Check SMTP Server Availability for ORA-29278 or ORA-29279 errors using UTL_SMTP to Send Email

APPLIES TO:

PL/SQL - Version 9.2.0.8 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.
***Checked for relevance on 13-May-2014***

SYMPTOMS

When trying to send email using UTL_SMTP getting following error :

ORA-29278: SMTP transient error: 421 Service not available 
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 21 
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 97 
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_SMTP", line 139

Or potentially

ORA-29279: SMTP permanent error

followed by a SMTP error code.

CAUSE

The "ORA-29278: SMTP transient error: 421 Service not available" error indicates that the problem is not with the UTL_SMTP package 
but the fact that your database server‘s network configuration does not allow it to contact an external server.

SOLUTION

You first have to check whether you are able to contact the email server without involving ORACLE.

For example use the following telnet procedure to see whether the mail server is reachable from the Database server:

******PERFORM THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS FROM YOUR DATABASE SERVER MACHINE AND NOT FROM OTHER MACHINES.****** 

Note: The information presented here does not apply to TLS/SSL connections .

a) Start a telnet session to the SMTP server‘s communication port. (The default port for SMTP is 25)

$telnet <smtp servername as used utl_smtp package> 25

A telnet session should open with a response from smtp:

For eg :

response from smtp ---> 220 ukxxx1 Sendmail SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4 ready at 
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 15:14:25 +0100

b) Now introduce the client machine to the server by typing: 
helo domain
(The correct spelling is helo - not hello)

c) Tell the SMTP Gateway who the test email is coming from by typing: 
-------> mail from: [email protected]

For eg :

A response from smtp ---> 250 [email protected] Sender ok

d) Tell the SMTP Gateway who to send the test email to by typing: 
--------> rcpt to: [email protected]

For eg :

A response from smtp ---> 250 [email protected] Recipient ok

e) Tell the SMTP Gateway what type of information is being sent by typing: 
-------> data

A response from smtp ---> 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself

f) Enter the test message and remember to close the email with a dot "." 
Type ---> Subject: SMTP Test 
Hello this is an smtp test for EM. .

A response from smtp ---> 250 PAA15913 Message accepted for delivery

g) End the SMTP connection session by typing: 
--------> quit

response from smtp ---> 221 ukxxx1 closing connection 
The connection has been terminated.

The email should then be delivered to the receiver via the SMTP server.

If the command line test doesn‘t work, hopefully a helpful error messages from the SMTP server will be displayed indicating a problem will be with the SMTP server setup.

If the above telnet session fails it confirms the network block . You may have to contact your network administrator to remove the block. 
Once your network administrator removes the block , retry the above telnet session. 
Before using UTL_SMTP , please ensure that the telnet session succeeds.

If the telnet session succeeds, then try the following sample code to test the smtp server :

Note : Please change the smtp server name in line number 6 and 7 in procedure TESTMAIL.

Note: If the below code fails again with the same error , then use IP Address instead of Mail server name in line number 6 and 7.
 OR
Make the hostname entry in the /etc/hosts file so that it is properly resolved to an IP address

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE TESTMAIL(fromm VARCHAR2,too VARCHAR2,sub VARCHAR2,body VARCHAR2,port NUMBER) 
IS 
objConnection UTL_SMTP.CONNECTION; 
vrData VARCHAR2(32000); 
BEGIN 
objConnection := UTL_SMTP.OPEN_CONNECTION(‘<user smtp server name or ip address>‘,PORT); 
UTL_SMTP.HELO(objConnection, ‘<user smtp server name or ip address>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.MAIL(objConnection, fromm); 
UTL_SMTP.RCPT(objConnection, too); 
UTL_SMTP.OPEN_DATA(objConnection);

UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘From: ‘||fromm || UTL_TCP.CRLF); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘To: ‘||too || UTL_TCP.CRLF);

UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘Subject: ‘ || sub || UTL_tcp.CRLF); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘MIME-Version: ‘ || ‘1.0‘ || UTL_tcp.CRLF); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘Content-Type: ‘ || ‘text/html;‘);

UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection, ‘Content-Transfer-Encoding: ‘ || ‘"8Bit"‘ || UTL_TCP.CRLF); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF||‘<HTML>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF||‘<BODY>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF||‘<FONT COLOR="red" FACE="Courier New">‘||body||‘</FONT>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF||‘</BODY>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.WRITE_DATA(objConnection,UTL_TCP.CRLF||‘</HTML>‘); 
UTL_SMTP.CLOSE_DATA(objConnection); 
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(objConnection); 
EXCEPTION 
WHEN UTL_SMTP.TRANSIENT_ERROR OR UTL_SMTP.PERMANENT_ERROR THEN 
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(objConnection); 
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(SQLERRM); 
WHEN OTHERS THEN 
UTL_SMTP.QUIT(objconnection); 
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(SQLERRM); 
END TESTMAIL; 
/

DECLARE 
Vdate Varchar2(25); 
BEGIN 
Vdate := to_char(sysdate,‘dd-mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM‘); 
TESTMAIL(‘[email protected]‘, ‘[email protected]‘, ‘TESTMAIL‘,‘This is a UTL_SMTP-generated email at ‘|| Vdate,25); 
END; 
/

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REFERENCES

NOTE:74269.1 - How to Test an SMTP Mail Gateway From a Command Line Interface
NOTE:1559609.1 - ORA-29278: SMTP Transient Error: 452 4.4.5 Insufficient Disk Space