Chooses wrong Internal Mail Server

GregAGregA
I like the program, but Email alerts are still a problem for me with latest update. (RAM useage is better and CPU usage is better with last update BTW).



Here is my situation.



We run Lotus Notes in a large company with multiple locations across a WAN. Our office where ServersCheck runs is in Florida. The Lotus Notes SMTP server for the WAN is in Texas with other various email servers.



Every other Florida LAN program we point to a certain relay in Texas, such as "smtp.mycompany.com". This works for every other program and without authentication.



When I choose 'Internal mail server' ServersCheck chooses the wrong server in Texas to email through, as I can see when I watch the progress of the test.



This might be why some emails are still failing. I thought it was RAM, but it is still happening.



If I choose 'Outgoing SMTP Relay Server' and point to the correct server in Texas (smtp.mycompany.com) or the IP address of smtp.mycompany.com, it fails completely. Nothing gets through at all.



When I go to the server where ServersCheck is running and telnet from it to the correct smtp server in Texas on port 25 the telnet session connects as it should, so it is not a port issue.



If I could manually over-ride the internal email server that ServersCheck found I would probably be ok. I am not sure how the software found that server, but it found the wrong one in my case.



Thanks


Comments

  • AdministratorAdministrator
    The internal mail server uses as per documentation the MX record it can find for the domain name it has to send the email to. The fact that it points to the wrong mail server is a DNS problem.



    Outgoing SMTP server: please check the SMTP.log file in your main ServersCheck directory for error messages.



    Typical errors for external mail servers is Antivirus running on the machine. Telnet may work but Antivirus software blocks the email.
  • GregAGregA
    There are no entries in the smtp.log when I test the external mail server.



    This is what shows on the screen. But nothing in the log.





    Test email was sent

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    Please find below the results of the test:

    # Sending SMTP alert to greg_xx@mydomain.com

    # Using external mail server smtp.mydomain.com



    # Send failed:
  • AdministratorAdministrator
    In your alerts subdirectory you should have a file called smtp.conf



    Go to the command prompt and then to the alerts subdirectory.

    Type following command:

    alert_smtp.exe smtp



    It should create a file called smtp.log



    What does it contain?
  • GregAGregA
    I tested both the Internal and the Outgoing and they both made a log that said "ok".



    But the Outgoing still fails with the same message.



    Test email was sent

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    Please find below the results of the test:

    # Sending SMTP alert to greg_xx@mydomain.com

    # Using external mail server smtp.mydomain.com



    # Send failed:
  • AdministratorAdministrator
    That is not possible. The internal (built-in mail server) uses a different component and creates a different log file (located in another directory).



    What is the log from the Notes mail server regarding this message?



    If you run on the ServersCheck host following command, what is then the output?

    nslookup -q=mx mydomain.com



    (replace mydomain.com by your domain)
  • AdministratorAdministrator
    While you are doing the above test, a way to trick the built-in mail server is to have the domain name point to the correct mail server in Texas by creating an entry in the hosts file (c:windowssystem32etcdrivers)


  • GregAGregA
    The hosts file is a great idea. I have set this up and will leave it like that. Very good. I will let you know if I have any more dropped emails, but at least I know I am now pointing to the correct email server! Thank you!
This discussion has been closed.