Csdrhrt

I have two virtual machines and both running Ubuntu server. I should be able to send emails from lab2 to lab1 using mail. lab2 is running exim4and lab1 has postfix listening on port 25. I should configure exim on lab2, so that it delivers the emails that are for lab1 to lab1, and for lab2 to lab2. It works fine when I send emails with mail from lab2 to lab2, but I get an error when sending from lab2 to lab1. As I understand exim should work as a relay for lab1? The error I get is R=dnslookup_relay_to_domains defer (-1): host lookup did not complete, below more details.

From lab2 I can ping and ssh to lab1. Can anybody help me understanding what I am doing wrong? I have tried changing the configuration of exim but I am sure there is something I am not understanding here...

On lab1

The ip address of lab1:

user@lab1:~$ ifconfig

enp0s3    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:d5:ec:9a  

          inet addr:10.0.2.5  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

Postfix is listening on port 25:

user@lab1:~$ netstat -tulpn

(Not all processes could be identified, non-owned process info

 will not be shown, you would have to be root to see it all.)

Active Internet connections (only servers)

Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      -               

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:25              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      -  

On lab2

The content of /etc/hosts:

user@lab2:~$ cat /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost

127.0.1.1   lab2

10.0.2.5    lab1

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts

::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback

ff02::1 ip6-allnodes

ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

Part of the content of /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated:

# the following macro definitions were created

# dynamically by /usr/sbin/update-exim4.conf

.ifndef MAIN_LOCAL_INTERFACES

MAIN_LOCAL_INTERFACES=<; 127.0.0.1; 10.0.2.6

.endif

.ifndef MAIN_PACKAGE_VERSION

MAIN_PACKAGE_VERSION=4.86.2-2ubuntu2.3

.endif

.ifndef MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS

MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS=@:localhost:lab2: localhost

.endif

.ifndef MAIN_RELAY_TO_DOMAINS

MAIN_RELAY_TO_DOMAINS=lab1

.endif

.ifndef ETC_MAILNAME

ETC_MAILNAME=lab2

.endif

.ifndef LOCAL_DELIVERY

LOCAL_DELIVERY=maildir_home

.endif

.ifndef MAIN_RELAY_NETS

MAIN_RELAY_NETS=10.0.2.0/8 : 127.0.0.1 : ::::1

.endif

.ifndef DCreadhost

DCreadhost=empty

.endif

.ifndef DCsmarthost

DCsmarthost=mail.lab2

.endif

.ifndef DC_eximconfig_configtype

DC_eximconfig_configtype=internet

.endif

.ifndef DCconfig_internet

DCconfig_internet=1

.endif

Sending the email from lab2 to user on lab1:

user@lab2:~$ echo "test" | mail -s test user@lab1

Output of /var/log/exim4/mainlog:

2019-01-26 01:31:24 1gnBsa-0000PD-2b <= user@lab2 U=user P=local S=310

2019-01-26 01:31:24 1gnBsa-0000PD-2b == user@lab1 R=dnslookup_relay_to_domains defer (-1): host lookup did not complete

I had been trying many things and got a bit messed up with the configuration. Finally sorted it out and here is the correct configuration from /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf

dc_eximconfig_configtype='smarthost'

dc_other_hostnames='lab2; localhost'

dc_local_interfaces='127.0.0.1'

dc_readhost=''

dc_relay_domains=''

dc_minimaldns='false'

dc_relay_nets=''

dc_smarthost='lab1'

CFILEMODE='644'

dc_use_split_config='false'

dc_hide_mailname='false'

dc_mailname_in_oh='true'

dc_localdelivery='maildir_home'

Basically using sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config I had to choose the mail sent by smarthost option and then set lab1 as smarthost.