help with DEFER errors

Guys,

1.       I have a lot of these type of messages in my mainlog:

 

H=(mx.sendinghost.com) [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: ACL "warn" statement skipped: condition test deferred: failed to expand ACL string "${lookup dnsdb{a=$smtp_active_hostname}}": lookup of "a=my.host.com" gave DEFER:

 

I am trying to look through the configs to see if I can determine where and why I am getting these.

 

Are they a cause for any real concer?  What causes them and can it be recified?

 

I am not running a multi-ip host, but do host multiple virtual domains.

 

2.       I am not sure if it is related (I think not), but I also get messages that correspond with the sending host that is in some of the above messages but the emails do NOT seem to come through to the users mailbox.  I (think I) do see the actual emails in the /var/spool/exim/scan directory though.  The only thing I find in the logs is this message:

 

1b4BZC-0005p9-Ek H= mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: spam-score-int: 1 (/). spamreject: 990.

 

Any help, ideas or thoughts would be welcome.  I did a google search that did not seem to provide an useful help.

 

Thx.

 

Helmut

 

P.S. not yet updated to latest release of exim4u.

 

 

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Not sure if it is related, but my /var/spool/exim/scan and /var/spool/exim/input directories have a lot of files in them.

 

Input: 2223 files

Scan: 2223 files

 

I am sure it is not a coincidence.  The queue is empty.  The files names definitely seem to correspond between the two directories.  All the files in inpur are –D files (I believe that means body, -H is header).  Interestingly there are n o corresponding –H header files in input.

 

I was notified of this issue by a client who has not received any emails from the below mentioned mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx].

 

They do get a reject message on their end of:

 

Generating server: mx.sendinghost.com

[hidden email]
#< #4.4.2 X-Proprietary; lost connection with my.host.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] while sending end of data -- message may be sent more than once> #SMTP#

I did run a:

 

exim -bh xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

 

and it ends up at an ACCEPT.

 

From: Helmut Fritz [[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2016 12:48 PM
To: 'Exim4U General Discussion'
Subject: help with DEFER errors

 

Guys,

1.       I have a lot of these type of messages in my mainlog:

 

H=(mx.sendinghost.com) [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: ACL "warn" statement skipped: condition test deferred: failed to expand ACL string "${lookup dnsdb{a=$smtp_active_hostname}}": lookup of "a=my.host.com" gave DEFER:

 

I am trying to look through the configs to see if I can determine where and why I am getting these.

 

Are they a cause for any real concer?  What causes them and can it be recified?

 

I am not running a multi-ip host, but do host multiple virtual domains.

 

2.       I am not sure if it is related (I think not), but I also get messages that correspond with the sending host that is in some of the above messages but the emails do NOT seem to come through to the users mailbox.  I (think I) do see the actual emails in the /var/spool/exim/scan directory though.  The only thing I find in the logs is this message:

 

1b4BZC-0005p9-Ek H= mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: spam-score-int: 1 (/). spamreject: 990.

 

Any help, ideas or thoughts would be welcome.  I did a google search that did not seem to provide an useful help.

 

Thx.

 

Helmut

 

P.S. not yet updated to latest release of exim4u.

 

 

_______________________________________________
users mailing list
[hidden email]
https://exim4u.org/mailman/listinfo/users

Hi Helmut,

For item 1, your server is not successfully completing the reverse dns lookup of your host.  With Exim4U 3.1.0, its on line 63 in exim.conf as follows:

MY_IP = ${lookup dnsdb{a=$smtp_active_hostname}}

This most likely is happening because your ISP's name servers are temporarily unavailable. If this happens alot then you should complain loudly to the ISP that hosts your IP address.  If this problem persists often on an installation which is ***not*** using multi-ip then you can hard code your IP address into this statement to avoid the reverse lookup but that is merely an industrial strength band aid.  Your ISP should get an earful about their servers that perform reverse lookups being unavailable.  I have seen this before but it is generally very rare with most ISP hosting companies.

For item 2, I have no idea what is going on.  I would need more info and log data, etc. to proffer a guess.

Gordon






On 07/11/2016 03:47 PM, Helmut Fritz wrote:

Guys,

1.       I have a lot of these type of messages in my mainlog:

 

H=(mx.sendinghost.com) [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: ACL "warn" statement skipped: condition test deferred: failed to expand ACL string "${lookup dnsdb{a=$smtp_active_hostname}}": lookup of "a=my.host.com" gave DEFER:

 

I am trying to look through the configs to see if I can determine where and why I am getting these.

 

Are they a cause for any real concer?  What causes them and can it be recified?

 

I am not running a multi-ip host, but do host multiple virtual domains.

 

2.       I am not sure if it is related (I think not), but I also get messages that correspond with the sending host that is in some of the above messages but the emails do NOT seem to come through to the users mailbox.  I (think I) do see the actual emails in the /var/spool/exim/scan directory though.  The only thing I find in the logs is this message:

 

1b4BZC-0005p9-Ek H= mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: spam-score-int: 1 (/). spamreject: 990.

 

Any help, ideas or thoughts would be welcome.  I did a google search that did not seem to provide an useful help.

 

Thx.

 

Helmut

 

P.S. not yet updated to latest release of exim4u.

 

 

_______________________________________________
users mailing list
[hidden email]
https://exim4u.org/mailman/listinfo/users

_______________________________________________
users mailing list
[hidden email]
https://exim4u.org/mailman/listinfo/users

“The queue is empty”

 

Once I saw the messages I thought to see if they were in the queue. 

 

It is interesting that:

 

A message from the same host that forwarded one of the failed messages to my client went through.  So emails from a person were coming through – I have 2 instances of that in my logs.  The emails that are not making it and correspond with the reject message, the files in the input and scan directories, and the spam warning message.

 

I put that domain in my whitelist for spamassassin, and viola the message got through (it is a deposit confirmation for my client and his back – he runs a business that deposits almost daily – so not a long time to wait).  So the message says spam score of 1 and reject of 990, but I think one of those numbers is off by a magnitude of 10 or?  I have not really figured out the combined spam scoring methodology in exim4u.  it seems there are two and their order of magnitude as an integer are different?

 

So interesting that it seems to have been rejected by spam score.  Is there something I can do on my end to log better to help figure this out?  any docs to help me understand the spam scoring better?

 

Thx much!

 

Helmut

 

From: users [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gordon Dickens
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 5:11 AM
To: Exim4U General Discussion
Subject: Re: [Exim4U] help with DEFER errors

 

Strange... I periodically see a file or two in these directories but never hundreds or thousands of files. These are obviously undelivered messages of some type.  Are the dates on the files recent?  Run "exim -bp" to see what messages that exim reports in your queue. 


On 07/11/2016 06:05 PM, Helmut Fritz wrote:

Not sure if it is related, but my /var/spool/exim/scan and /var/spool/exim/input directories have a lot of files in them.

 

Input: 2223 files

Scan: 2223 files

 

I am sure it is not a coincidence.  The queue is empty.  The files names definitely seem to correspond between the two directories.  All the files in inpur are –D files (I believe that means body, -H is header).  Interestingly there are n o corresponding –H header files in input.

 

I was notified of this issue by a client who has not received any emails from the below mentioned mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx].

 

They do get a reject message on their end of:

 

Generating server: mx.sendinghost.com

[hidden email]
#< #4.4.2 X-Proprietary; lost connection with my.host.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] while sending end of data -- message may be sent more than once> #SMTP#

I did run a:

 

exim -bh xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

 

and it ends up at an ACCEPT.

 

From: Helmut Fritz [[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2016 12:48 PM
To: 'Exim4U General Discussion'
Subject: help with DEFER errors

 

Guys,

1.       I have a lot of these type of messages in my mainlog:

 

H=(mx.sendinghost.com) [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: ACL "warn" statement skipped: condition test deferred: failed to expand ACL string "${lookup dnsdb{a=$smtp_active_hostname}}": lookup of "a=my.host.com" gave DEFER:

 

I am trying to look through the configs to see if I can determine where and why I am getting these.

 

Are they a cause for any real concer?  What causes them and can it be recified?

 

I am not running a multi-ip host, but do host multiple virtual domains.

 

2.       I am not sure if it is related (I think not), but I also get messages that correspond with the sending host that is in some of the above messages but the emails do NOT seem to come through to the users mailbox.  I (think I) do see the actual emails in the /var/spool/exim/scan directory though.  The only thing I find in the logs is this message:

 

1b4BZC-0005p9-Ek H= mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: spam-score-int: 1 (/). spamreject: 990.

 

Any help, ideas or thoughts would be welcome.  I did a google search that did not seem to provide an useful help.

 

Thx.

 

Helmut

 

P.S. not yet updated to latest release of exim4u.

 

 

_______________________________________________

users mailing list

[hidden email]

https://exim4u.org/mailman/listinfo/users

 

_______________________________________________
users mailing list
[hidden email]
https://exim4u.org/mailman/listinfo/users

So in my message my spam-score-int of 1 is actually 10 compared to the spam reject of 990?  Or is that 9.9?

Any ideas on the files in the directories?  Why the header file is missing from input?  Should I check exim list/people for that?  I did not find much in my google searching for that.

Will do Gordon.

 

In the web interface, for now, they are all set the same.  Discard score of 99 and tag score of 5.  The 99 corresponds to what is set in the exim4u_global_spam_virus for the SpamRejectScore, 99.  Why does the log entry show 990?  If I understand things correctly, It should show 9.9 or 99, no?

 

1b4BZC-0005p9-Ek H= mx.sendinghost.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Warning: spam-score-int: 1 (/). spamreject: 990.

 

 

I find zero log entries in maillog regarding the corresponding messages.  I will see if i can get SA to do some better logging, that may help me when things get dumped to /dev/null.

 

Thx much.

 

Helmut

 

From: users [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Gordon Dickens
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 5:29 AM
To: Exim4U General Discussion
Subject: Re: [Exim4U] help with files in input and scan directories, SA score integer vs. decimal

 

On 07/12/2016 11:49 PM, Helmut Fritz wrote:

So in my message my spam-score-int of 1 is actually 10 compared to the spam reject of 990?  Or is that 9.9?

If you specify a spam reject score of 9.9 in the web interface then "spamreject" will be 99 in the exim logs.

Any ideas on the files in the directories?  Why the header file is missing from input?  Should I check exim list/people for that?  I did not find much in my google searching for that.

Sorry but I'm not sure what's going on there....  You can surely post the question on the exim list.   Alternatively, you could just closely watch those directories to see if it happens again.  If it doesn't re-occur then you could just remove those files and periodically check back to ensure that everything is fine.

Gordon

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