Topic: Spamassassin "channel failed"

[twijtzes]

Should I be worried about the below message ?

Code: [Select]

/etc/cron.daily/sa_update:

channel: no 'mirrors.updates.spamassassin.org' record found, channel failed
channel: no 'mirrors.sought.rules.yerp.org' record found, channel failed
Kindest regards
Taco

[janet]

twijtzes

No

AFAIUI these are temporary "glitches"

Watch for any future messages though.

[twijtzes]

Hi Janet,

These Cron messages appear daily, therefore I tried to find similar issues on the forum or in the bugs list. So far I have not been able to find these messages on the forums, so I think it might be a local thing. If this is an issue with more users, we might need something more drastic.

As my system is updated from version 7, it might have something to do with that. I will set up a fresh SME server to see if the problem persists. If so, I will raise a bug.

Regards,
Taco

[janet]

twijtzes

A Google search on the second error message found

Bug 7661
&
http://spamassassin.1065346.n5.nabble.com/sought-rules-yerp-org-site-down-td59535.html

As I said these are likely to be temporary problems, DNS related.

Have you specified a particular DNS server or do you have other problems with your ISP ?

I would not waste your time building another server, just change the DNS server you are using (if you can), or delete it from sme server if one is specified, or complain to your ISP

[mmccarn]

In case it helps, on my system, the files below have the content indicated:

Code: (/etc/cron.daily/sa_update) [Select]

#!/bin/bash
# Only restart spamd if sa-update returns 0, meaning it updated the rules
export HOME=/var/lib/spamassassin
cd $HOME
(/usr/bin/sa-update \
  --gpgkeyfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/gpgkeys \
  --channelfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/channels \
  && service spamassassin condrestart > /dev/null) 2>&1 \
  | tee -a /var/log/sa-update.log

Code: (/etc/mail/spamassassin/channels) [Select]

updates.spamassassin.org
sought.rules.yerp.org

Code: (/etc/mail/spamassassin/gpgkeys) [Select]

26C900A46DD40CD5AD24F6D7DEE01987265FA05B
D8099BC79E17D7E49BC21E31FDE52F40F7D39814
5E541DC959CB8BAC7C78DFDC4056A61A5244EC45
8D25B5E91DAF0F715F60B588DC85341F6C6191E3


And here's what I get when I run sa-update manually (the bin, not the cronjob):

Code: [Select]

# HOME=/var/lib/spamassassin
# cd $HOME
# /usr/bin/sa-update   --gpgkeyfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/gpgkeys   --channelfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/channels -v
Update finished, no fresh updates were available


[twijtzes]

Thanks,

If it has to do with DNS, I have a clue where to begin. It will probably have to do with a new network router and double ADSL connection over here, does spam assassin update require additional ports to be opened ?

[mmccarn]

recommendation
I think you need to edit this file:
/etc/mail/spamassassin/channels

And make it match mine (see my first post, or take  'mirrors.' out of each hostname).   There is no associated template, so you need to edit the file directly.

Whether this works or not, there is stil a question of how/why your spamassassin channel file acquired incorrect settings.


background
I re-ran the manual update this morning from my previous post:

Code: [Select]

HOME=/var/lib/spamassassin
cd $HOME
/usr/bin/sa-update   --gpgkeyfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/gpgkeys   --channelfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/channels -v
Today I get this result (convincing me that my system is successfully finding the update channels):
Update available for channel sought.rules.yerp.org
Update was available, and was downloaded and installed successfully

Since I couldn't find any A record using nslookup for 'sought.rules.yerp.org' or 'updates.spamassassin.org', I looked up exactly how spamassassin looks for updates:
http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/PublishingRuleUpdates

According to that page, sa-update reverses the spamassassin version number and prepends the result to each "channel" supplied when the command is run.

On my system, the channels (from --channelfile /etc/mail/spamassassin/channels) are:
updates.spamassassin.org
sought.rules.yerp.org

...and my spamassassin version (from spamassassin -V) is 3.3.2

... so sa-update is looking for the latest rules version using:

# nslookup -type=txt 2.3.3.updates.spamassassin.org
Server:      ...
Address:   ...#53

Non-authoritative answer:
2.3.3.updates.spamassassin.org   text = "1556147"

# nslookup -type=txt 2.3.3.sought.rules.yerp.org
Server:      ...
Address:   ...#53

Non-authoritative answer:
2.3.3.sought.rules.yerp.org   text = "3302014010811"

However, when I try to look for versions using the hostnames you seem to have on your system, I get:

# nslookup -type=txt 2.3.3.mirrors.updates.spamassassin.org
Server:      ...
Address:   ...#53

** server can't find 2.3.3.mirrors.updates.spamassassin.org: NXDOMAIN

[root@office ~]# nslookup -type=txt 2.3.3.mirrors.sought.rules.yerp.org
Server:      ...
Address:   ...#53

** server can't find 2.3.3.mirrors.sought.rules.yerp.org: NXDOMAIN

[janet]

twijtzes

As my system is updated from version 7....

I wonder if your system is updating correctly, & whether the repos are set correctly.
Show output of
/sbin/e-smith/audittools/repositories

[janet]

twijtzes

What happened ?

[twijtzes]

Hi Janet,

below please find the output of /sbin/e-smith/audittools/repositories

addons: disabled
base: enabled
centos-testing: disabled
centosplus: disabled
contrib: disabled
extras: disabled
smeaddons: enabled
smecontribs: disabled
smedev: disabled
smeextras: enabled
smeos: enabled
smetest: disabled
smeupdates: enabled
smeupdates-testing: enabled
updates: enabled

[janet]

twijtzes

smeupdates-testing: enabled

That repo should normally be disabled.
You may have rpms installed that are still under test & not ready for release, & could still be buggy.

The db setting for that repo should be

db yum_repositories show smeupdates-testing

smeupdates-testing=repository
    EnableGroups=yes
    GPGCheck=yes
    MirrorList=http://mirrorlist.contribs.org/mirrorlist/smeupdates-testing-8
    Name=SME Server - updates testing
    Visible=yes
    status=disabled

To fix yours do
db yum_repositories setprop smeupdates-testing status disabled
signal-event yum-modify

See
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ:Section01#Which_repositories_should_be_enabled