Sendmail "deferred". Not using DNS, just smart host.

[motoslide]

We have a UNIX system running sendmail 8.11 (not exactly positive of release number).
This system only needs to submit outbound mail to a "smart host". These are just system messages of backup status, etc.
The "smart host" is listed in the sendmail.cf file like so:
DS[123.45.67.123]

For each outbound message, we get the following status:
qfj0T03CB19361:Mhost map: lookup (mydomain.com): deferred

I'm able to manually telnet to the "smart host" on port 25 and send mail.
Our server isn't running DNS, and we have no /etc/resolv.conf file.

How do we get sendmail to just forward all the mail to the smart host?

 

[Deleted]

In your sendmail.mc:

define(`SMART_HOST', `[b]192.168.X.X[/b]')
define(`confSERVICE_SWITCH_FILE', /etc/mail/service.switch.nodns)dnl

In your /etc/mail directory create a file called service.switch.nodns with the contents of:

hosts files

If you don't have a resolv.conf; create one with the contents of:

hostresorder    local file

Edit your /etc/hosts and add (change info to point to the smart host):

192.168.X.X            server.domain.com server

Finally rebuild the sendmail.cf and restart sendmail.

Whew...

http://unixjunky.com

 

[motoslide]

Thanks much for the reply. It may be a few days before I can get back onto the Client's system to work this out. I'll post back with the results.