Postfix/Dovecot eating mail - delivery successful but no file in Maildir

[christian20]

Hello,

I have a Ubuntu 14.04 server running Postfix 2.11 with Dovecot 2.2.9. There are several users on it which I use with virtual aliases to have several accounts with multiple domains. Everything worked fine until two days ago when mails delivered to my server got lost in a black hole (or hopefully something more earthly). I can't retrieve new mails via Evolution or Roundcube and there are no files in the Maildir newer than two days ago, but I can see that I received mails in the logs:


May 5 09:02:05 localhost postfix/pipe[14290]: A1138120065: to=<kontakt-christian@localhost>, orig_to=<***echte Adresse***>, relay=spamassassin, delay=5.1, delays=0.04/0/0/5, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via spamassassin service)
May 5 09:02:05 localhost postfix/local[14297]: AD5AA12064A: to=<kontakt-christian@localhost>, relay=local, delay=0.01, delays=0/0/0/0, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to mailbox)
May 6 15:43:14 localhost postfix/pipe[2663]: CEACF120735: to=<kontakt-christian@localhost>, orig_to=<***echte Adresse***>, relay=spamassassin, delay=5.1, delays=0.05/0/0/5, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered via spamassassin service)
May 6 15:43:14 localhost postfix/local[2667]: DCFA1123593: to=<kontakt-christian@localhost>, relay=local, delay=0.01, delays=0/0/0/0, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to mailbox)

When I looked in mail.err, I discovered there were problems with Spamassassin, so I deactivated it. That was not helpful, I still don't actually retrieve mails though the log looks fine:


May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/smtpd[5462]: connect from mout.gmx.net[212.227.15.19]
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/smtpd[5462]: 3A48B120BDC: client=mout.gmx.net[212.227.15.19]
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/cleanup[5467]: 3A48B120BDC: message-id=<trinity-6d7c999d-635d-49aa-9490-ed9cb204d5b8-1399393607871@3capp-gmx-bs42>
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/qmgr[5456]: 3A48B120BDC: from=<****>, size=1088, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/local[5468]: 3A48B120BDC: to=<kontakt-christian@localhost>, orig_to=<***>, relay=local, delay=0.07, delays=0.06/0/0/0, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to mailbox)
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/qmgr[5456]: 3A48B120BDC: removed
May 6 18:26:48 localhost postfix/smtpd[5462]: disconnect from mout.gmx.net[212.227.15.19]

It's no auth problem, I can login successfully, though I can't send mails either ("Relay access denied").

Access to the Maildir works fine; I also have a getmail setup that puts mails from external servers into some of my Maildir folders - those mails are retrieved by Evolution as usual. So there is something wrong between Postfix receiving mail from others and delivering that mail into my Maildir. I also have the impression mails are delivered to the correct account, as the shell notifies me of new mails when I log in, but I can't find it.

Below are my configs. Any help is appreciated!

Christian

main.cf:


smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)biff = no
append_dot_mydomain = no
readme_directory = no
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_use_tls = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
smtpd_relay_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated defer_unauth_destination
myhostname = christian-gredig.de
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
relayhost =
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
home_mailbox =
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = no
smtpd_sasl_type = cyrus
smtpd_sasl_path = smtpd
smtpd_sasl_authenticated_header = no
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_local_domain =
broken_sasl_auth_clients = no
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
smtpd_sender_restrictions =
mailbox_command =
smtp_use_tls = no
smtpd_tls_received_header = no
smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2
smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers = medium
smtpd_tls_auth_only = no
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
myorigin = /etc/mailname
inet_protocols = all
virtual_alias_domains = $myhostname, konzertheld.de, konzertheld.tk, flowing-it.de
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual
mydestination = localhost


master.cf:


smtp inet n - - - - smtpdpickup unix n - - 60 1 pickup
cleanup unix n - - - 0 cleanup
qmgr unix n - n 300 1 qmgr
tlsmgr unix - - - 1000? 1 tlsmgr
rewrite unix - - - - - trivial-rewrite
bounce unix - - - - 0 bounce
defer unix - - - - 0 bounce
trace unix - - - - 0 bounce
verify unix - - - - 1 verify
flush unix n - - 1000? 0 flush
proxymap unix - - n - - proxymap
proxywrite unix - - n - 1 proxymap
smtp unix - - - - - smtp
relay unix - - - - - smtp


showq unix n - - - - showq
error unix - - - - - error
retry unix - - - - - error
discard unix - - - - - discard
local unix - n n - - local
virtual unix - n n - - virtual
lmtp unix - - - - - lmtp
anvil unix - - - - 1 anvil
scache unix - - - - 1 scache


maildrop unix - n n - - pipe
flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient}


uucp unix - n n - - pipe
flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$sender - $nexthop!rmail ($recipient)


ifmail unix - n n - - pipe
flags=F user=ftn argv=/usr/lib/ifmail/ifmail -r $nexthop ($recipient)
bsmtp unix - n n - - pipe
flags=Fq. user=bsmtp argv=/usr/lib/bsmtp/bsmtp -t$nexthop -f$sender $recipient
scalemail-backend unix - n n - 2 pipe
flags=R user=scalemail argv=/usr/lib/scalemail/bin/scalemail-store ${nexthop} ${user} ${extension}
mailman unix - n n - - pipe
flags=FR user=list argv=/usr/lib/mailman/bin/postfix-to-mailman.py
${nexthop} ${user}

[kosmokramer314]

This is a shot in the dark, but doesn't your setup require spam assassin to be running to deliver the email? Can you turn spam assassin back on and adjust the settings to be a little more lax? Maybe a list was updated that is causing the issue?

[christian20]

I'm sorry. By "deactivating" Spamassassin I meant: remove it from the postfix conf. So it should no longer be relevant, except if I missed something (do you see something in the above posted config that is related to Spamassassin?). Good idea though, thanks!

[kosmokramer314]

unfortunately no, but I'm not a whiz with email anyway..I just recently deployed my first mail server using the same tools so it was just an idea. There may be something in this article that jogs your brain a bit..

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/03/taking-e-mail-back-part-3-fortifying-your-box-against-spammers/

[christian20]

I was able to get mails delivered to Maildir again by setting home_mailbox to "Maildir/". I have no idea why that is necessary now, it wasn't before.

Anyway, the more important question is: Where are the mails I should have retrieved meanwhile? They have to be ​somewhere.

[christian20]

The lost mail showed up in /var/mail in mbox format. I was able to download and restore them with Evolution. One of the mails contained my last aptitude update log which showed that mail-stack-delivery was removed. I have no idea why that happened but it propably caused the problems I had.

[kosmokramer314]

nice find! mark this as "solved" so others can use it for reference :)