[Mailman-Users] Postfix->Mailman->Exchange - Where are my NDR's?

[Barry Finkel]

"Lamaster, Robert" <RLamaster at nkschools.org> wrote:

>I need some help tracking down where my NDR's are going.  So far, we
>haven't seen any.  Here's the setup for how mail is set to our lists:
>
>User sends to a M$ Exchange mailbox (Created in Active Directory).  That
>mailbox is configured to forward to a "Contact" in Active Directory,
>which has the email address of the list on Mailman.  Postfix receives
>the message from the "Contact" and hands it off to Mailman, which
>dutifully expands it to individual emails (with VERP) as list-bounces.
>Mailman then uses M$ Exchange as it's MTA to send the mails to (1)
>internal recipients, and (2) our front-end Exchange server for delivery
>to external recipients.
>
> 
>
>So... we've checked the inbox for the sender's mailbox and the M$
>Exchange mailbox (there isn't a mailbox for the contact) and have found
>no NDRs, even though we know there are a ton of them being generated.
>Are the NDRs being returned to Mailman?  If so, is there any way I can
>intercept them?

The NDR messages are sent back to the -bounces address and processed
by Mailman.  On my Ubuntu Mailman 2.1.9 system I see that in

     /var/lib/mailman/data

there is one file:

     bounce-events-04304.pck

This file is from my creating a list and entering a typo in the e-mail
address of the list owner, so the list-creation e-mail could not be
sent.  You might look in this directory.  As I was typing this reply
there was a second file in this directory, but it quickly vanished
after, I assume, the Mailman bounce processor read the NDR mail,
updated the affected subscription bounce score, and then deleted the
NDR mail.

In

     /var/log/mailman

I see files

     bounce
     bounce.1
     bounce.2.gz
     bounce.3.gz
     bounce.4.gz

These log files record bounces and what happens to the bounce_score;
there is no information as to why the mail bounced.  When a subscriber's
bounce_score reaches the maximum, and the subscriber is set to NOMAIL,
then the last NDR is sent to the list owner(s).  You could temporarily
lower the maximum to 1.0 so that the first bounce would send the NDR
to the list owner(s).  I have installed a module from Mark Sapiro
that gives me a daily bounce_score report for all of my lists.

Does your Exchange Server have mail logs where you can see what is
happening?  I am used to sendmail and Postfix syslogs on Unix; I have
not looked at any Exchange Server logs to see what is available.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry S. Finkel
Computing and Information Systems Division
Argonne National Laboratory          Phone:    +1 (630) 252-7277
9700 South Cass Avenue               Facsimile:+1 (630) 252-4601
Building 222, Room D209              Internet: BSFinkel at anl.gov
Argonne, IL   60439-4828             IBMMAIL:  I1004994