Re: sendmail blues

[Gerardo Juarez-Mondragon <gerardojm1957@gmail.com>]

Yuri,

Another possibility: why not configure the 'killer' MTA application to
use other ports: 20025 instead of 25, etc. (adding 20000 to each seems
like a good idea). After all, you don't use it. It's logical it should
sit there, but out of the way. The other road is much more bumpy, I
can assure you.

Gerardo

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Yuri Csapo <ycsapo@exchange.mines.edu> wrote:
> Hi all, I've an unusual (for me) problem:
>
> - I'm running RHEL release 3 (taroon). I know, I know. Nothing I can do -
> it's the application vendor's requirement.
> - This application also MUST have some Sun MTA installed and running, even
> if we don't use it - and we don't. This MTA sits on ports SMTP, SSMTP, IMAP
> and POP, HTTP and HTTPS and provides services to the application only, NOT
> TO THE OS.
> - We still need to be able to mail admin stuff such as logwatch and others.
> RedHat comes with sendmail and we are trying to keep this box as close as
> possible to default configuration.
> - The sendmail queue runner by itself is not enough because I can't find a
> way to make it expand aliases - root messages end up going to
> root@mines.edu, which is not where I want them to go.
> - Sendmail won't start because the silly Sun app is squatting on port 25.
> - If I use DaemonPortOptions to tell sendmail to listen on a different port
> then I get sendmail to start but I haven't found a way to make the queue
> runner send to that port on localhost. The runner ends up connecting to port
> 25, which is the Sun MTA, who proceeds to deny the connection.
>
> Does anybody know how to do one of the following:
>
> - make the sendmail queue runner expand aliases
> - make the queue runner send to a port other than 25
> - make sendmail behave like in the good old days and forgo the need for the
> queue runner
>
> Some options that have crossed my mind but which I'm trying to avoid:
>
> - redirect port 25 using iptables
> - modify sendmail's source and recompile (ugh)
> - give up on sendmail and install exim or postfix or something that can be
> understood by someone who hasn't read the Bat Book in the last 6 years and
> who is not particularly inclined to read it again.
>
> Any other ideas?
>
> TIA
>
> Yuri
>
> --
> Yuri Csapo
> Academic Computing & Networking
> Colorado School of Mines
> CT-256
> Phone:  (303) 273-3503
> Fax:      (303) 273-3475
> Email:   ycsapo@mines.edu
>
> Please use the following link to open a service request:
> http://helpdesk.mines.edu
> ===========================================
> With a PC, I always felt limited
> by the software available.
> On Unix, I am limited only by my knowledge.
> --Peter J. Schoenster
>