How to configure sendmail properly with PHP on EC2 (no SES)?

Question

I have been struggling with sendmail for couple of days with no luck. I am trying to setup relay host, after following the answers in this question

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10359437/sendmail-how-to-configure-sendmail-on-ubuntu

I got 'DSN Service unavailable' in the log file. Now I am getting 'Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]'

What I am trying to do is sending emails from PHP application on the EC2 instance from another smtp server(smtp.mydomain.com) if that possible, what is the required configuration for sendmail and php.ini?

Thanks

Solution

DSN service unavailable sounds relay is not configured properly.

you can edit /etc/mail/sendmail.cf or /etc/sendmail.cf

And change

# "Smart" relay host (may be null)

DS<mailserver_hostname>

This mailserver_hostname should be resolved by your box, otherwise create host entry to point where that is supposed to go.

PS: Personal opinion i would use postfix with sasl relay:

echo “mail.test.com    [email protected]:PASSWORD” > /etc/postfix/saslpass
vi /etc/postfix/main.cf

relayhost = [mail.test.com]:587
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_use_tls=yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/saslpass
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous

Postmap main.cf / restart postfix

Additional:

Add hostname into your hostfile.. /etc/hosts As you are trying to do sasl relay you can rename your hostname from localhost to something else.

And please check this, Link

Comments

[ceejayoz]

FYI, most of EC2's IP block is blacklisted by major ISPs, which is one of the main reasons SES exists.

[Mark Shehata]

Thanks tike, I switched to postfix but no receiving "=bounced (host smtp.mydomain.com said: 554 5.7.1 <ubuntu@localhost>: Sender address rejected: Domain MX in loopback network (in reply to RCPT TO command))" - any ideas?

[user4550002]

try adding your domain into hostfile.. /etc/hosts

[Mark Shehata]

It didn't work - my hostname is something like this aws.mydomain.ec2.local - I added it to the hosts file first line <external ip address> aws.mydomain.ec2.local, second line is 172.0.0.1 localhost .. what else should I add?

[Mark Shehata]

I also tried SES with postifix and I got this "bounced (host email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com[54.243.69.182] said: 554 Transaction failed: Domain contains illegal character (in reply to end of DATA command))"?!

[user4550002]

Where are you trying to relay? Do you have access on that box? Either way, change your hostname to be something simple without - you can change that on /etc /sysconfig/network and tying hostname some.simple.domain your host is strict and rejecting emails