Recently moved to a new server. Moved the alias file over from the old server. everytime something is sent to one of the aliases it returns a 550 error, user unknown, even returns the 550 error from the .forward file if that is utilized. There is sendmail and posfix on this machine with alias files sitting in both, don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. I've even turned off the firewall thinking that might be a problem. I have gone over the users and groups, I have read through the postfixconfig file and made changes to that and restarted sendmail every time. I'm clueless.

Michele

Did you run newaliases to create the db file?

I'm guessing you meant "made changes to postfix/main.cf and restarted [b]postfix[/i] each time" not sendmail as they are 2 seperate monsters.

Postfix IS a complete drop in replacement for sendmail. It's one or the other, not both (usually).

So assuming you are using postfix, be sure you do restart that, after running:
postalias
OR
newaliases /etc/postfix/aliases
postfix reload

HTH

Cool

Ok, thanks, I think this is exactly what I need to clarify, because the person that set up the server isn't around.

Postfix is sitting there but must not be running because when I do a postfix command service postfix restart I get an error, so I know sendmail is running because I can see it when I do jobs -l, but I wasn't sure how the two interfaced if at all. so it must be the mail config file that I need to edit, is that right ?and so what is the best way to handle this? Can anyone help me??

and yes, I have run new aliases after all changes.

Thanks for the input.

Michele

Personally, I'd drop sendmail since you aren't really needing to use it over Postfix, and bring up postfix. Once that's done, I think you'll have a much better time, not only that but it's been noted as being more secure out of the box, as well as giving you a performance gain to boot.

Cool

Hi:

Ok, it doesn't matter to me really, I know how to turn off sendmail, but how do I turn on Postfix? I'm assuming it uses the same users and the only difference is the alias file which I can change in the main.cf file

How do I proceed??


Michele

I've just been assuming... Which distro are you running? I was thinking Redhat, if so, what release. The reason I was thinking RH was because they have both Postfix and Sendmail as mail server options and you can switch back and forth, since you were talking about both like they were interelated, I figured RH.

Cool

Mandrake 9.0 is what I'm running.

Michele

Mandrake normally comes default with Postfix. However, that's beside the point now.

Let's fire up a terminal as root and type:
urpmi postfix

And it should prompt for some discs to get it installed. Once it's done, it's just a matter of setting up the /etc/postfix/main.cf to your needs, setting up the /etc/postfix/aliases to your desires, and:
postalias /etc/postfix/aliases
newaliases /etc/postfix/aliases
postfix reload
And you are on your way

Cool

Ok:

I followed the directives and turned sendmail off, installed postfix moved the alias file over and reloaded postfix with no errors and I did the postalias thing, in the order outlined in MasterC's last post.

when I did newaliases /etc/postfix/aliases it complained the "no recipient needed for newaliases" so I just did newlaliases and then it didn't complain.

HOWEVER:

when I went into pine and tried to send a test message I got an error "421 smtp greeting failure"

And also when I went into the Mandrake Control Center it said postfix wasn't running even though I had just started the service from the terminal window. so I started it through the Control Center just to be sure, then went back to pine and tried to send a message and got the "421 smtp greeting failure" again

what does that mean, what is broken and where do i fix it?????

Thank You so much for all of your help so far.

Michele

Ok, after you start postfix (or attempt to) look at 2 things:
top
To see if it's running (or alternatively:
ps aux )

And then at your logs to see any errors. If top or ps shows it's running, and you don't find any errors in your logs, then try another mail program to see if it's just the client (not the server) giving you issues.



Cool

Hi:

Ok, these are what the error logs are saying:

fatal: bad numerical configuration: unknown local_recipient_reject_ code = 450 - destinations that match all

warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/smtp pid 18381 exit status 1

warning: /usr/lib/postfix/smtpd: bad command startup -- throttling

sent an invalid ICMP error to a broadcast

is there something wrong with the network configuration??????

Michele

MasterC

I got it to work!!!! I commented out the problematic lines in the main.cf file and stayed with the default and it worked!!!!

I restarted and sent a message with pine and I didn't get any error and I received the message. Yahoo, now I have to see if the alias file works correctly.

Thanks so much for your help, you are amazing!!!

Michele

You're welcome, glad I could help

Cool