UTL_SMTP: can't connect to remote mail server (error: 421)

Question

I'm trying to execute this command as SYS:
exec MYSCHEMA.send_mail_via_utl_smtp('[email protected]', '[email protected]', 'my subject', 'my message','mail.mydomain.com');
and I get this error:
Error starting at line 8 in command:
exec MYSCHEMA.send_mail_via_utl_smtp('[email protected]', '[email protected]', 'my subject', 'my message','mail.mydomain.com');
Error report:
ORA-29278: SMTP transient error: 421 Service not available
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 29
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 108
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 150
ORA-06512: at "MYSCHEMA.SEND_MAIL_VIA_UTL_SMTP", line 17
ORA-06512: at line 1
29278. 00000 - "SMTP transient error: %s"
*Cause:    A SMTP transient error occurred.
*Action:   Correct the error and retry the SMTP operation.
However, I can telnet successfully as root user to mail.mydomain.com. The stored procedure is:
create or replace
PROCEDURE send_mail_via_utl_smtp(
sender IN VARCHAR2,
recipient IN VARCHAR2,
subject IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
message IN VARCHAR2,
mailhost IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT 'mailhost'
AS
mail_conn UTL_SMTP.connection;
crlf CONSTANT VARCHAR2(2) := CHR(13) || CHR(10);
smtp_tcpip_port CONSTANT PLS_INTEGER := 25;
BEGIN
mail_conn := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION(mailhost, smtp_tcpip_port);
UTL_SMTP.HELO(mail_conn, mailhost);
UTL_SMTP.MAIL(mail_conn, sender);
UTL_SMTP.RCPT(mail_conn, recipient);
UTL_SMTP.DATA(mail_conn, SUBSTR(
'Date: ' || TO_CHAR(SYSTIMESTAMP, 'Dy, dd Mon YYYY HH24:MI:SS TZHTZM') || crlf
|| 'From: ' || sender || crlf
|| 'Subject: ' || subject || crlf
|| 'To: ' || recipient || crlf
|| message,
1, 32767));
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(mail_conn);
END send_mail_via_utl_smtp;
Note that mail.mydomain.com is sitting on the application server, and not the database server (not sure if that is important here). Previously, I set things up doing the following as SYS user:
# cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
# sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> @utlmail.sql;
Package created.
Synonym created.
SQL> @prvtmail.plb;
Package created.
Package body created.
Grant succeeded.
Package body created.
No errors.
SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET smtp_out_server = "mail.mydomain.com" SCOPE=MEMORY;
System altered.
SQL> show parameter smtp_out_server
NAME TYPE VALUE
============
smtp_out_server string mail.mydomain.com
SQL> exec DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL('my_acl_email.xml','for my db acl to send email', 'MYSCHEMA', TRUE, 'connect');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> exec DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL('my_acl_email.xml','mail.mydomain.com', 25, NULL);
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
It appears that the SYS user is permitted by the ACL, but is somehow blocked access to mail.mydomain.com on the application server. Are there any Linux configurations that need to occur in implementing this process? Or, am I missing something in configuring Oracle. I'm using 11.2.0.1.0. This is my first time setting this up. Does the database need to be cycled down then back up for any of these settings to take place?
Edited by: tem on Apr 20, 2012 2:45 PM

Answer 1

Thanks Justin, that helps a lot. Now, with the 'AUTH LOGIN' command, I'm getting the error:
ORA-29279: SMTP permanent error: 503 AUTH command used when not advertised
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 29
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 110
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 170
ORA-06512: at "JCLOCKGEN.SEND_MAIL_VIA_UTL_SMTP", line 22
ORA-06512: at line 1
29279. 00000 - "SMTP permanent error: %s"
*Cause:    A SMTP permanent error occurred.
*Action:   Correct the error and retry the SMTP operation.
UPDATE:
Actually, my procedure above uses this line:
UTL_SMTP.HELO(mail_conn, mailhost);
But I noticed Justin's code above uses:
UTL_SMTP.EHLO(mail_conn, mailhost);
When I change the HELO to EHLO, everything works fine. Here's the final code:
create or replace
PROCEDURE send_mail_via_utl_smtp(
sender IN VARCHAR2,
recipient IN VARCHAR2,
subject IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
message IN VARCHAR2,
mailhost IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT 'mailhost',
auth_username IN VARCHAR2,
auth_password IN VARCHAR2
AS
mail_conn UTL_SMTP.connection;
crlf CONSTANT VARCHAR2(2) := CHR(13) || CHR(10);
smtp_tcpip_port CONSTANT PLS_INTEGER := 25;
BEGIN
mail_conn := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION(mailhost, smtp_tcpip_port);
UTL_SMTP.EHLO(mail_conn, mailhost);
--------------BEGIN AUTHENTICATION--------------
UTL_SMTP.command(mail_conn, 'AUTH LOGIN');
utl_smtp.command(mail_conn, utl_raw.cast_to_varchar2(utl_encode.base64_encode( utl_raw.cast_to_raw(auth_username))));
utl_smtp.command(mail_conn, utl_raw.cast_to_varchar2(utl_encode.base64_encode( utl_raw.cast_to_raw(auth_password))));
--------------END AUTHENTICATION--------------
UTL_SMTP.MAIL(mail_conn, sender);
UTL_SMTP.RCPT(mail_conn, recipient);
UTL_SMTP.DATA(mail_conn, SUBSTR(
'Date: ' || TO_CHAR(SYSTIMESTAMP, 'Dy, dd Mon YYYY HH24:MI:SS TZHTZM') || crlf
|| 'From: ' || sender || crlf
|| 'Subject: ' || subject || crlf
|| 'To: ' || recipient || crlf
|| message,
1, 32767));
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(mail_conn);
END send_mail_via_utl_smtp;
Edited by: tem on Apr 20, 2012 5:55 PM