Postfix won't start as service

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valeriol
Posts: 2
Joined: 2020/09/25 17:05:32

Postfix won't start as service

Post by valeriol » 2021/07/07 17:32:29

I have 4 CentOS 7 servers setup exactly the same. At one point the postfix on one of the servers started to refuse to start with systemctl (it works fine on the other 3).
If I do $ systemctl start postfix it hangs for a while and then fails. The result of journal is I don't get
$ journalctl -f -u postfix.service
-- Logs begin at Fri 2021-07-02 14:54:07 EDT. --
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: dict_lookup: readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.10.1/README_FILES
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: mac_parse: /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.10.1/README_FILES
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: dict_eval: const /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.10.1/README_FILES
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: dict_lookup: html_directory = no
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: mac_parse: no
Jul 07 12:14:49 hydra1.cluster postfix[47879]: dict_eval: const no
Jul 07 12:16:14 hydra1.cluster systemd[1]: postfix.service start operation timed out. Terminating.
Jul 07 12:16:14 hydra1.cluster systemd[1]: Failed to start Postfix Mail Transport Agent.
Jul 07 12:16:14 hydra1.cluster systemd[1]: Unit postfix.service entered failed state.
Jul 07 12:16:14 hydra1.cluster systemd[1]: postfix.service failed.
On the other hand running $ /usr/sbin/postfix start from command line works just fine.

I can't figure out what's causing the failure when using systemctl. I've tried to add -v to the postfix start in postfix.service, but I don't get any more information.

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TrevorH
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Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Postfix won't start as service

Post by TrevorH » 2021/07/08 08:53:00

If your command prompt starts with a $ then it sounds like you are not root and you are not using sudo.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

valeriol
Posts: 2
Joined: 2020/09/25 17:05:32

Re: Postfix won't start as service

Post by valeriol » 2021/07/08 13:58:24

TrevorH wrote:
2021/07/08 08:53:00
If your command prompt starts with a $ then it sounds like you are not root and you are not using sudo.
I just put the $ to indicate the beginning of the command (it's an old habit), I ran it as root.

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TrevorH
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Location: Brighton, UK

Re: Postfix won't start as service

Post by TrevorH » 2021/07/08 15:11:58

What's the output from aureport -a timestamped close to the last time it did not work? If there are entries there timestamped at about the right tiome, take the number from the r/h end of each line and feed that (nnnn) into ausearch -a nnnn to get a fuller explanation.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

Whoever
Posts: 1357
Joined: 2013/09/06 03:12:10

Re: Postfix won't start as service

Post by Whoever » 2021/07/09 01:55:21

valeriol wrote:
2021/07/07 17:32:29
I have 4 CentOS 7 servers setup exactly the same. At one point the postfix on one of the servers started to refuse to start with systemctl (it works fine on the other 3).
If I do $ systemctl start postfix it hangs for a while and then fails. The result of journal is I don't get
$ journalctl -f -u postfix.service

On the other hand running $ /usr/sbin/postfix start from command line works just fine.

I can't figure out what's causing the failure when using systemctl. I've tried to add -v to the postfix start in postfix.service, but I don't get any more information.
journalctl almost never provides me with useful information. Take a look at /var/log/maillog to see if there is some useful information there.

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