Forwarding UNIX mail to an account on Exchange

[Gregga]

I have tried this on my (simple) network and it works fine. When I attempted the same configuration on a more complex network I get the error:

Name server timout
Transient parse error....message queued for future delivery

I am able to ping the Exchange gateway box from the AIX box and have checked that my sendmail.cf file is all right. A bit stumped. Anyone????

 

[dscott5912]

Gregga -

Can you provide a few more details? With an error like name server time out, it sounds like your sendmail server is timing out with DNS. Do you have DNS configured on the same box as sendmail or is that a different server (/etc/resolv.conf)? You could try some different rule tests. sendmail -bt with /mx {i.e. us.ibm.com} or /canon {host name}. You can also look at your mail log file (where ever that is pointing to [/var/spool/logs]) for more detail and /var/spool/mqueue for details in the qf file for that message id. Lots of options to find the root cause. Also, nslookup from the command line.

 

[Gregga]

I am trying to gather some more information about the DNS configuration. I do not think there is any being used so there is no resolv.conf to my knowledge. I was trying to force it to resolve locally with netsvc.conf. The AIX box can ping the Exchange gateway box. I have checked the Dw and DS entries to in sendmail.cf and they appear to be all right. I have unconfigured the DNS on the AIX box on my network and I get the same errors but the mails do get through. Any further pointers?

 

[dscott5912]

Having resolv.conf doesn't mean you have DNS configured/running locally on your sendmail box. It's just a flat file to define the search order for which DNS box to use. If you do an nslookup, you'll see the server that comes up for resolving addresses. Try 'telnet {exchange server box} 25' to see if you can establish an SMTP session from sendmail to your exchange box. Try hostname first. If that doesn't resolve the hostname, you know it's a name server issue. You can also try 'telnet {exchange IP address} 25'. Just in case you're not familiar with SMTP commands, type quit to end your SMTP session. I'll be curious what your output is.