Relay access denied (in reply to RCPT TO command) Postfix Issue

Question

I am trying to configure my server for email taking reference form this link: SMTP Relaying Outgoing Mail in Postfix - using Webmin. I used Mandrill smtp server in my case. I have also configured a vagrent instance before configuring the main server. But when I try to send email from the server (both vagrant and main) using:

sendemail -f [email protected] -t <myemail>@gmail.com -m "Message Body" -u "Message Subject"

The messages get queued in postfix and never reach the destination.

/var/log/mail.log file shows:

precise64 postfix/smtpd[16542]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
precise64 postfix/smtpd[16542]: 116033A4253: client=localhost[127.0.0.1]
precise64 postfix/cleanup[16545]: 116033A4253: message-id=<621108.689435886-sendEmail@precise64>
precise64 postfix/qmgr[12672]: 116033A4253: from=<[email protected]>, size=916, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
precise64 postfix/smtpd[16542]: disconnect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
precise64 postfix/smtp[16546]: Untrusted TLS connection established to smtp.mandrillapp.com[54.195.231.78]:587: TLSv1.1 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)
precise64 postfix/smtp[16546]: 116033A4253: host smtp.mandrillapp.com[54.195.231.78] said: 454 4.7.1 <[email protected]>: Relay access denied (in reply to RCPT TO command)
precise64 postfix/smtp[16546]: Untrusted TLS connection established to smtp.mandrillapp.com[54.247.27.189]:587: TLSv1.1 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)
precise64 postfix/smtp[16546]: 116033A4253: to=<[email protected]>, relay=smtp.mandrillapp.com[54.247.27.189]:587, delay=4.3, delays=0.06/0.01/4/0.28, dsn=4.7.1, status=deferred (host smtp.mandrillapp.com[54.247.27.189] said: 454 4.7.1 <[email protected]>: Relay access denied (in reply to RCPT TO command))

And the /etc/postfix/main.cf file:

# See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete version


# Debian specific:  Specifying a file name will cause the first
# line of that file to be used as the name.  The Debian default
# is /etc/mailname.
#myorigin = /etc/mailname

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
biff = no

# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h

readme_directory = no

# TLS parameters
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache

# See /usr/share/doc/postfix/TLS_README.gz in the postfix-doc package for
# information on enabling SSL in the smtp client.

myhostname = precise64
# myhostname = example.com
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
mydestination = precise64, localhost.localdomain, , localhost
relayhost = smtp.mandrillapp.com:587
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
# mynetworks = example.com
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks reject_unauth_destination
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic

smtp_tls_loglevel = 1
smtp_tls_security_level = encrypt
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic

Need some suggestion. Whats going wrong here? I am very new in mail server configuration. Please pardon me if there are silly mistakes.

Solution 1

The problem here is that you configured your server so that it should relay any outbound email to a server, namely smtp.mandrillapp.com. That server, in turn, is not accepting to relay your mail.

I don't know this company, but my guess is that they only relay mails from authenticated customers, and your are not logging-in.

You should probably have something like the following line somewhere in your main.cf

smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/remote_passwords
smtp_sasl_security_options = noplaintext,noanonymous
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous

The file /etc/postfix/remote_passwords should look like

smtp.mandrillapp.com:587 login:password

with your login/password from mandrillapp.

Also, I see in your config file a smtpd_sasl_auth_enable (note the 'd' at the end of smtp) that is only relevant if you expect client to log in into your server, and I don't see quite enough configuration for that. You should make sure it is necessary.

Solution 2

Turns out the port is actually super important in this case, where you specify the username/password combo for your relay. My mail server was hung up for ages because I failed to append :588 to the end of the servername I was using. What a PITA.

Comments

[salmanwahed]

It's working now. Thankyou.

[Rajat Singhal]

This is what I was stuck on for 10 mins.. :(