Getting mail server in OS-X Server 10.5.7 to send mail

Question

Getting mail server in OS-X Server 10.5.7 to send mail

I have a OS-X Server license just past it's 1 year support period and I am finally trying to use it in a commercial way and failing?

I have commercial bandwidth coming into my office and I have two DNS Servers (itools09i) and one Mac OS-X Server 10.5.7 (for mail and calendars). All 3 CPUs have correctly functioning PTR records.

My mail server will accept mail from outside sources and deliver the mail to the users.

I have NEVER seen my mail server send even 1 message and I am stumped? I have read the Mac OS X Server Essentials 2nd edition and viewed the video series at lynda.com on OS-X Server 10.5 and I can not figure out what I am doing wrong?

OK here are some clues:
1. these two lines keep repeating once a minute in the SMTP logs that I have set to debug level:
Jun 25 20:00:55 mail postfix/postfix-script[20867]: refreshing the Postfix mail system
Jun 25 20:00:55 mail postfix/master[19954]: reload configuration /etc/postfix

2. This is the error message I get after about 1 minute when I attempt a mail to myself.
The server “mail.myserver.net” refused to allow a connection on the default ports.

3. Here is the corresponding Mail Access log: entry:
Jun 25 19:58:06 mail imap[13729]: open: user myname opened Apple Mail To Do
Jun 25 20:03:06 mail imap[13729]: open: user myname opened Apple Mail To Do

4. Here is the IMAP log:
Jun 25 20:03:06 mail imap[13729]: open: user myname opened Apple Mail To Do
Jun 25 20:08:06 mail imap[13729]: open: user myname opened Apple Mail To Do

Thanks group for any and all ideas. By the way I have installed OS-X Server 3 times now on two different Intel Core 2 duo CPUs. (Only 1 at a time of course)

2.4GHz MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.7), 4GB RAM

Posted on Jun 25, 2009 8:13 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 25, 2009 8:17 PM in response to NorCalTechSupport

One more clue. The first two times I tried to set up my OS-X Server I used Advanced.

The 3rd time I have gone with Standard and all 3 end in failure on send but work fine otherwise.

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Answer 2

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Jun 26, 2009 4:54 AM in response to NorCalTechSupport

Please open terminal and post the unmodified output of:
postconf -n

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Answer 3

Jun 26, 2009 11:43 AM in response to pterobyte

Last login: Thu Jun 25 20:40:54 on ttys000
mail:~ localadmin$ postconf -n
command_directory = /usr/sbin
config_directory = /etc/postfix
content_filter = smtp-amavis:[127.0.0.1]:10024
daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
debug peerlevel = 2
enable serveroptions = yes
html_directory = no
inet_interfaces = all
mail_owner = _postfix
mailbox sizelimit = 0
mailbox_transport = cyrus
mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq
manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
message sizelimit = 10485760
mydestination = $myhostname,localhost.$mydomain,localhost,mail.shasta1.net,shasta1.net
mydomain = shasta1.net
mydomain_fallback = localhost
myhostname = mail.shasta1.net
newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases
queue_directory = /private/var/spool/postfix
readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix
relayhost =
sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix/examples
sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail
setgid_group = _postdrop
smtpd pw_server_securityoptions = cram-md5
smtpd recipientrestrictions = permit sasl_authenticated,permit_mynetworks,reject_unauthdestination,permit
smtpd sasl_authenable = yes
smtpd use_pwserver = yes
unknown local_recipient_rejectcode = 550

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Answer 4

pterobyte

Level 6

11,104 points

Jun 26, 2009 12:40 PM in response to NorCalTechSupport

Your configuration is basic, but OK. I tried to connect to your server (assuming your MX records are pointing to the correct IP) and Postfix responds correctly.

How did you try sending mail? From the outside? Inside? Any firewalls in between you and your mail server?

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Answer 5

Jun 26, 2009 1:08 PM in response to pterobyte

No firewalls (yet)

I have tried sending mail from several locations but none of them are inside the building where my servers are located.

Strangely I am in town now and I just sent email. So it looks like my home DSL is blocking me. More later I am a teacher about to start a class.

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Answer 6

Jun 26, 2009 5:02 PM in response to NorCalTechSupport

It turns out my mail server was working just on port 25 and AT&T block this port.

One of the error messages I kept getting was my mail server could not open any of the common ports so I thought 25, 587, 465 were all in common ports? Guess not.

So now I need to figure out how to set my server up to only listen on port 587?

Thanks for the wonderful and quick help.

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Answer 7

Jun 27, 2009 12:26 AM in response to NorCalTechSupport

Actually, you want it to listen on both port 25 (for incoming mail from other servers) and 587 (for outgoing mail being submitted by clients). There's no way to enable this from Server Admin, but you can do it by editing one of postfix's config files. The usual warnings apply: make a backup first, don't be surprised if an OS update overwrites your changes, and I make no guarantees about the results. Anyway, the relevant file is /etc/postfix/master.cf, and it should have a section like this:

#submission inet n - n - - smtpd
#-o smtpd enforcetls=yes
#-o smtpd sasl_authenable=yes
#-o smtpd client_restrictions=permit_saslauthenticated,reject

This is the config for the submission service (aka port 587); it's there, but commented out. It's set to require SSL (aka TLS) and authentication, so make sure you have an SSL certificate set up and at least one authentication type enabled for SMTP (in Server Admin, under Mail -> Settings -> Advanced -> Security). Then all you need to do is remove the comment markers (the #'s) from these 4 lines, do a "sudo postfix reload", and make sure your client is set to use SSL and authentication.

(Note: do not delete the spaces at the beginning of the "-o" lines; I had to delete them above to get the #'s to show, but they need to be there in the actual file.)

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Answer 8

davidh

Level 4

1,896 points

Jun 27, 2009 6:02 PM in response to Gordon Davisson

Submission port per
http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/postfix/2005-05/2687.html
http://mac007.com/?Tips:AlternateSMTPPorts

But NorCal, if your ISP is blocking SMTP, that's indicative of the fact that you have a home-user
type account and attempting to run mail-service could well be a violation of our terms of use.
Proceed with caution and make sure what you're doing is not in fact violating your terms of use with your ISP.

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