New server, email notifications not working

[My Hattiesburg]

We have a dedicated server but due to costs we manage it ourselves, as in everything but the hardware. A couple of months ago we outfitted a new one and moved everything over to it and everything seems to work fine except for email notifications. The server will send out emails through the OS and the installed software but vBulletin seems to not be talking to the server in that regard.

I'm not the tech guy who built it, I'm just the site admin so I can't answer a lot of questions but I wanted to see if there might be something that generally happens to cause this problem that I could relay to our tech. The server is running CentOS 6.5 (the previous server was running an earlier version of this), Apache 2.2.15, MySQL 5.1.73, Postfix Mail Server Postfix version 2.6.6, Sendmail Mail Server Sendmail version 8.14.4, config V10/Berkeley.

Not sure if any of that is relevant or not. Thanks in advance if anyone can help with this.

[kh99]

Have you tried, in the admincp, Maintenance > Diagnostics > Email to test email sending? If not give that a try and tell us what it says.

[RichieBoy67]

Like KH posted. First test to see if your site is sending emails at all. Do the diagnostic as mentioned and try a test email. Try some various email addresses as well in the test and make sure you have a bounce address set up so you can see if they are bouncing.

Your emails may be going out but getting blocked.. Also, check your mail que on your server to see if they got that far..

[My Hattiesburg]

Have you tried, in the admincp, Maintenance > Diagnostics > Email to test email sending? If not give that a try and tell us what it says.

Ever since we bought the site we've had trouble with that function. When I click diagnostics all I get is a white page.

[kh99]

Are you having problems with any other functions? What version of php are you using?

[cellarius]

And: What's in the server's error log?

[My Hattiesburg]

Are you having problems with any other functions? What version of php are you using?

We don't really have any other problems with anything else. That function didn't work on the old server even when emails were working. We're running PHP 5.3.3.

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And: What's in the server's error log?

Here's a sampling of the maillog from today:

Sep 10 03:42:37 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 222
Sep 10 03:42:52 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 174
Sep 10 03:43:07 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 136
Sep 10 03:43:22 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 106
Sep 10 03:43:37 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 82
Sep 10 03:43:52 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 64
Sep 10 03:44:07 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 50
Sep 10 03:44:22 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 39
Sep 10 03:44:37 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 31
Sep 10 03:44:52 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 24
Sep 10 03:45:07 prod sendmail[1645]: accepting connections again for daemon MTA
Sep 10 07:04:08 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 24
Sep 10 07:04:15 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 35
Sep 10 07:04:30 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 36
Sep 10 07:04:45 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 34
Sep 10 07:05:00 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 36
Sep 10 07:05:15 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 41
Sep 10 07:05:30 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 47
Sep 10 07:05:45 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 51
Sep 10 07:06:00 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 55
Sep 10 07:06:17 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 56
Sep 10 07:06:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 61
Sep 10 07:06:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 66
Sep 10 07:07:08 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 71
Sep 10 07:07:26 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 73
Sep 10 07:07:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 88
Sep 10 07:07:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 117
Sep 10 07:08:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 135
Sep 10 07:08:19 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 153
Sep 10 07:08:20 prod sendmail[12767]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:22 prod sendmail[12765]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:23 prod sendmail[12758]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:23 prod sendmail[12761]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:25 prod sendmail[12749]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:26 prod sendmail[12768]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:27 prod sendmail[12750]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:27 prod sendmail[12756]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:29 prod sendmail[12770]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:29 prod sendmail[12771]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:32 prod sendmail[12772]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:34 prod sendmail[12773]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 172
Sep 10 07:08:42 prod sendmail[12774]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:51 prod sendmail[12776]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:08:51 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 188
Sep 10 07:08:51 prod sendmail[12777]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 196
Sep 10 07:09:08 prod sendmail[12778]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:14 prod sendmail[12779]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:19 prod sendmail[12781]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:19 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 202
Sep 10 07:09:32 prod sendmail[12787]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 209
Sep 10 07:09:38 prod sendmail[12790]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:42 prod sendmail[12812]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:46 prod sendmail[12813]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:09:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 217
Sep 10 07:10:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 227
Sep 10 07:10:19 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 236
Sep 10 07:10:28 prod sendmail[12819]: NOQUEUE: SYSERR(apache): can not chdir(/var/spool/clientmqueue/): Permission denied
Sep 10 07:10:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 242
Sep 10 07:10:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 247
Sep 10 07:11:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 251
Sep 10 07:11:19 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 254
Sep 10 07:11:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 236
Sep 10 07:11:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 222
Sep 10 07:12:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 209
Sep 10 07:12:19 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 198
Sep 10 07:12:34 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 188
Sep 10 07:12:49 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 178
Sep 10 07:13:04 prod sendmail[1645]: rejecting connections on daemon MTA: load average: 169

[RichieBoy67]

Ok, to me that looks like you are using very high resource usuage and perhaps your server is not configured properly.

The load should be much, much lower...

--------------- Added 1410365460 at 1410365460 ---------------

You also need to have your server admin fix those permissions.

[kh99]

I don't know a lot about that stuff, but googling the error messages I find some answers at other sites, here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12804841/how-can-apache-be-allowed-to-send-email and here: http://serverfault.com/questions/119026/question-on-sendmail-daemon-actions-when-load-average-is-too-high . (As RichieBoy67 said above, it appears that the total server load is high).

[My Hattiesburg]

We just started having some high server loads in the last couple of days. Not sure what's causing it.

Thanks for those links, I'll pass them along to our server guy.