How to Fix Error Unable to Qualify My own Domain name

ERROR:

# Oct 6 14:11:06 nibappsun08 sendmail[9825]: [ID 702911 mail.alert] unable to qualify my own domain name (nibappsun08) -- using short name

Solution:

The error is being caused because 'sendmail' is not configured properly to function as a bonafide mail server. You will see this message every time you reboot the server and it will eventually time out.

If DNS is not configured on your server, then I'll make the assumption that sendmail is not needed at all.
Therefore, to disable the sendmail service in Solaris 10;

*1)* Check that SendMail is under SMF control (older Solaris 10 releases didn't have SMF, if I recall correctly)

root@blade ~# svcs -l svc:/network/smtp:sendmail
fmri         svc:/network/smtp:sendmail
name         sendmail SMTP mail transfer agent
enabled      true
state        online
next_state   none
state_time   Fri Jun 06 01:15:58 2008
logfile      /var/svc/log/network-smtp:sendmail.log
restarter    svc:/system/svc/restarter:default
contract_id  142 
dependency   require_all/refresh file://localhost/etc/mail/sendmail.cf (online)
dependency   require_all/refresh file://localhost/etc/nsswitch.conf (online)
dependency   optional_all/none svc:/system/filesystem/autofs (online)
dependency   require_all/none svc:/system/filesystem/local (online)
dependency   require_all/none svc:/network/service (online)
dependency   require_all/refresh svc:/milestone/name-services (online)
dependency   optional_all/refresh svc:/system/identity:domain (online)
dependency   optional_all/none svc:/system/system-log (online)
root@blade ~ # 

*2)* Disable the SendMail service;

root@blade ~ # ps -ef|grep sendmail
root  2669     1   0 01:16:59 ?           0:00 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m -C /etc/mail/local.cf
smmsp  2667     1   0 01:16:59 ?           0:00 /usr/lib/sendmail -Ac -q15m
root  2950  2788   0 01:56:18 pts/1       0:00 grep sendmail
root@blade ~ # svcadm disable svc:/network/smtp:sendmail
root@blade ~ # ps -ef | grep sendmail
root@blade ~ #

However, if your interested in stopping the error without disabling SendMail, you can attempt a few things;

*1)* Set the hostname to the desired FQDN;

root@blade ~ # hostname
blade
root@blade ~ # hostname blade.example.com
root@blade ~ # hostname
blade.example.com
root@blade ~ #

*2)* Set the default domain name;

root@blade ~ # echo "example.com" > /etc/defaultdomain
root@blade ~ # cat /etc/defaultdomain
example.com
root@blade ~ #

*3)* Use the "domainname" command to set the default domain

root@blade ~ # domainname example.com
root@blade ~ # domainname
example.com
root@blade ~ #

Note: Just using the "domainname" command is not persistent across reboots, the /etc/defaultdomain file is read by the system at boot up, and it should contain just the desired domain ("example.com"). Doing a "domainname" after a reboot when the /etc/defaultdomain file is set will return the domain name.

*4)* Check the entry in /etc/hosts;
A fresh install of Solaris 10 (Update 5) left me with the following (even though I setup DNS during the OS install);

#
# Internet host table
#
::1     localhost
127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.1.200   blade   loghost

What fixed the SendMail error for me was changing it to the following;

#
# Internet host table
#
::1     localhost
127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.1.200   blade.example.com blade loghost 

I hope this helps!