Messaging 4: SMTP fails to start with error: "There seems to be no Postmaster account"

Question

Messaging Server's SMTPD does not start.
<P>
# /etc/NscpMsg start stmp
NOTICE: Starting SMTP daemon ...............failed.
ERROR: Failed to find process file after 60 seconds:
/usr/netscape/server4/msg-ms4-sun/config/pidfile.smtp
Unable to verify start of the SMTP daemon.
Check the log file(s) under: /usr/netscape/server4/msg-ms4-sun/log/smtp
ERROR: The following services failed to start, or were already:
SMTP daemon
<P>
The smtp log file says:
<P>
[10/Feb/1999:10:39:27 -0700] <server hostname> smtpd[8830]: General Error: Start
     up Problem: There seems to be no Postmaster account (if you have just
     installed the Netscape Messaging Server, you must run the Install
     program which accompanied the distribution). This account is required!
     Netscape Messaging Server Exiting!
<P>
<UL>
<LI>What is the exact address smtpd is looking for?
<P>
SMTPD will not start unless it finds an LDAP entry for a specific postmaster mail address.
The address is postmaster@<MESSAGEHOSTNAME>
<P>
Messaghostname is the
FQDN (fully qualified domain name) found in service.smtp.messagehostname.
<P>
Messagehostname can be found with configutil:
<P>
./configutil -o service.smtp.messagehostname
<P>
If the messagehostname is
not set, the email address is composed of the hostname (/usr/bin/hostname) +
service.smtp.domainname).
<P>
smtp.domainname can be
found with configutil:
<P>
./configutil -o service.smtp.domainname
<P>
<LI>Why is the "postmaster" a group?
<P>
By convention, this is an LDAP group created at installation. Since postmaster
is a shared role, a postmaster group of one is created upon installation. As a
group, additonal email members can be added easily.
Technical Support is not aware of any issues with a postmaster user, but this configuration is not supported.
</UL>

Answer 1

Hi Mikhail,
first of all, if your an official SAP customer, then please open OSS/CSS messages for such cases.
However, if you've got a Preview installation or similar, then we could proceed as is.
To solve your issue, we'd recommend a <b>recovery using the latest data backup available</b>.
To find out the cause of the problem (i.e. to find out what causes the problem with the blob/long), we'd need either:
1. system access* (pcAnywhere/WTS),
or even better:
2. your latest data backup AND we'd need you to put the DB instance into ADMIN mode and make a LOG backup. We'd need that Log backup then too.
This might get time consuming, so if you prefer a 'quick' around the problem, we suggest to perform the mentioned recovery.
Kind regards,
Roland
*: concerning system access: we can only access official SAP customer systems going over saprouters.