"host map: lookup (domain):
deferred"
This Sendmail error--also seen as "Transient parse error -- message
queued for future delivery" or "Name server: domain: host not found"--indicates
that Sendmail encountered a
problem with one of its DNS resource record lookups of the destination
domain.
Starting with Sendmail 8.12, Sendmail queries the following 3 DNS
resource records in order:
AAAA (IPv6 address records; not
applicable if you compiled Sendmail without IPv6 support)
A
MX
The proper name server response for a resource record for which it is
authoritative but has no data would be "NOERROR" with an empty answer
section as seen below:
Example:
dig good_domain aaaa
; <<>> DiG
9.2.2 <<>> good_domain aaaa
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<-
opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 13014
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
A misconfigured DNS server may return a "SERVFAIL" or "NXDOMAIN" status:
Example:
dig bad_domain aaaa
; <<>> DiG 9.2.2 <<>> bad_domain aaaa
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<-
opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL,
id: 8416
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY:
1,
ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
Or:
dig bad_domain aaaa
; <<>> DiG
9.2.2 <<>> bad_domain
aaaa
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<-
opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN,
id: 8416
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1,
ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
With Sendmail 8.12.x, you can ignore AAAA "SERVFAIL" or "NXDOMAIN"
errors and
continue DNS processing with the following entry in your macro
configuration (.mc) file:
define(`confBIND_OPTS',
`WorkAroundBrokenAAAA')dnl
However, if the A or MX record lookup for the domain returns a
"SERVFAIL," Sendmail will queue the message, believing it has
encountered a transient DNS problem. For example, if a domain has a
valid A record but returns a "SERVFAIL" when queried for an MX record
(instead of "NOERROR" with an empty answer section), Sendmail will
queue the message. You should contact the remote name server
administrator in order to fix these problems.
To watch Sendmail's DNS queries when processing a
queued message, use the -d8.8
debug syntax:
sendmail -v -d8.32 -qImessage_ID
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Last modified: 11/24/2003