SUMMARY #2: Sendmail - Where is relay host defined? OR Ah Ha!! Sendmail relayhost mystery solved!

It was brought to my attention that in my euphoric state after finally 
solving the problem, that my SUMMARY
didn't really contain enough info about either the original problem or the 
solution.  Sorry, here we go again:

Solution:

If /var/mail is nfs mounted from an nfs server, sendmail, at startup, will 
assign the ${ms} variable to the nfs
server.  In my case, I had done this.  Not that I intended to, but 
somehow, I had done this on this one machine.
So, all I had to do was get rid of that and have /var/mail be local again 
and restart sendmail. 



Original Problem:

Good morning all,

I have a problem that is driving me nuts.  Out of my 80 machines, I have 
one that refuses to send mail.  Actually, it doesn't
refuse to send mail, it refuses to find the correct relay, so the machine 
it insists on sending mail through won't allow it to, so
mail doesn't go out.  I'm at my wit's end.  I have two identical machines 
- same Sendmail version, same OS, same patch levels,
same sendmail.cf, same DNS and NIS servers, same nsswitch.conf.  One sends 
mail to the correct relay and one doesn't.
I have mailhost and relayhost defined in DNS.  I just can't figure out 
where this machine is getting it's relay information from.
It is an E3500, Solaris 8 with recommended and security patch cluster from 
April 2002, Sendmail 8.11.6
There must be somewhere where this machine has had hardcoded the relay, 
but I can't find it for the life of me. 

When I look at the syslog messages on both machines, the only difference 
is the "relay=" part.  The machine that sends
mail out says "relay=mailhost.xxx.xx.xxxx.com" and the machine that 
doesn't, says "relay=hostname [IP address] "  where
hostname is the wrong mailhost and the ip address is in brackets.  I'm 
stumped.

Anyone have any ideas where this machine is getting it's incorrect relay 
information from?

Additional information added in another post:

I have received many, many  very helpful replies so far, but let me 
clarify a couple of things.   I've also tracked down some
more information.  I'm trying to wade through Sendmail 2nd Edition to find 
help. 

1)  the sendmail.cf files on the machines are identical - I ftp'd the one 
from the working host. 
2)  The DS entry is there and correct, although I've tried some of your 
suggestions just to see.
        I've even put the name mailhost.xx.xxx.xxx.com in there instead of 
the $m stuff to see
        if I could force it.  It's not getting the information from that 
line.  It's getting it from somewhere
        else.
3)  /etc/hosts does not have mailhost defined on either machine (tried 
that before, too)
4)  I can ping the mailhost using the hostname, the fully qualified 
hostname, mailhost and relayhost
5)  When I do /usr/lib/sendmail -d0.1 -bt < /dev/null   I get this:

On the working host:

Version 8.11.6+Sun
 Compiled with: LDAPMAP MAP_REGEX LOG MATCHGECOS MIME7TO8 MIME8TO7
                NAMED_BIND NDBM NETINET NETINET6 NETUNIX NEWDB NIS NISPLUS
                QUEUE SCANF SMTP USERDB XDEBUG

============ SYSTEM IDENTITY (after readcf) ============
      (short domain name) $w = host1
  (canonical domain name) $j = host1.xxx.xx.xxxxxxxx.com
         (subdomain name) $m = xxx.xx.xxxxxxxx.com
              (node name) $k = host1
========================================================

BUT on the non-working host, I get an extra variable defined:

Version 8.11.6+Sun
 Compiled with: LDAPMAP MAP_REGEX LOG MATCHGECOS MIME7TO8 MIME8TO7
                NAMED_BIND NDBM NETINET NETINET6 NETUNIX NEWDB NIS NISPLUS
                QUEUE SCANF SMTP USERDB XDEBUG

============ SYSTEM IDENTITY (after readcf) ============
      (short domain name) $w = host2
  (canonical domain name) $j = host2.xxx.xx.xxxxxxxx.com
         (subdomain name) $m = xxx.xx.xxxxxxxx.com
              (node name) $k = host2
             (mailserver) ${ms} = wizard
========================================================

This is where I'm stumped - where is that ${ms} defined?  Why is it 
defined on this system and not the other?
I installed both these machines from the same CD and thought I made all 
the same choices when it came to
installation options.  I've never entered anything in for defining a 
mailserver that I can recall. 

I thank everyone who has so far taken the time to try to help me and thank 
in advance anyone who can answer
this puzzle! 

Martha Crocker
UNIX System Administrator
Philips Semiconductors
9651 Westover Hills Blvd.
M/S 406
San Antonio, Texas 78251
(210)522-7468  voice
(210)522-7300  fax
martha.crocker@philips.com

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