Postfix woes

[Rem P Roberti]

I did what you all requested and submitted my Postfix problem to the
Postfix list.  The resident guru went over my maillog and sent back his
analysis which, in short, states that the problem has nothing to do with
Postfix, and that I should seek help here to get to the bottom of it
all.  That reply is listed below.   This is a rather strange business.

Rem





From: Rem P Roberti <rem at remdog.net>
To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
Cc: 
Bcc: 
Subject: [Victor.Duchovni at MorganStanley.com: Re: Boot-up weirdness]
Reply-To: 

----- Forwarded message from Victor Duchovni <Victor.Duchovni at MorganStanley.com> -----

Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:44:36 -0400
From: Victor Duchovni <Victor.Duchovni at MorganStanley.com>
To: postfix-users at postfix.org
Subject: Re: Boot-up weirdness

On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 06:11:42PM -0700, Rem P Roberti wrote:

> Oct 18 16:39:20 bsd postfix/postfix-script[3805]: starting the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 16:39:20 bsd postfix/master[3806]: daemon started -- version
> 2.4.5, configuration /usr/local/etc/postfix
> Oct 18 16:39:25 bsd postfix/postfix-script[3811]: refreshing the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 16:39:25 bsd postfix/master[3806]: reload configuration
> /usr/local/etc/postfix

Something runs "postfix reload" five seconds after Postfix starts. It is
not Postfix doing that, so find the start script or cron job responsible.

> Oct 18 16:40:40 bsd postfix/postfix-script[3937]: stopping the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 16:40:40 bsd postfix/master[3806]: terminating on signal 15

Something runs "postfix stop" 85 seconds after that, it is not Postfix
doing that, so find the start script or cron job responsible.

> Oct 18 16:40:40 bsd postfix/postfix-script[3958]: fatal: the Postfix
> mail system is not running

The code in question wants to make doubly sure that Postfix is down,
which it is.

> Oct 18 16:42:26 bsd postfix/postfix-script[894]: starting the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 16:42:26 bsd postfix/master[895]: daemon started -- version
> 2.4.5, configuration /usr/local/etc/postfix

Postfix is restarted by something on your system 106 seconds later.

> from=<root at bsd.remdog.net>, size=701, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
> Oct 18 16:42:28 bsd postfix/postfix-script[943]: fatal: the Postfix mail
> system is already running
> Oct 18 16:42:29 bsd postfix/postfix-script[983]: fatal: the Postfix mail
> system is already running

Something is trying to start Postfix again. I am guessing you have two
Postfix start scripts fighting each other...

> Oct 18 17:38:44 bsd postfix/postmap[1555]: fatal: open transport.db:
> Permission denied

An hour or so later, something is trying to run "postmap" or "postmap
-q", it is not Postfix doing that. Find the cron job or start script
in question.

> Oct 18 17:39:15 bsd postfix/postfix-script[1559]: stopping the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 17:39:15 bsd postfix/master[895]: terminating on signal 15
> Oct 18 17:39:21 bsd postfix/postfix-script[1609]: starting the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 17:39:21 bsd postfix/master[1610]: daemon started -- version
> 2.4.5, configuration /usr/local/etc/postfix

Postfix is restarted.

> Oct 18 17:39:27 bsd postfix/postfix-script[1615]: refreshing the Postfix
> mail system

And reloaded for good measure.

> /usr/local/etc/postfix
> Oct 18 17:41:23 bsd postfix/postfix-script[1768]: stopping the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 17:41:23 bsd postfix/master[1610]: terminating on signal 15
> Oct 18 17:41:23 bsd postfix/postfix-script[1789]: fatal: the Postfix
> mail system is not running
> Oct 18 17:42:52 bsd postfix/postfix-script[894]: starting the Postfix
> mail system
> Oct 18 17:42:52 bsd postfix/master[895]: daemon started -- version
> 2.4.5, configuration /usr/local/etc/postfix

This insanity has nothing to do with Postfix, if you can't find the
cron jobs, start scripts, management agents, ... that are doing this,
go back the FreeBSD list and ask for help to find them.

-- 
	Viktor.