SMTP Configuration Settings
 

Hey guys. Thanks in advance for help on my question.

I've been in the IT world for twenty years (mostlying networking and Windows administration), but I'm just now getting my feet wet in the various 'Nix environments.

I manage an application that runs on RHEL 5.5. One of the modules of this application has the ability to run and forward scheduled reports via email. Currently, this is not working properly, and I was told by application support to check the "mailserver" configured on my box. I'm assuming this is the setting for the SMTP server where the email needs to go.

How do I find the value of this setting. I've googled til I'm blue in the face, and all I seem to find are instructions to set up an SMTP server, which is not what I want to do.

Thanks again!

Well, if you're in a corporate environment, and you already have an existing internal mail server, you can set up a smart/relay server. You need to install either sendmail or postfix, and there are lots of existing how-tos on how to do that.

You don't need to configure EVERYTHING, but you DO need to install the software. Typing in "yum install sendmail" should be all you need to do. After that, all you need to do to shovel all your emails to your existing mail server is to open up your config file ("vi /etc/mail/sendmail.mc"), and append/modify the line that says something like:
Save and exit the file, type in "m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf", then "/etc/init.d/sendmail restart". That's it. As long as your internal mail server can be pinged by the host name/address you put in above, any emails your system generates will be sent straight to it, with no processing on your Linux host. Note that you can also do a quick-and-dirty (and NOT RECOMMENDED) edit of the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf file, and put your email server host/ip on the line that says "DS", as in "DSsome.host.com". That is NOT the right way to do it, though..use at your own risk.

Also, since you're using RHEL, you should be able to call Red Hat support and ask them such questions, and check their knowledgebase, since you're paying for access to it as well. They have docs on those things.

Thanks for the response. Yes, large corporate environment, so I'll need to go to the Unix management team (they manage all flavors of Nix) if I need to install additional software. But the internal SMTP server is known, so I was just trying to figure out how to point my application to that server.

But your info helped a lot. I checked and found the file /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and I don't see anything that looks like our SMTP server listed in there. I also opened the file /etc/mail.sendmail.cf in vi and searched for DS. It looks like there is nothing configured in there either, so it sounds like the app support folks were correct.

I'm going to circle back with one of my contacts in the Unix support team and verify all of this, but he is rarely available, and having a forum like this will help me dig in and figure these things out on my own.

Thank you!

I suggest you also bookmark this & read as needed; it'll come in useful :)
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ion/index.html