Exchange - where email goes to die - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Exchange - where email goes to die

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

I'm having a really strange issue.

I have a client running 2003 Exchange with about 15 clients. Last week they got new internet service, so I duly updated all the MX records and router stuff.

Today I realized (due to spotty internet access) that I forgot to change the internet DNS on the DHCP. DHCP is on a Sonic Wall router. My normal preference is to simply use the router's IP for this, but I decided to keep things pretty much as they were on the original settings since this network is very badly set up and I have a long-term project to simplify all of this.

Anyhoo all I did was remove the old IP's DNS and changed it to the new on the DHCP today.

As soon as I did it, 4 users couldn't connect to Exchange. This was after I refreshed everyone's IPs. All of the other users (the majority) are fine. I didn't change anything on the servers. The affected users can log into OWA with no problem, so it's not like they mysteriously lost Exchange accounts. All affected users have either Outlook 2007 or 2010. All of the working users have the same except a couple of 2003.

In case it matters the DNS in DHCP looks this:

DNS 1: 192.168.1.12 (Primary DC)
DNS 2: 192.168.1.6 (BDC)
DNS 3: x.x.x.x (new ISP's DNS)

What the hell?

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 00:05

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# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 05:11

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Linux Nazi posted:

In an AD environment your internal clients should only be pointing to an internal DNS server, if your clients are getting an additional external DNS from the DHCP provider then all kinds of things (like authentication) are going to be unreliable and skewed.

The DNS server on the internet isn't going to have things like any of your SRV records or _msdcs information in place, so clients are going to be blind to a lot of key information if they make the request to the wrong provider.

Just have the internal DNS server either configured for root hints (should be default) or give it your ISP's DNS servers as forwarders.

Yep messing with the DNS settings on the router did it.

I swear this particular network is the most needlessly complicated network I've ever seen. It's almost as if they're configured for a multi-site enterprise, but there's only an office with 15 people. They even have have some servers in two different remote locations. No one knows why they set it up that way.

It sucks. I'm gradually simplifying all of this, but every time I take care of one tiny thing, 10 things break.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 18:52

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

I'm getting some boucebacks, and I think it's due to reverse DNS. DNS confuses me normally, but this particular case confuses me more. This only happens on a few recipients.

Here's the actual error:

"You do not have permission to send to this recipient. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
<office.apples.org #5.7.1 smtp;501 5.7.1 <jdoe@oranges.org>... Sender IP must resolve>"

I renamed the domains in the error of course. Apparently their original domain was "apples.org", but now it's "oranges.org". Both are on different hosts.

Apples.org has no MX record according to the host. This was the case when I started, so nothing's changed. However there is a "(mail servername).apples.org" has an A record pointing to the public IP of the mail server.

Oranges.org also points to the public IP of the mail server. There are several MX records pointing to Postini and one pointing to a third domain (I'll call it "pears.org") on the first host (the same as apples). This also has an A record pointing to the public IP and a bunch of MX records going to Postini.

A few weeks ago we got a new internet provider, and the only thing I changed was the appropriate public IPs on the hosts and Postini.

Their main e-mail domain is "oranges.org". If I check the reverse DNS on the main domain with MX toolbox, it resolves to Postini and "pears.org".

What the heck am I missing? This looks like a maze to me.

edit: fixed a typo

Mithra6 fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Aug 3, 2011

# ¿ Aug 3, 2011 21:54

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

So if their e-mail domain is "orange.org" I have to set the reverse DNS to resolve as that right?

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 03:06

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

The client I just posted about has a nightmare network. I'm trying to talk them into using Microsoft's Exchange hosting. They can get that poo poo literally for free. I think there's a mental disconnect since they think they have to have their own server. They only have 15 users. I think I'm starting to convince them.

In the meantime I'm trying to get them in a good place for now. I think their network was never set up right.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 04:09

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Drumstick posted:

My exchange logs are filling up my hard drive. My backups have not been running. Im running one now, will this clear up the logs in exchange log storage?

It should. I've had this happen before.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 20:52

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Zubumafoo posted:

I did a little experimenting with Gmail and IMAP, but it was slow as hell with Outlook. I didn't know Microsoft 365 was a thing, and I'll look into that.

As for MSBS, does that have the capability to handle email on it's own, or would that involve setting up an Exchange server too? I also like this idea because our current backup system is kind of wonky.

Edit: Okay, the Office 365 looks pretty sweet. One quick question about that. Is there a way for multiple clients to share the same inbox? Because essentially there is no email being addressed to any specific person, we all need access to the same emails. Would we even need multiple clients for that? Also, has anyone here been using 365? How is the speed with Outlook?

Exchange will be totally on the cloud. No backups necessary.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 03:08

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Not entirely on topic, but I figured someone here would know.

I read somewhere in SA that O'Reilly has some kind of subscription thingy where you can have access to all of their e-books for a certain flat fee.

I couldn't find it on their website. Am I imagining things?

# ¿ Aug 16, 2011 21:21

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

My client called me today saying he hasn't received any e-mail for a couple of days. I dialed in and sure enough no mail since Saturday. The mail server has some undelivered messages in the queue going back to Friday, though I know mail was working then.

I've rebooted the firewall and mail server. I was in the office Friday, and the only change on the servers I made was adding some shared folders on the DC. That wouldn't cause this.

The event logs have a bunch of undeliverable errors - SMTP codes 4.0.0 and 4.7.1, plus some LDAP binding errors. Internal mail works. I suspect it's firewall or ISP, but I can't prove it yet. When I do the SMTP test on MXtoolbox, it says the target machine is actively refusing the connection.

gently caress! I don't loving know.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 00:52

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Caged posted:

I had the same problem when the disc that the message store was on got close to full and Exchange decided to stop accepting messages.

I thought of that. I read somewhere that the 4.0.0 error usually means that. I have something like 30gb free and the DB is only 24gb.

I just noticed that it seems to be working, though there are still a few messages in the outbound queue. All of my tests worked. I don't feel like it's fixed though.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 01:11

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

Linux Nazi posted:

Use telnet and manually submit a message from the mail server outbound, and vice versa from a remote source.

Bump up the verbosity on the firewall logs and see if it's actively blocking / dropping the connection. If not, then check the ISP.

Depending on the ISP, they may have instituted an opt-out SMTP policy. Some smaller regional providers have started doing this, may be worth it to give them a call and see if it's something they've turned on recently. I've had this happen once with a provider, they had sent the client a notification in the mail something like 60 days in advance, but of course the client didn't know what it said or bother telling me.

Hmmm that's interesting. We actually are using a small regional ISP.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 02:04

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

My brain is playing tricks with me. I have a client with about 45 users, but a bunch of generic e-mail addresses. I only need CALs for the actual users accessing the server right?

# ¿ Sep 28, 2011 17:10

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# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 05:11

Mithra6: Jan 24, 2006; Elvis is dead, Sinatra is dead, and me I feel also not so good.

I'm getting a weird complaint:

A company using Exchange 2003 with Outlook 2010, is sending out meeting invites to several people outside the company. Apparently last year when one particular person on the outside declined the meeting invite, she cancelled the entire meeting for everyone.

Now it's happening for a different person.

Does this make sense for anyone?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2011 20:47

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