Thanks to those who responded to my earlier email.
I'll restate my problem and post the output from postfinger below that.
Our postfix server has recently started reporting bounces for emails that are
being successfully delivered. These are all for email addresses that are all
within our domain, with one server acting as a relay for multiple servers
within our organization. Also, there's no real pattern that I can see. Within a
short timeframe (10-15 minutes), similar emails from the same source to the
same users have alternately been recorded with status of sent, bounced and
sent. Postfix has been running in this fashion on this server for quite a long
time, but these false bounce reports just started appearing about a week ago.
The bounced emails are recorded like this in the log:
Apr 14 17:22:57 tilapia postfix/smtp[19383]: 8F27A27954:
to=<hama...@imsweb.com>, relay=mailrelay.imsweb.com[204.132.58.6], delay=0,
status=bounced (host mailrelay.imsweb.com[204.132.58.6] said: 554 Format
restriction violation. Email Session ID: {4DA765B1-6-6565EC3F-FFFF} (in reply
to end of DATA command))
I turned on soft-bounce and these emails are reported as successfully delivered
on later attempts.
----------------------------------
postfinger - postfix configuration on Fri Apr 22 10:18:48 EDT 2011
version: 1.30
Warning: postfinger output may show private configuration information,
such as ip addresses and/or domain names which you do not want to show
to the public. If this is the case it is your responsibility to modify
the output to hide this private information. [Remove this warning with
the --nowarn option.]
--System Parameters--
mail_version = 2.1.1
hostname = tilapia
uname = Linux tilapia 2.6.5-7.308-smp #1 SMP Mon Dec 10 11:36:40 UTC 2007
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
--Packaging information--
looks like this postfix comes from RPM package: postfix-2.1.1-1.17
--Mailbox locking methods--
flock fcntl dotlock
--Supported Lookup tables--
static sdbm cidr pcre nis regexp environ proxy ldap btree unix hash
--main.cf non-default parameters--
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
canonical_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/canonical
daemon_directory = /usr/lib/postfix
delay_warning_time = 4h
html_directory = /usr/share/doc/packages/postfix/html
mailbox_size_limit = 0
manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
masquerade_exceptions = root
maximal_queue_lifetime = 4d
message_size_limit = 20480000
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, enotify.imsweb.com
myhostname = tilapia.imsweb.com
mynetworks = 0.0.0.0/0
readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/packages/postfix/README_FILES
relocated_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/relocated
sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/packages/postfix/samples
sender_canonical_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sender_canonical
setgid_group = maildrop
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks,reject_unauth_destination
smtpd_sender_restrictions = hash:/etc/postfix/access
soft_bounce = yes
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport
--master.cf--
smtp inet n - n - - smtpd
pickup fifo n - n 60 1 pickup
cleanup unix n - n - 0 cleanup
qmgr fifo n - n 300 1 qmgr
rewrite unix - - n - - trivial-rewrite
bounce unix - - n - 0 bounce
defer unix - - n - 0 bounce
trace unix - - n - 0 bounce
verify unix - - n - 1 verify
flush unix n - n 1000? 0 flush
proxymap unix - - n - - proxymap
smtp unix - - n - - smtp
relay unix - - n - - smtp
showq unix n - n - - showq
error unix - - n - - error
local unix - n n - - local
virtual unix - n n - - virtual
lmtp unix - - n - - lmtp
anvil unix - - n - 1 anvil
maildrop unix - n n - - pipe
flags=DRhu user=vmail argv=/usr/local/bin/maildrop -d ${recipient}
cyrus unix - n n - - pipe
user=cyrus argv=/usr/lib/cyrus/bin/deliver -e -r ${sender} -m ${extension}
${user}
uucp unix - n n - - pipe
flags=Fqhu user=uucp argv=uux -r -n -z -a$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=foo argv=/usr/local/sbin/bsmtp -f $sender $nexthop $recipient
vscan unix - n n - 10 pipe
user=vscan argv=/usr/sbin/amavis ${sender} ${recipient}
procmail unix - n n - - pipe
flags=R user=nobody argv=/usr/bin/procmail -t -m /etc/procmailrc ${sender}
${recipient}
--Specific file and directory permissions--
drwx-wx--- 2 postfix maildrop 48 2011-04-22 09:28 /var/spool/postfix/maildrop
drwx--x--- 2 postfix maildrop 168 2011-04-13 12:25 /var/spool/postfix/public
total 0
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 cleanup
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 flush
prw--w--w- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-22 10:18 pickup
prw--w--w- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-22 10:18 qmgr
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 showq
drwx------ 2 postfix root 528 2011-04-13 12:25 /var/spool/postfix/private
total 0
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 anvil
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 bounce
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 bsmtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 cyrus
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 defer
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 error
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 ifmail
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 lmtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 local
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 maildrop
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 procmail
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 proxymap
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 relay
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 rewrite
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 smtp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 trace
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 uucp
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 verify
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 virtual
srw-rw-rw- 1 postfix postfix 0 2011-04-13 12:25 vscan
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root maildrop 135476 2005-06-27 11:05 /usr/sbin/postdrop
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root maildrop 162281 2005-06-27 11:05 /usr/sbin/postqueue
--Library dependencies--
/usr/lib/postfix/smtpd:
libldap.so.199 => /usr/lib64/libldap.so.199 (0x0000002a9566d000)
liblber.so.199 => /usr/lib64/liblber.so.199 (0x0000002a957a3000)
libpcre.so.0 => /usr/lib64/libpcre.so.0 (0x0000002a958b1000)
libsasl2.so.2 => /usr/lib64/libsasl2.so.2 (0x0000002a959bd000)
libssl.so.0.9.7 => /usr/lib64/libssl.so.0.9.7 (0x0000002a95ad3000)
libcrypto.so.0.9.7 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.0.9.7 (0x0000002a95c09000)
libdb-4.2.so => /usr/lib64/tls/libdb-4.2.so (0x0000002a95e3a000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib64/libnsl.so.1 (0x0000002a96019000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib64/libresolv.so.2 (0x0000002a9612f000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/tls/libc.so.6 (0x0000002a96243000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x0000002a9646a000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/tls/libpthread.so.0 (0x0000002a9656d000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000002a95556000)
-- end of postfinger output --
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