Please help me to understand the roles and purposes of an Exim Smarthost

Subject: Please help me to understand the roles and purposes of an Exim Smarthost


Good day from Singapore,


Recently, I could not send out emails to a recipient domain from a CentOS 7.9 Linux server using the mail command. This Linux server has cPanel web hosting control panel installed with Exim as its SMTP outgoing mail server.


My boss said that the Exchange server in the same private internal network was rejecting emails from the Linux server because the emails were marked as spam. He told me I would need to configure Exim SMTP server to relay emails to the Exchange server in the same private internal network.

The recipient domain is hosted in the Exchange server. Please read below for the Exim Smarthost which my boss had configured. I still do not fully understand the roles and purposes of a smarthost. Please help me to understand it. Thank you very much.


Modify Exim configuration file.


# nano /etc/exim.conf


Under the section ROUTERS CONFIGURATION, add the following lines.


static_route:

driver = manualroute

transport = remote_smtp

route_data = ${lookup{$domain}partial-lsearch{/etc/staticroutes}}


Restart Exim SMTP Server.


# systemctl restart exim


Create a file to hold static routes.


# touch /etc/staticroutes


# chown root:mail /etc/staticroutes


Display the contents of /etc/staticroutes


# cat /etc/staticroutes


teo-en-ming-corp.com: 192.168.252.2


Where 192.168.252.2 is the private IP address of the Microsoft Exchange server.


Reference Guide: Exim smarthost for specific domain – Easy setup for recipient and sender

Link: https://bobcares.com/blog/exim-smarthost-for-specific-domain/


Reference Guide: How do I test how Exim will route a given address?

Link: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/360053412433-How-do-I-test-how-Exim-will-route-a-given-address-


Test how Exim will route a given email address


# exim -bt it_backup@teo-en-ming-corp.com

it_backup@teo-en-ming-corp.com

  router = static_route, transport = remote_smtp

  host 192.168.252.2 [192.168.252.2]


Login to the Exchange Admin Center at https://localhost/ecp/?ExchClientVer=15


Click mail flow > receive connectors > Bypass Authentication.


Click scoping.


Under Remote network settings, add the following IP addresses:


192.168.253.181

<Public IP address of Exim Server (Linux mail server)>


Click Save. 


That's all.


Mr. Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming, 43 years old as of 26 Aug 2021, is a TARGETED INDIVIDUAL living in Singapore. He is an 

IT Consultant with a System Integrator (SI)/computer firm in Singapore. He is an IT enthusiast.





REFERENCES

==========


[1] https://lists.exim.org/lurker/message/20210826.134655.c20b66da.en.html


[2] https://marc.info/?l=exim-users&m=162999598524377&w=2

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