Troubleshooting Course Content Rough Drafts-Identify And Resolve Mail Flow Issues

ROUGH DRAFT ROUGH DRAFT ROUGH DRAFT ROUGH DRAFT

Exercises

Problem1: Incoming email from the Internet is not getting delivered to my Zimbra server. Why?

You setup your Zimbra server, now it's time to test email flow. You sent a test message from your Yahoo! email account, but you are not seeing the email message in your Zimbra account.

Things to check
- DNS MX Records setup correctly? Check the DNS MX records for the domain on the zimbra machine. Run the following command from inside the zimbra machine

host -t mx domain.com

You would see something similar to

domain.com mail is handled by 10 mail.domain.com.

IP address correct?

host -t a mail.domain.com

Contents of the /etc/hosts file correct?

*Example*

127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.1.17   mail.domain.com   mail

- Firewall blocking smtp connections to the zimbra machine externally?

telnet mail.domain.com 25

- IPTables turned on?

iptables -L -n

Problem2: Outbound email from my Zimbra account is not getting delivered to my Yahoo email account. Why?

You want to test sending a message to another address external to your Zimbra setup, and you are sending a email message to your Yahoo! account, but it did not deliver to your Yahoo! account.

Things to check
- Can you telnet to an external smtp hostname?

telnet smtp.hp.com 25

- Are you using a zimbraMtaRelayHost?

zmprov gacf zimbraMtaRelayHost

zmprov gs `zmhostname` zimbraMtaRelayHost

- DNS MX records correct?

host -t mx yourdomain.com

IP Address correct?

host -t a mail.yourdomain.com

- Are there any errors in the /var/log/zimbra.log file?

grep -i user001@yahoo.com /var/log/zimbra.log

Problem3: Zimbra MTA services will not start! zmcontrol status displays MTA not started.

Upon setting up your Zimbra machine, you checked the status.

zmcontrol status

And you noticed the following.

postfix is not running

So you try starting Zimbra MTA service.

zmmtactl start

But you still see postfix is not running from the zmcontrol status command.

If Zimbra's MTA service is down, and not starting, is there anything listening on port 25?

lsof -i :25

Are there errors with Zimbra's MTA Permissions?

postfix check

Generally Postfix uses a lot of directories and files with special user/group permissions. Postfix is especially picky if a file permission is incorrect, and can potentially prevent email flow. The postfix check command is handy to use to do a fast check.

postfix check
postsuper: fatal: scan_dir_push: open directory defer/F: Permission denied

Troubleshooting Tools

mailq

Command showing current activity in the mail queue. Run the command as the zimbra user.

mailq 

or

/opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/mailq

postqueue

See, http://www.postfix.org/postqueue.1.html

/opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/postqueue

zmqstat

Display how many messages in each queue

sudo /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmqstat

zmmsgtrace

Tool for tracing email transactions

*Examples*
/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmmsgtrace -s john@yahoo.com -r sales@domain.com 

/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmmsgtrace --id 1550989059.5.1424814781558.JavaMail.zimbra@mail.domain.com

/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmmsgtrace --id 405795848.214.1424764809961.JavaMail.zimbra@kingr1.us.zimbralab.com /var/log/zimbra.log-2015*.gz

Usage:
    zmmsgtrace [options] [<mail-syslog-file>...]

        --id|i "msgid"                # case sensitive regex
        --sender|s "user@domain"      # case insensitive regex
        --recipient|r "user@domain"   # case insensitive regex
        --srchost|F "hostname_or_ip"  # case insensitive regex
        --desthost|D "hostname_or_ip" # case insensitive regex
        --time|t "start_ts,end_ts"    # YYYYMM[DD[HH[MM[SS]]]]
        --year "YYYY"                 # file year if no YYYY in file
        --nosort                      # do not sort @ARGV files by mtime
        --debug                       verbose output useful for debugging
        --help                        display a brief help message
        --man                         display the entire man page

zmdailyreport

Getting email a report of the email activity.

/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmdailyreport

zimbra.log

The number one place to look when there are signs of trouble from the Zimbra MTA service.

egrep -i 'error|warn|fatal' /var/log/zimbra.log

zegrep -i 'error|warn|fatal' /var/log/zimbra.log-2015*.gz

tail -f /var/log/zimbra.log

Real World case examples

OS MTA vs. Zimbra MTA

When a Linux OS is installed, the OS will include either Postfix or Sendmail. You must be aware that if the OS installs Postfix, the binary paths will be different.

[root@mail ~] which postfix
/usr/sbin/postfix
[zimbra@mail ~] which postfix
~/bin/postfix

See the difference? Make sure when you are running postfix commands like postconf, that you are running the commands as the zimbra user, not root.

Also, make sure to disable the OS MTA from the start up sequence.

chkconfig postfix off 

or

update-rc.d -f /etc/init.d/postfix remove

Mail Loops back to myself

Typically a bounce message would look something like this:

This is the mail system at host mail.yourdomain.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                   The mail system

<jsmith@mail.yourdomain.com>: mail for mail.yourdomain.com loops
    back to myself

What this means is that someone tried to send a message to jsmith@mail.yourdomain.com, however the Zimbra system is smart enough to have looked up the MX (mail exchange) records for the domain. It notes that it in fact is the destination server for the mail, but the domain of mail.yourdomain.com was not created.

LMTP delivery resolving to a public IP not the Private IP

Scenario would involve the zimbra MTA with the private IP, i.e. 192.168.1.17; however, mail is not getting delivered internally.

In the /var/log/zimbra.log file would show this:

relay=mail.yourdomain.com[17.218.128.55]:7025  **INCORRECT**
relay=mail.yourdomain.com[192.168.1.17]:7025   **CORRECT**

If this happens to you, try the following.

ZCS8.5 & ZCS8.6
zmprov mcf zimbraMtaLmtpHostLookup native

zmmtactl restart

Older zimbra versions
zmlocalconfig -e postfix_lmtp_host_lookup=native

zmmtactl restart

Relay Access Denied

You may have seen a bounce message like this.

From: System Administrator
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2014 12:00 PM
To: John Smith
Subject: Undeliverable: test

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
    Subject:  RE: Sales
    Sent:     8/28/2014 12:00 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:
    'Susan Smith' on 8/28/2014 12:00 PM
    554 5.7.1 <ssmith@domain.com>: Relay access denied

Usually this is caused by zimbra MTA's mynetworks setting was not correct. Running the following commands from the MTA as the zimbra user, are the results the same?

zmprov gs zimbra-mta.yourdomain.com zimbraMtaMyNetworks

zmprov gacf zimbraMtaMyNetworks

postconf | grep mynetworks

Remember, zimbraMtaMyNetworks should contain the network addresses of the localhost IP, and the IP from the network interface i.e. eth0 192.168.1.17 lo 127.0.0.1 would look like this...

postconf mynetworks
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 192.168.1.0/24

zmprov gs zimbra-mta.yourdomain.com zimbraMtaMyNetworks
zimbraMtaMyNetworks: 127.0.0.0/8 192.168.1.0/24

Things to consider regarding zimbraMtaMyNetworks and "relay access denied" issues

  • End users that are using email clients like Thunderbird, or Outlook must use smtp authentication if they want to relay email through the zimbra-MTA.

If they don't enter a username/password in their email client, there will be a "relay access denied" error in the /var/log/zimbra.log file.

  • Never configure zimbraMtaMyNetworks to relay public IP networks, i.e. adding 140.108.26.0/24 zimbraMtaMyNetworks. This means ANYONE on the 140.108.26.0 subnet can relay email without authentication, which is bad and would make the zimbra-MTA an open relay for the 140.108.26.0 subnet.

Unknown sender

Symptom: Checking outgoing mail and I am seeing email that is coming from zimbra that are coming from users that do not exist in the LDAP server.

ZCS-8.0.x

1. zmlocalconfig -e postfix_enable_smtpd_policyd=yes

2. zmlocalconfig -e postfix_smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=yes

3. zmlocalconfig -e postfix_smtpd_reject_unlisted_sender=yes

4. zmprov mcf +zimbraMtaRestriction "check_policy_service unix:private/policy"

5. zmmtactl restart

6. zmconfigdctl restart

ZCS-8.6.x

1. zmprov mcf zimbraMtaEnableSmtpdPolicyd TRUE

2. zmprov mcf zimbraMtaSmtpdRejectUnlistedRecipient yes

3. zmprov mcf zimbraMtaSmtpdRejectUnlistedSender yes

4. zmprov mcf +zimbraMtaRestriction "check_policy_service unix:private/policy"

5. zmmtactl restart

6. zmconfigdctl restart

Know the difference between zimbraMtaRelayHost and zimbraSmtpHostname

zimbraMtaRelayHost: Used by the zimbra MTA, postfix's value for postconf relayhost.

zimbraSmtpHostname: Used by the zimbra user store node not running MTA service.

Short Quiz

1. Adding a pubic network subnet to zimbraMtaMyNetworks is recommended.

2. You can configure Zimbra MTA settings as the root user.

3. To send messages outbound from Zimbra MTA, you do not need to configure zimbraMtaRelayHost setting.

4. You need to uninstall the OS MTA in order for Zimbra's MTA to work properly.

5. Zimbra MTA traffic is logged to the /opt/zimbra/log/mailbox.log file

Short Quiz Answers - No peeking

1.   *FALSE*
Adding a public network subnet will allow anyone on the same subnet to relay email without authentication. 
This is not good.
2.  *FALSE*
Must be the "zimbra" user when making changes to the MTA service.
3.  *TRUE* 
Trick question: You do not need to configure the zimbraMtaRelayHost
setting unless your network provider is blocking outbound smtp traffic, then you will need a relayhost. 
4.  *FALSE*
You can simply disable the OS MTA from the OS startup sequence.
5.  *FALSE*
Zimbra MTA traffic is logged to the /var/log/zimbra.log file. 
Verified Against: Zimbra Collaboration Suite 8.6 Date Created: 01/22/2015
Article ID: https://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=Troubleshooting_Course_Content_Rough_Drafts-Identify_And_Resolve_Mail_Flow_Issues Date Modified: 2015-04-01



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