Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

General support questions including new installations
Tanner8
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Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by Tanner8 » 2010/07/13 18:37:11

Hey, I installed postfix and configured it but for some reason it keeps shutting down right after startup. Here is what happens,

[code]
[root@server /]# /etc/init.d/postfix restart
Shutting down postfix: [FAILED]
Starting postfix: [ OK ]
[root@server /]# /etc/init.d/postfix restart
Shutting down postfix: [FAILED]
Starting postfix: [ OK ]
[root@server /]# /etc/init.d/postfix status
master is stopped
[/code]

I would post you my var/log/maillog however it is empty for some reason. What's going on?

Thanks

pschaff
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Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by pschaff » 2010/07/13 21:39:49

Configured how? Have you read the [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/postfix]Wiki HowTos/postfix article[/url]?

Tanner8
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by Tanner8 » 2010/07/13 21:54:28

That's actually exactly what I used to configure it.

pschaff
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by pschaff » 2010/07/13 22:03:17

My guess is that you made some error in the configuration process. Anything interesting in "tail -f /var/log/messages" while doing "service postfix restart"?

Tanner8
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by Tanner8 » 2010/07/13 22:53:00

Noting relevant to the problem. I uninstalled and reconfigured again and the same thing happened. I think I may just hire someone to fix this damn thing.

pschaff
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by pschaff » 2010/07/14 13:14:24

At least three possibilities on continued problems with a reinstall:

1. Reinstalling does not necessarily overwrite changed configuration files and may not have done anything toward cleaning up a configuration issue. Look for config files with .rpm* appended to the name.

2. The problem may have been replicated when going through the configuration steps again.

3. There may be a real problem with the packages - seems unlikely as lots of others have postfix working.

milosb
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by milosb » 2010/07/29 08:17:06

Have you checked if [b]sendmail[/b] is stopped and relinquished port 25? It can cause this sort of behavior. What is the output of:
[code]
[user@host ~]$ netstat -tulpn|grep LISTEN
[/code]
As you know, CentOS 5 arives with [b]sendmail[/b] as it's default MTA, not [b]postfix[/b], so make sure [b]sendmail[/b] is stopped and disabled:
[code]
service sendmail stop
chkconfig sendmail off
[/code]
Although some of these suggestions may exist in the above mentioned article, TBH I haven't read it...

pschaff
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by pschaff » 2010/07/29 11:37:41

Good suggestion. I think the "system-switch-mail" command described in the article does that, but can't speak from experience.

milosb
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by milosb » 2010/07/29 11:58:44

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
I think the "system-switch-mail" command described in the article does that, but can't speak from experience.[/quote]
You're right, it should.
However, I thought it worth giving it a try, since what I described in my previous post happened to me after trying to switch the default MTA using only [b]alternatives[/b] tool -
because that's what [b]system-switch-mail[/b] actually does (relinks the default MTA symlink from [b]sendmail[/b] to [b]postfix[/b] binary).

At that point, it didn't occur to me that [b]sendmail[/b] would still be running and taking up port 25.

vbock
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Re: Postfix Keeps Shutting Down

Post by vbock » 2012/02/07 17:53:03

Thanks for the suggestion to turn off sendmail. Obvious in retrospect, but did not occur. Saved me hours of pulling hair out!

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