Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS
Management


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17.4.1 Displaying Mail Queues

To monitor the mail queues, examine the TCPIP$SMTP_LOGFILE.LOG and the TCPIP$SMTP_RECV_RUN.LOG files.

17.4.2 Changing the Number of Mail Queues

To change the number of SMTP queues, follow these steps:

  1. Stop SMTP and MAIL on the root node by entering the following commands:


    TCPIP> DISABLE SERVICE SMTP 
    TCPIP> STOP MAIL 
    

  2. Change the SMTP configuration by entering the following command:


    TCPIP> SET CONFIGURATION SMTP/QUEUES=new_number
    

    The maximum number of queues set with this command is 10.

  3. Restart SMTP and MAIL by entering the following commands:


    TCPIP> START MAIL 
    TCPIP> ENABLE SERVICE SMTP 
    

17.4.3 Displaying SMTP Routing Information

To display SMTP routing information, use the SHOW MX_RECORDS command. If you omit destination from the command line, you see the entries in the local MX database.

If you specify destination, you see all the entries in all the databases that the SMTP mailer would look at, if necessary, to route mail to the destination. The local MX database and the DNS MX database are usually as far as TCP/IP Services needs to search.

17.4.4 SMTP Logging

SMTP logs mail queue and mail symbiont events to the following files:

The symbiont and receiver contain a feature called snapshot logging, which allows you to run with full diagnostics enabled but to write the diagnostics to the log file only if an error is signaled. This feature saves disk space and allows the receiver or the symbiont, or both, to run at a normal speed. As each line of diagnostic text is generated, it is saved in an internal snapshot buffer rather than to the disk. The buffer is circular in that once it fills up, new lines of text start to overwrite the old data already there. This functionality provides a snapshot of the last lines of diagnostic text.

Logical names are available to modify the way SMTP logs information and the type of information it reports. These are described in Section 17.5.

17.4.5 Starting and Stopping SMTP

SMTP consists of two components: the sender (the queuing mechanism) and the receiver. You must start the sender before enabling the receiver. The receiver is activated by the auxiliary server.

The SMTP can be shut down and started independently. This is useful when you change parameters or logical names that require the service to be restarted.

The following files are provided:

To preserve site-specific parameter settings and commands, create the following files. These files are not overwritten when you reinstall TCP/IP Services:

The SMTP services can be started automatically using the TCPIP$CONFIG configuration procedure, or manually using the following command:


$ @SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$SMTP_STARTUP.COM 

To stop SMTP, enter:


$ @SYS$STARTUP:TCPIP$SMTP_SHUTDOWN.COM 

17.5 Modifying the SMTP Configuration

You can modify the SMTP configuration by defining logical names that are translated at queue startup time. Characteristics you can control include:

Some SMTP logical names are used to either enable or disable a configuration option and do not require a value. If you define the logical name, the option is considered to be enabled. If not defined, the option is disabled. To disable an option, remove the logical name. By convention you should define these logicals to a value of 1.

For example, to enable message logging for messages received from SMTP clients, define the TCPIP$SMTP_RECV_TRACE as follows:


$ DEFINE/SYSTEM TCPIP$SMTP_RECV_TRACE 1 

Other logical names require that you supply a value. For example, to enable logging that provides information about symbiont activity during control file processing, define the logical name TCPIP$SMTP_LOG_LEVEL with a value of 3. For example:


$ DEFINE/SYSTEM TCPIP$SMTP_LOG_LEVEL 3 

When you redefine the value of a logical, you must restart SMTP using the STOP MAIL and START MAIL commands. Use the following files to store logical settings:

The following descriptions indicate where a value is required.

Note

Define the SMTP configuration logical names as /SYSTEM except where noted.

17.6 Configuring SMTP AntiSPAM

SPAM is the Internet equivalent of junk mail and is a growing source of annoyance to Internet users. TCP/IP Services SMTP contains antiSPAM, which is designed to inhibit the transmission of SPAM.

SMTP antiSPAM is implemented in the SMTP receiver which, for the purposes of this discussion, is called the SMTP server. The following sections describe how to enable and configure SMTP antiSPAM.

17.6.1 Enabling and Managing SMTP AntiSPAM

To enable and manage SMTP antiSPAM, create or edit the following file:


TCPIP$SMTP_COMMON:SMTP.CONFIG 

The logical name TCPIP$SMTP_COMMON is defined at TCP/IP Services startup (see Section 17.5).

The SMTP.CONFIG file should be owned by TCPIP$SMTP and protection should be set to (W:RE).

SMTP.CONFIG is an ASCII text file consisting of one or more lines formatted as follows:


Field1: Value1 Field2: Value2
   .
   .
   .

In this format:

To comment out a line, enter an exclamation point (!) in column 1.

The file SMTP_CONFIG.TEMPLATE is provided to help you create this file; it contains guidelines on configuring antiSPAM.

17.6.1.1 SMTP AntiSPAM Field Names

Table 17-4 describes the field names and values for antiSPAM configuration.

.
Table 17-4 AntiSPAM Configuration Options
Field Name Value Default
Good-Clients A list of the IP addresses, IP nets, DNS hostnames, and DNS MX domains of known good SMTP clients. If not defined, SMTP will not check IP address of SMTP client against this list.
Bad-Clients A list of the IP addresses, IP nets, DNS hostnames, and DNS MX domains of known bad SMTP clients. If not defined, SMTP will not check IP address of SMTP client against this list.
Relay-Zones A list of the SMTP domains to which the system will relay mail even if it is from an unknown client. If not defined, SMTP will not check recipient address of mail against this list.
RBLs A list of domains that maintain RBL lists. If not defined, SMTP will not check IP address of SMTP client against any RBL lists.
Relay-Based-On-Mx TRUE or FALSE.

If TRUE, the SMTP server accepts relays from unknown clients to recipients where the recipient's domain has an MX record naming the local host as a gateway.

FALSE
Reject-Unbacktranslatable-IP TRUE or FALSE.

If TRUE, the SMTP server rejects any mail from an SMTP client whose IP address cannot be backtranslated to a hostname.

FALSE
Accept-Unqualified-Senders TRUE or FALSE.

If TRUE, the SMTP server accepts mail for which the sender address (the address from the MAIL FROM command) has no domain or an unqualified domain.

FALSE
Accept-Unresolvable-Domains TRUE or FALSE.

If TRUE, the SMTP server accepts mail for which the sender address (the address from the MAIL FROM command) has a domain that cannot be resolved using MX lookup.

FALSE
Reject-Mail-From A list of wildcarded patterns that are matched against the sender address. If a match occurs, the MAIL FROM command is rejected and the link is disconnected. If not defined, SMTP will not check the sender address of the mail against the list.
Accept-Mail-From A list of wildcarded patterns that are matched against the sender address if the sender address has matched one of the entries in the Reject-Mail-From list. If the sender address matches the Accept-Mail-From list, the message is sent on. If not defined, SMTP will not check the sender address of the mail against the list.
SPAM-Action Allows you to configure the way SMTP reports a SPAM event. Specify a comma-separated list including one or more of the following:
  • NONE
  • OPCOM
  • ACCOUNTING
OPCOM
Security FRIENDLY or SECURE.

This value specifies the type of error text sent to the SMTP client when disconnecting a link because of a SPAM event. A value of SECURE means to send purposely unhelpful error text. A value of FRIENDLY means to send helpful error text.

SECURE
Unbacktranslatable-IP-Text
Bad-Clients-Text
Client-In-RBL-Text
Reject-Mail-From-Text
Unqualified-Sender-Text
Unresolvable-Domain-Text
SPAM-Relay-Text
These individual fields (one for each type of SPAM event) hold the error text to be sent to the SMTP client. These override values set in the Security field. The default for each of these is set according to the value of the Security field. See Section 17.6.8.3 for more information.

The following sections provide further information about the configuration options.


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