Hi again, thanks for the pointers everyone. It was not a Postfix issue. I have no idea how it happened but permissions on / got changed some how.
This fixed the default Postfix install, and then I put my config in and we are running normally again. root@mail2 ~]# ls -ld / drw-------. 23 root root 4096 Sep 8 09:59 / [root@mail2 ~]# chmod 555 / [root@mail2 ~]# ls -ld / dr-xr-xr-x. 23 root root 4096 Sep 8 09:59 / Server was rebooted [root@mail2 ~]# ps -ef | grep post root 1821 1 0 10:15 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/postfix/master postfix 1827 1821 0 10:15 ? 00:00:00 pickup -l -t fifo -u postfix 1828 1821 0 10:15 ? 00:00:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u root 2637 2609 0 10:15 pts/0 00:00:00 grep post Sadly I did not figure it out a co-worker did, but at least production services are running again. With Dovecot and other things running I was convinced it was not the server still and a postfix issue.... Thanks again for all that tried to help. -ALF -Angelo Fazzina Operating Systems Programmer / Analyst University of Connecticut, UITS, SSG, Server Systems 860-486-9075 -----Original Message----- From: owner-postfix-us...@postfix.org [mailto:owner-postfix-us...@postfix.org] On Behalf Of Viktor Dukhovni Sent: Friday, September 8, 2017 10:17 AM To: postfix-users@postfix.org Subject: Re: can't get server to start postfix > On Sep 8, 2017, at 10:07 AM, Fazzina, Angelo > <angelo.fazz...@uconn.edu<mailto:angelo.fazz...@uconn.edu>> wrote: > > I ran > Yum remove postfix > I moved any directories not deleted > I have SELinux disabled in /etc/sysconfig/ > > I ran yum install postfix. > > Still same error, this is crazy. You're not providing actionable information. Does the "ls -ld" command still report alternative access control for any of the directories on the path from the root to "/var/lib/postfix/master.lock"? If so, master(8) likely still gets "Permission" denied when trying to open the lock file. Either you're wrong and SELinux is not disabled, or as Wietse suggested there could be filesystem corruption, or there are inherited access controls in place down from /var, etc. You can test whether the restriction is still in place by giving the "postfix" user a shell of "/bin/sh", then: # su postfix $ touch /var/lib/postfix/master.lock # Likely fails $ echo $$ > /var/lib/postfix/master.lock # Likely fails Fixing SELinux and broken filesystems is not a subject matter for Postfix experts, best to ask on some forum dedicated for your O/S, or just hunker down and figure it out. Come back to this list when the Postfix user has full rights to the /var/lib/postfix/ directory. -- Viktor.