Symptoms
-
Unable to start Postfix without any error message:
# /etc/init.d/postfix start
Starting postfix: [FAILED]
-
No logs appear in the
/var/log/maillog
and/var/log/messages
files. -
Starting Postfix manually shows the following warnings and errors:
# /usr/sbin/postfix start
postfix/postfix-script: warning: not owned by postfix: /var/lib/postfix/./prng_exch
postfix/postfix-script: warning: not owned by postfix: /var/lib/postfix/./master.lock
postfix/postfix-script: warning: /usr/sbin/postdrop
postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system
postfix/postfix-script: fatal: mail system startup failed
Cause
Incorrect permissions for Postfix files.
Resolution
-
Connect to the server via SSH.
-
Set the correct permissions to the affected files:
# chown postfix:postfix /var/lib/postfix/*
# chmod 600 /var/lib/postfix/*
# chown root:postdrop /usr/sbin/postdrop
# chmod 2755 /usr/sbin/postdrop -
Run the following command to fix all remaining permissions:
# postfix set-permissions
-
Restart the Postfix:
# /usr/sbin/postfix stop
postfix/postfix-script: stopping the Postfix mail system# /usr/sbin/postfix start
postfix/postfix-script: starting the Postfix mail system -
Restore mail configuration by running the
mchk
utility:# plesk sbin mchk