CentOS - Apr 2005 - MailScanner SPAM Forward & Postfix Problem

First, thanks to the CentOS folks for creating such as awesome distro!
 Second, thanks to all for contributing to such an great mailling
list!

I installed MailScanner/SpamAssassin/ClamAV last week based on the
excellent threads that have recently discussed the subject.  For folks
who missed it, I used Johnny's wonderful guide at
http://www.hughesjr.com/content/category/1/14/30/Guides (see Part 4).

I'm using CentOS 3.4.  On the MTA side, I am using Postfix with a
virtual alias table.  I want to have MailScanner use the "forward"
"Spam Actions" option to put all spam in a central email account
(it's
a local account on the same server).  I can email to this central spam
account no problem (both locally and from outside accounts such as
gmail).  The "Spam Actions = forward blah at blah.com" works if
blah at blah.com is an account on a separate system (such as this account
on gmail).   However, no matter what I do, I cannot make it work with
a local account -- I always get the following postfix error in
/var/log/maillog:

   ..., status=bounced (user unknown in virtual alias table).  

I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that I'm using a
virtual alias table, but I don't want to get rid of that (even for
testing purposes) because it's obviously being used for live email.
:-)

I know this might be more of a Postfix or MailScanner question, but I
thought I would start here.

Many thanks for any assistance!
Kennedy

You would do well to post this question on the MailScanner list as the
audience is all MailScanner users and have probably seen this problem
before.

Mike
 

-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
Behalf
Of Kennedy Clark
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 9:30 AM
To: CentOS mailing list
Subject: [CentOS] MailScanner SPAM Forward & Postfix Problem

First, thanks to the CentOS folks for creating such as awesome distro!
 Second, thanks to all for contributing to such an great mailling list!

I installed MailScanner/SpamAssassin/ClamAV last week based on the excellent
threads that have recently discussed the subject.  For folks who missed it,
I used Johnny's wonderful guide at
http://www.hughesjr.com/content/category/1/14/30/Guides (see Part 4).

I'm using CentOS 3.4.  On the MTA side, I am using Postfix with a virtual
alias table.  I want to have MailScanner use the "forward"
"Spam Actions" option to put all spam in a central email account
(it's a
local account on the same server).  I can email to this central spam account
no problem (both locally and from outside accounts such as gmail).  The
"Spam Actions = forward blah at blah.com" works if blah at blah.com is
an account
on a separate system (such as this account
on gmail).   However, no matter what I do, I cannot make it work with
a local account -- I always get the following postfix error in
/var/log/maillog:

   ..., status=bounced (user unknown in virtual alias table).  

I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that I'm using a
virtual
alias table, but I don't want to get rid of that (even for testing purposes)
because it's obviously being used for live email.
:-)

I know this might be more of a Postfix or MailScanner question, but I
thought I would start here.

Many thanks for any assistance!
Kennedy
_______________________________________________
CentOS mailing list
CentOS at centos.org
http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

I spoke to some very helpful folks on the MailScanner list (especially
Drew) and they sorted me out.  I thought I would share in case others
run into this problem.  First, MailScanner apparently occurs AFTER the
postfix virtual mapping takes place... so you have to use the
/etc/postfix/aliases vs /etc/postfix/virtual_alias.

Next problem: I had to get /etc/postfix/aliases working together with
the /etc/postfix/virtual_alias table. After banging my head on the
wall for about a day, the answer was embarrassingly simple.  You can't
have the same domain in the main.cf variable 'mydestination =' (sends
domains in this list to /etc/postfix/aliases) and
'virtual_alias_domains =' (sends these domains to the
/etc/postfix/virtual_alias table).  So, I did this to create a "fake"
subdomain of sample1.com:

/etc/MailScanner/MailScanner.conf
  Spam Actions = store forward spam at localhost.sample1.com
  High Scoring Spam Actions = store forward spam at localhost.sample1.com
  
/etc/postfix/main.cf
  myhostname = svr.sample1.com
  mydomain = sample1.com
  mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain
  virtual_alias_domains = sample1.com, sample2.org

/etc/postfix/virtual_alias
  joe at sample1.com         joeb at localhost
  joe at sample2.org           joeb at localhost
  bob at sample1.com        bob at localhost
  @sample2.org               frank at localhost
  group1 at sample1.com   joeb at localhost, bob at localhost, bob at localhost
  ...

/etc/postfix/alias
  # Deliver spam to local 'spam' shell account
  spam at localhost.sample1.com:     spam

The trick was using spam at LOCALHOST.sample1.com in both
MailScanner.conf AND /etc/postfix/alias (along with having this
subdomain of sample1.com listed in mydestination of postfix).  These 3
items together allowed local delivery without the virtual_alias stuff
getting in the way.  MailScanner was now happy and the spam forward
worked.

Let me know if folks see a better way of doing this.

Kennedy