 Installing LDAP configuration database...
Wed Apr  6 10:04:58 2011 done.
Wed Apr  6 10:04:58 2011 *** Running as zimbra user: /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmldapschema 2>/dev/null
Looking for LDAP installation...succeeded
Installing core schema...
Installing cosine schema...
Installing inetOrgPerson schema...
Installing zimbra schema...
Installing amavis schema...
Installing dynlist schema...
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Getting installed packages
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-core
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 zimbra-core not in enabled cache
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 enabled packages 
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Newinstall enabling all installed packages
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-core
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-ldap
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-store
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-mta
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-snmp
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-logger
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-apache
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Enabling zimbra-spell
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Setting defaults...
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 Setting local config zimbra_java_home to /opt/zimbra/java
Wed Apr  6 10:04:59 2011 *** Running as zimbra user: /opt/zimbra/bin/zmlocalconfig -f -e zimbra_java_home='/opt/zimbra/java' 2> /dev/null
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-cluster
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 zimbra-cluster not in enabled cache
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 enabled packages zimbra-logger zimbra-store zimbra-mta zimbra-core zimbra-apache zimbra-snmp zimbra-ldap zimbra-spell
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Newinstall enabling all installed packages
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-core
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-ldap
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-store
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-mta
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-snmp
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-logger
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-apache
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 Enabling zimbra-spell
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-store
Wed Apr  6 10:05:01 2011 zimbra-store is enabled
Wed Apr  6 10:05:04 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-ldap
Wed Apr  6 10:05:04 2011 zimbra-ldap is enabled
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-store
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 zimbra-store is enabled
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 Local timezone detected as PDT
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 Default Olson timezone name America/Los_Angeles
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-store
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 zimbra-store is enabled
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 checking isEnabled zimbra-mta
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 zimbra-mta is enabled
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 

DNS ERROR resolving MX for mail2.hamster.com
Wed Apr  6 10:05:05 2011 It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS
Wed Apr  6 10:29:07 2011 

DNS ERROR resolving MX for mail2.hamster.com
Wed Apr  6 10:29:07 2011 It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS

[jbond1967]

Hmmm... I must have committed a grave faux pas or maybe all the people who know what's what got jobs.

On to other email products.

Cheers.