Topic: [SOLVED] Correct method for setting up email and aliases?

[Elliott]

I spent a good while reading the forums and have just now finished searching for the particulars of my apparent looping error so let me break down my process so that perhaps someone can shed some light on the problems.

I did a fresh install of SME 7.1 on a server. It is setup in server/gateway mode but the only purpose for this box will be as a mail server. I gave the box an unused IP address on one of my class C's.

I created accounts for each user that already exists on my current Win32 mail server but instead of using the first name nomenclature on that server I created accounts using first initial and last name (e.g. John Smith = jsmith).

All users are set for local delivery and the server was initially told to resolve locally. I then set up Pseudonyms for the first names that existed on the old server and for all of the other aliases (e.g. sales, support, etc.) to map to jsmith, qjones, bbrown, etc.

Also, the SME machine was setup with the hostname gwg but is answering mail for the domain mydomain.com. I added an mx record for mail.mydomain.com that points to the SME box. I wasn't using mail.xx.com before so this act alone didn't change anything.

A few other things to add. First, the clients on my network go through another SME 7.1 server as their firewall/gateway. The two SME servers are on the same local subnet and neither one is isssuing DHCP. All clients are either hard coded IPs or they get their DHCP froman Active Directory server. Also, mydomain.com had 2 MX entries set up. The higher priority one (a 5) was set to po.mydomain.NET which was simply an 2nd IP address to the other entry (a priority of 10) at po.mydomain.COM.

Ok, so today was D-Day and here's the order that I did things in:

1> changed the priority 5 MX record for mydomain.com to point to MAIL.MYDOMAIN.NET
2>  changed the priority 10 MX record for mydomain.com to point to MAIL.MYDOMAIN.NET
3> Updated the SOAs on the DNS server so that local hosts that resolve locally would get the update instantly
4> Verified this by doing nslookups (type=mx) from clients
5> Sent a test email from a client on the SME Firewall LAN and one from a yahoo account both to the same address which would be one of the Pseudonyms.

I received a loop message in both cases the basic gist of which is below:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at mydomain.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<kevin@mydomain.com>:
This message is looping: it already has my Delivered-To line. (#5.4.6)

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <mkiemce@yahoo.com>
Received: (qmail 6049 invoked by uid 5000); 30 Jan 2007 20:02:03 -0000
Delivered-To: kevin@gwg.mydomain.com
Received: (qmail 6045 invoked by alias); 30 Jan 2007 20:02:03 -0000
Delivered-To: alias-localdelivery-kevin@mydomain.com
Received: (qmail 6040 invoked by uid 453); 30 Jan 2007 20:02:03 -0000
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=2.8 required=5.0
   tests=DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE,DNS_FROM_RFC_POST,DNS_FROM_RFC_WHOIS
X-Spam-Check-By: mydomain.com
Received: from web34004.mail.mud.yahoo.com (HELO web34004.mail.mud.yahoo.com)
(66.163.178.85)
    by mydomain.com (qpsmtpd/0.32) with SMTP; Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:01:56
-0500
Received: (qmail 91480 invoked by uid 60001); 30 Jan 2007 20:01:54 -0000
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;
  s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;
 
h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:Date:From:Subject:To: MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Message-ID;
 
b=Ou8txarGghcmjkZBhZOMJVmE3ucB1gghfIefx Z3H9RV6axIbBLqYxyqNyaHtRCQF4GEsQZd15EJJcwtRm8GnF+Raw3JcIBWtW7a OLasi728b5J3XoV187jQOL4sVOqcTbhKT2Zy3QSKpsCz8iowE6nG4xUq50P7Lw4yk8jYLM8U=;
X-YMail-OSG:
QngbHokVM1nLW.VSke0b6XTxPHp3LXwqemIZYXnb.eQi_PxaO8k G0RYigwybXa.rh_EAFdW4ZE3wdCdulKoS73sCRixpuT5wA. 3Siy83.fJn8hLVIqQ-
Received: from [12.168.86.253] by web34004.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Tue, 30
Jan 2007 12:01:54 PST
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:01:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Kevin <muskiemace@yahoo.com>
Subject: another test
To: kevin@mydomain.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Message-ID: <507417.91343.qm@web34004.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Testing... 1, 2, 3?

I am in a production environment so of course I had to get things rolling again and quick before any email was lost so I shut the SME server down and assigned it's IP address back to the old Win32 mail server. I've also backtracked the MX settings so that I can boot the SME server back up for further work tomorrow.

My questions are as follows:

1: How can I test the aliases and even regular accounts without making it live? Normally sending from a client I would send mail to user@[IP ADDRESS] and the mail server would accept it. SME/qmail/?? doesn't like this because the IP address isn't the domain that it accepts mail for.

2: Once I verify that the aliases and accounts are able to receive email, what order should I roll over to the new server?

Thanks for any pointers...

[raem]

Elliott

Check your group memberships on sme. Perhaps you created a loop there.
ie a group delivers back to a user which is part of that same group.

[Elliott]

Check your group memberships on sme. Perhaps you created a loop there.
ie a group delivers back to a user which is part of that same group.

Dopeyness strikes... The particular account I was testing with was (of course) my own which I had initially set up to forward to my account on the real server. Well since this server was taking over as the real server the forwarding address was to itself.

Now for the more important question, can anyone suggest a way to test this now that I've fixed that problem without acutally putting this server in the live/active role?

Perhaps a second domain trick or something?

-E

[Elliott]

I guess I should have just tried it instead of asking...

I setup a secondary domain on the server and sent a test and voila!

I'm such a dope...

-E