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Re: multilog-watch, qmail-remote, and "Sorry. Although I'm listed as a b

To: qmail@list.cr.yp.to
Subject: Re: multilog-watch, qmail-remote, and "Sorry. Although I'm listed as a best-preference..."
From: Scott Gifford <sgifford@suspectclass.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:27:31 -0400
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In-reply-to: <18021.26320.413942.559974@sws5.ornl.gov> (Dave Sill's message of "Tue, 5 Jun 2007 09:36:16 -0400")
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References: <18020.27946.626028.437343@sws5.ornl.gov> <20070604220736.GK5000@caesar.cse.nd.edu> <18021.26320.413942.559974@sws5.ornl.gov>
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Dave Sill <de5@sws5.ornl.gov> writes:

> Kyle Wheeler <kyle-qmail@memoryhole.net> wrote:
>

[...]

>>So my guess would be that you have a DNS issue: your machine either 
>>thinks its IP address is not 160.91.218.105 (unlikely, but worth 
>>checking), or it thinks that sws5.ornl.gov's MX record resolves to 
>>something other than that (e.g. it could resolve to 127.0.0.1).
>
> $ ifconfig eth0
> eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:72:1D:0A:62  
>           inet addr:160.91.218.105  Bcast:160.91.219.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
>           inet6 addr: fe80::213:72ff:fe1d:a62/64 Scope:Link
>           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:30484331 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:53802584 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
>           RX bytes:653996188 (623.6 MiB)  TX bytes:636196097 (606.7 MiB)
>           Interrupt:177 
> $ dnsmx sws5.ornl.gov
> 10 sws5.ornl.gov
> $ dnsip sws5.ornl.gov
> 160.91.218.105 
> $

Running "ipmeprint" from the qmail source directory is a more reliable
way of finding out what qmail thinks your IP addresses are; a
difference between its output and what you expect could point you to
the problem.

Dave Sill <de5@sws5.ornl.gov> writes:

> Jeremy Kitchen <kitchen@scriptkitchen.com> wrote:

[...]

>>maybe it should use qmail-inject or qmail-queue instead?
>
> Yeah, I guess. But it worked fine for almost five years. I just wish I
> could figure out what broke it. I've worked around it by reconfiguring
> multilog-watch to deliver its reports to a remote system.

Were there any changes in the network, DNS, or OS?  Some examples of
things that could cause qmail-remote to be willing to connect to
itself in the past:

    * sws5.ornl.gov pointed to another IP address, like an outside
      redirector or NAT router.

    * Split-horizon DNS caused your qmail server to see an IP address
      other than its own for sws5.ornl.gov.

    * Your mail server wasn't able to detect all of its network
      interfaces properly.

If something like that was the case before, but recently changed, that
could be why it worked before and just stopped.

You really don't want the circumstances that make it work, though; if
qmail-remote is willing to deliver to itself, you can get mail loops
if somebody sends mail to a domain that is pointed to your IP address
but your mail server doesn't recognize as local.  And since the MX records
for a domain are under the control of whatever schmuck owns that
domain, that can happen outside of your control and really bog down
your mail server (it has happened to me).

Something that can handle both local and remote mail, like
qmail-inject, is really what you want to use here.  Is there a reason
you don't want to?

----Scott.

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