Sendmail and sm-client are extremely slow at startup

[A.J. Bonnema]

Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
and sm-client?

I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.

What could I do to find out what the problem is?

Guus.

[Ben Steeves]

On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 13:05, A.J. Bonnema wrote:
> Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> and sm-client?
>
> I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
>
> What could I do to find out what the problem is?

Check to make sure 127.0.0.1 localhost appears in your /etc/hosts file. 
I noticed that on one of my boxes (upgraded from RH9 to FC1) it had
mysteriously disappeared...

[Craig White]

On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 10:05, A.J. Bonnema wrote:
> Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> and sm-client?
>
> I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
>
> What could I do to find out what the problem is?

----
probably because you have fiddled with /etc/hosts and/or
/etc/sysconfig/network and sendmail is trying to figure out what the
hostname is

Craig

[Peter Silcock]

On Tue, 2003-11-25 at 17:05, A.J. Bonnema wrote:
> Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> and sm-client?
>
> I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
>
> What could I do to find out what the problem is?
>
> Guus.

Had this problem on RH9 and decided (on flimsy evidence) that it might
be because my hostname was not properly qualified.  But then I didn't
need sendmail anyway, so removed it ...

Peter

[Vincent]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 18:05:55 +0100
"A.J. Bonnema"  wrote:
> Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> and sm-client?
>
> I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
>
> What could I do to find out what the problem is?

check your maillog in /var/log/ anything similar to this in there:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nov 17 04:02:43 Turtle sendmail[4717]: My unqualified host name (Turtle) unknown; sleeping for retry
Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: unable to qualify my own domain name (Turtle) -- using short name
Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHC37RE004501: from=root, size=2273, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=, relay=root@localhostNov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHHLS433: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=32273, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
make sure of a few things, check /etc/sysconfig/network it should have
a line like this:
HOSTNAME=turtle.localdomain

check /etc/hosts for lines like this:
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
127.0.0.1       turtle.localdomain      turtle
Note the . in the hostnames, sendmail is picky about seeing a domain (aliases ok)

Check /etc/hosts.allow if you have tcpwrappers on
sendmail : 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain

By default RH configures sendmail to only accept connections from localhost
so any changing of things throws it for a loop.

good luck.

[A.J. Bonnema]

Vincent wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 18:05:55 +0100
> "A.J. Bonnema"  wrote:
> > Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> > and sm-client?
> >
> > I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
> >
> > What could I do to find out what the problem is?
> check your maillog in /var/log/ anything similar to this in there:
>
> Nov 17 04:02:43 Turtle sendmail[4717]: My unqualified host name (Turtle) unknown; sleeping for retry
> Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: unable to qualify my own domain name (Turtle) -- using short name
> Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHC37RE004501: from=root, size=2273, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=, relay=root@localhostNov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHHLS433: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=32273, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]
>
> make sure of a few things, check /etc/sysconfig/network it should have
> a line like this:
> HOSTNAME=turtle.localdomain
>
> check /etc/hosts for lines like this:
> 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
> 127.0.0.1       turtle.localdomain      turtle
> Note the . in the hostnames, sendmail is picky about seeing a domain (aliases ok)
>
> Check /etc/hosts.allow if you have tcpwrappers on
> sendmail : 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain
>
> By default RH configures sendmail to only accept connections from localhost
> so any changing of things throws it for a loop.
>
> good luck.

Thank you very much. That did it. Your precise description made it very 
clear what was wrong:

I had one entry (not 127.0.0.1) containing a name without a . (no 
domain) which probably was the cause. Changing that to a " 
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx name.domain name" made sendmail and sm-client extremely 
fast in startup.

Thanks again!

Guus.

[Alexander Dalloz]

Am Mi, den 26.11.2003 schrieb A.J. Bonnema um 02:51:
> Vincent wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 18:05:55 +0100
> > "A.J. Bonnema"  wrote:
> > > Has anyone else experienced an exctreeeemely slow startup for sendmail 
> > > and sm-client?
> > >
> > > I checked the archives for this list, but couldn't find it.
> > >
> > > What could I do to find out what the problem is?
> > check your maillog in /var/log/ anything similar to this in there:
> >
> > Nov 17 04:02:43 Turtle sendmail[4717]: My unqualified host name (Turtle) unknown; sleeping for retry
> > Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: unable to qualify my own domain name (Turtle) -- using short name
> > Nov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHC37RE004501: from=root, size=2273, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=, relay=root@localhostNov 17 04:03:07 Turtle sendmail[4501]: hAHHLS433: to=root, ctladdr=root (0/0), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=32273, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=4.0.0, stat=Deferred: Connection refused by [127.0.0.1]
> >
> > make sure of a few things, check /etc/sysconfig/network it should have
> > a line like this:
> > HOSTNAME=turtle.localdomain
> >
> > check /etc/hosts for lines like this:
> > 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
> > 127.0.0.1       turtle.localdomain      turtle
> > Note the . in the hostnames, sendmail is picky about seeing a domain (aliases ok)
> >
> > Check /etc/hosts.allow if you have tcpwrappers on
> > sendmail : 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain
> >
> > By default RH configures sendmail to only accept connections from localhost
> > so any changing of things throws it for a loop.
> >
> > good luck.
>
> Thank you very much. That did it. Your precise description made it very 
> clear what was wrong:
>
> I had one entry (not 127.0.0.1) containing a name without a . (no 
> domain) which probably was the cause. Changing that to a " 
> xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx name.domain name" made sendmail and sm-client extremely 
> fast in startup.

Hopefully you have not deleted the localhost entry in /etc/hosts,
otherwise sendmail and some other applications will not work properly.

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost

has to be there in every case
> Thanks again!
>
> Guus.

Alexander

[A.J. Bonnema]

Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> Hopefully you have not deleted the localhost entry in /etc/hosts,
> otherwise sendmail and some other applications will not work properly.
>
> 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
>
> has to be there in every case

Well actually, originally I did, because I didn't have any use for this 
entry. However, I was quickly convinced this was not a wise decision 
following the errors I got.

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

Guus.

[Tom Mitchell]

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, A.J. Bonnema wrote:
> Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> > Hopefully you have not deleted the localhost entry in /etc/hosts,
> > otherwise sendmail and some other applications will not work properly.
> >
> > 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
> >
> > has to be there in every case
>
> Well actually, originally I did, because I didn't have any use for this 
> entry. However, I was quickly convinced this was not a wise decision 
> following the errors I got.
>
> Anyway, thanks for the tip.

Another tip for those using DNS is to have a caching server and/or a
local to the box SOA authority for localhost. See named or nscd.

It is usefull to snoop on the wire once in a while and discover if
too many DNS lookups for localhost/127.0.0.1 go out over the wire to
your ISP.  Lots of X-window connections involve a lookup and
connection to localhost if these are not cached or are slow 
windows will open slowly.

Next the host file is commonly looked at from top to bottom and as
soon as a line with a match is found no additional searching is
done.  One message in this thread apprently had a double line:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
    127.0.0.1       turtle.localdomain      turtle
Which may not act the same as 
    127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost turtle.localdomain turtle
depending on how the resolver code works and what is desired.

Also watch for multiple host files generated by different tools
where the info might get out of sync (dbm files?).  Examples:
    /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/hosts
    /etc/hosts
    /etc/samba/lmhosts

Check also /etc/resolv.conf /etc/host.conf (see "man resolver") If
one of the hosts in resolv.conf is unavailable it takes a long time
for the timeout.  Watch for DNS timeouts and if necessary reorder or
improve the list of DNS hosts

BTW: one of the RH-9 GUI triggered tools will rewrite the host file
inside out thus:
    127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
    192.168.0.51 h51.hobblehead.com h51.hobblehead h51 sometimes
is rewritten something like:
    localhost.localdomain 127.0.0.1 localhost
    h51.hobblehead.com 192.168.0.51 h51.hobblehead h51
When I find the tool that does this I will file a bug....

LDAP, NIS, winbind are additional tangles, keep it simple...