11.36 silently uninstalled postfix

[JayHaitch]

When my WHM/cPanel installation automatically updated to 11.36 (from 11.34), it silently uninstalled postfix. Took me a while to figure out what was going on.

I know that postfix isn't supported, but I've had this setup running just fine for a while. I disabled Exim in WHM/cPanel and had setup postfix on my own.

I eventually traced it to the Exim RPM installation. Even though it is disabled, it uninstalled postfix. cPanel should not automatically uninstall postfix.

 

[JayHaitch]

Damn it! Upgrading to 11.36.0.18 uninstalled postfix again.

How can I prevent this?

 

[ThinIce]

Interesting one. I think this may be a consequence of how RPM works to ensure there is only one MTA at a time.

rpm -q --obsoletes exim-4.80-6.cp1136
sendmail
postfix
qmail

I doubt you can disable exim using the target system, being it's a core part of cPanel, I may be wrong however, see

RPM Cookbook

/usr/local/cpanel/etc/rpm.versions lists exim as comprising the following

exim:
components:
- exim
- cpanel-libspf2
- cpanel-libsrs_alt

Looks like there is a listing under srpms too.

Be interested to know how you get on / any ticket response you receive.

 

[JayHaitch]

Just today I set exim to be "unmanaged", but as you said, I doubt that will work.

I clicked on "Report a Defect" in order to report this issue. Unfortunately, clicking on "Continue" in that form doesn't work; there is an error in the console.

 

[pawlectro]

I am opening this up again because this is the only post I found on this topic, there has not been an answer and it is happening again with the update to 11.50.0.

I operate a postfix mail server on WHM/Cpanel that processes an avg of 750,000 emails per day so having postfix uninstalled is beyond frustrating.

The easiest answer I would like to know is how to force cpanel to ignore my postfix install.

 

[pawlectro]

Just today I set exim to be "unmanaged", but as you said, I doubt that will work.

I clicked on "Report a Defect" in order to report this issue. Unfortunately, clicking on "Continue" in that form doesn't work; there is an error in the console.

I just changed exim's rpm target to "unmanaged." Will see if this works.

 

[pawlectro]

Received a reply from cPanel. If switching exim to unmanaged does not work then I will be forced to drop the use of cPanel. So far it is holding.

<quote>
I have been told by one of our developers that this is intended behavior in cPanel moving forward and there is currently no way to stop cPanel from removing all other MTAs. This is because cPanel now requires that no other MTAs are installed on the server. Simply put Postfix can no longer be run on cPanel servers.

This was an intentional change due to these services blocking updates for a very long time. I apologize for any frustration this causes. Please let us know if you have any questions.
</quote>

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello

Internal case number 194237 is open to ensure our documentation correctly explains that the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.50.0.11 or later forcibly removes the following RPMs due to a conflict with the Exim RPM:

• postfix
• sendmail
• sendmail-cf

I'd also like to point out that we do have a feature request open for Postfix support at:

https://features.cpanel.net/topic/postfix-support

Please vote and add your feedback to this feature request if you would like to see native support for Postfix in cPanel.

Thank you.