Why is Postfix throwing "malformed response" and "bad command startup" errors when I send mail?
When sending an email from my server like:
mail -s testing email@example.tld
this is a test
EOT
I get this in /var/log/maillog:
Aug 6 09:46:23 serverhostname postfix/pickup[1703]: B7684140C31: uid=0 from=<root>
Aug 6 09:46:23 serverhostname postfix/cleanup[1854]: B7684140C31: message-id=<20150806164623.B7684140C31@serverhostname>
Aug 6 09:46:23 serverhostname postfix/qmgr[1704]: B7684140C31: from=<root@serverhostname>, size=441, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Aug 6 09:46:23 serverhostname postfix/smtp[1856]: fatal: unknown service: smtp/tcp
Aug 6 09:46:24 serverhostname postfix/qmgr[1704]: warning: private/smtp socket: malformed response
Aug 6 09:46:24 serverhostname postfix/qmgr[1704]: warning: transport smtp failure -- see a previous warning/fatal/panic logfile record for the problem description
Aug 6 09:46:24 serverhostname postfix/master[1701]: warning: process /usr/libexec/postfix/smtp pid 1856 exit status 1
Aug 6 09:46:24 serverhostname postfix/master[1701]: warning: /usr/libexec/postfix/smtp: bad command startup -- throttling
Aug 6 09:46:24 serverhostname postfix/error[1857]: B7684140C31: to=<email@example.tld>, relay=none, delay=1.1, delays=0.03/1/0/0.02, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (unknown mail transport error)
postconf -n gives me:
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
append_dot_mydomain = no
biff = no
config_directory = /etc/postfix
inet_interfaces = loopback-only
inet_protocols = all
mailbox_size_limit = 0
message_size_limit = 40960000
mydestination = serverhostname, localhost.localdomain, localhost
myhostname = serverhostname
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
readme_directory = no
recipient_delimiter = +
relayhost = internal-relay-server
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtpd_use_tls = yes
/etc/postfix/master.cf looks like:
#
# Postfix master process configuration file. For details on the format
# of the file, see the master(5) manual page (command: "man 5 master" or
# on-line: http://www.postfix.org/master.5.html).
#
# Do not forget to execute "postfix reload" after editing this file.
#
# ==========================================================================
# service type private unpriv chroot wakeup maxproc command + args
# (yes) (yes) (yes) (never) (100)
# ==========================================================================
smtp inet n - - - - smtpd
#smtp inet n - - - 1 postscreen
#smtpd pass - - - - - smtpd
#dnsblog unix - - - - 0 dnsblog
#tlsproxy unix - - - - 0 tlsproxy
#submission inet n - - - - smtpd
# -o syslog_name=postfix/submission
# -o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
# -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
# -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
# -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
# -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
# -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
# -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=
# -o smtpd_relay_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
# -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
#smtps inet n - - - - smtpd
# -o syslog_name=postfix/smtps
# -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes
# -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
# -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
# -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
# -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
# -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
# -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=
# -o smtpd_relay_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
# -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
#628 inet n - - - - qmqpd
pickup unix n - - 60 1 pickup
cleanup unix n - - - 0 cleanup
qmgr unix n - n 300 1 qmgr
#qmgr unix n - n 300 1 oqmgr
tlsmgr unix - - - 1000? 1 tlsmgr
rewrite unix - - - - - trivial-rewrite
bounce unix - - - - 0 bounce
defer unix - - - - 0 bounce
trace unix - - - - 0 bounce
verify unix - - - - 1 verify
flush unix n - - 1000? 0 flush
proxymap unix - - n - - proxymap
proxywrite unix - - n - 1 proxymap
smtp unix - - - - - smtp
relay unix - - - - - smtp
# -o smtp_helo_timeout=5 -o smtp_connect_timeout=5
showq unix n - - - - showq
error unix - - - - - error
retry unix - - - - - error
discard unix - - - - - discard
local unix - n n - - local
virtual unix - n n - - virtual
lmtp unix - - - - - lmtp
anvil unix - - - - 1 anvil
scache unix - - - - 1 scache
#
# ====================================================================
# Interfaces to non-Postfix software. Be sure to examine the manual
# pages of the non-Postfix software to find out what options it wants.
#
# Many of the following services use the Postfix pipe(8) delivery
# agent. See the pipe(8) man page for information about ${recipient}
# and other message envelope options.
# ====================================================================
#
# maildrop. See the Postfix MAILDROP_README file for details.
# Also specify in main.cf: maildrop_destination_recipient_limit=1
#
maildrop unix - n n - - pipe
flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient}
#
# ====================================================================
#
# Recent Cyrus versions can use the existing "lmtp" master.cf entry.
#
# Specify in cyrus.conf:
# lmtp cmd="lmtpd -a" listen="localhost:lmtp" proto=tcp4
#
# Specify in main.cf one or more of the following:
# mailbox_transport = lmtp:inet:localhost
# virtual_transport = lmtp:inet:localhost
#
# ====================================================================
#
# Cyrus 2.1.5 (Amos Gouaux)
# Also specify in main.cf: cyrus_destination_recipient_limit=1
#
#cyrus unix - n n - - pipe
# user=cyrus argv=/cyrus/bin/deliver -e -r ${sender} -m ${extension} ${user}
#
# ====================================================================
# Old example of delivery via Cyrus.
#
#old-cyrus unix - n n - - pipe
# flags=R user=cyrus argv=/cyrus/bin/deliver -e -m ${extension} ${user}
#
# ====================================================================
#
# See the Postfix UUCP_README file for configuration details.
#
uucp unix - n n - - pipe
flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient)
#
# Other external delivery methods.
#
ifmail unix - n n - - pipe
flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient)
bsmtp unix - n n - - pipe
flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient
scalemail-backend unix - n n - 2 pipe
flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension}
mailman unix - n n - - pipe
flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py
${nexthop} ${user}
Email is supposed to be relayed through an Ubuntu 14.04 server running postix as an internal only relay. It then relays the email to our Groupwise server.
That works on most of my servers, a quick check makes me think only my CentOS servers are having this issue.
The server I'm testing on is running CentOS 6.6.
I configured postfix to match what my Ubuntu servers have working.
I did copy the snakeoil certs referenced on my Ubuntu servers to where they are supposed to be on the CentOS server. It did not help.
Any suggestions?
Note: I apologize if the answer is obvious or a simple Google search would find the answer. I'm not feeling well, and only working on this because it's urgent. My Google searches have not turned up anything yet...
