Error: "Cannot release the message. It has either been released already or a delivery error occurred. Please check Brightmail Log for details."

Products

• Messaging Gateway

Issue/Introduction

You are trying to release a message from Symantec Messaging Gateway (SMG) spam quarantine, and it fails with the error "Cannot release the message. It has either been released already, or a delivery error occurred. Please check Brightmail Log for details."

The message could be destined for an internal domain or an external domain.

"Cannot release the message. It has either been released or was unable to contact the SMTP host."

BrightmailLog.log

May 24 2023 22:42:26 [https-jsse-nio-443-exec-9] [QuarantineManager] ERROR - error.quarantine.unable.release.delivery
javax.mail.SendFailedException: Invalid Addresses;
  nested exception is:
        com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPAddressFailedException: 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay

Resolution

Determine where releases from quarantine will be delivered 

Verify the Control Centre SMTP settings in (Administration > Control Centre> SMTP).

Two options can be selected: "Use existing non-local relay settings" or "Define new host".

1. 1. "Use existing non-local relay settings" uses the Outbound Non-Local Mail Delivery settings under (Administration > Configuration > Select the "Local Host" > SMTP > Outbound)
      1. If Outbound Non-Local Mail Delivery is set to "Use MX lookup for non-local domain mail", then a DNS MX record lookup will be done to determine where messages released from quarantine will be delivered.
      2. If Outbound Non-Local Mail Delivery is set to "Relay non-local mail to the following hosts" is selected, then the control centre is going to deliver all messages released from quarantine to those IP addresses.
         
         OR
         
         
   2. "Define new host" delivers messages released from quarantine to the configured IP and port.

(NOTE: If you select "Define new host" and it is configured to an internal mail server, you will not be able to release messages that are destined for external domains. The control centre will attempt to deliver the messages to your mail server, which is likely not configured to accept email for that domain. Local domain mail will be accepted and non-local (external) domain mail will be rejected and will remain in quarantine.)

Delivery failures when releasing a message from spam quarantine

If a message fails to be delivered when released from quarantine, check the domain portion of the TO: address of the quarantined message (the part after the @ sign). This is the domain that the control centre is trying to contact when a message is released.

Based on the configuration of the control centre SMTP settings, the failure is either with the server configured in "Define new host" or with resolving the MX record if using "Use existing non-local relay settings".

Troubleshoot why the messages are not being accepted or resolved appropriately. Troubleshoot email delivery issues using telnet

Releasing messages to both internal and external domains

You must be configured to "Use existing non-local relay settings" and the "Outbound Non-Local Mail Delivery" settings must be configured to "Use MX Lookup for non-local domain mail" to release messages both internally and externally. That means all email released from the spam quarantine will be delivered based on the MX records for the domain.

• In order to use this option, your internal DNS server needs to have an internal MX record for each of your internal domains. When SMG does an MX record lookup for your "domain.com", all configured DNS servers (Administration > Configuration > Select a scanner > Edit > DNS/Time) must return an IP address of an internal mail server that will accept messages for that domain.
  
  

When configured correctly, you will have "Use existing non-local relay settings" selected in (Administration > Control Centre> SMTP). And "Use MX Lookup for non-local domain mail" is selected in "Outbound Non-Local Mail Delivery" (Administration > Configuration > Select the "Local Host" > SMTP > Outbound)

You will be able to test the MX lookup for each of your internal domains in (Administration > Utilities > Troubleshooting), and it will return the internal IP address of the mail server that accepts mail for that domain.