Unable to send email using PHP mail after Plesk update: Your server might not be configured to send mail using this method

Symptoms

• After Plesk update or on a new Plesk installation on CentOS 7 minimal, the PHP mail doesn't work.

• Unable to send an email with a PHP application, the following error is shown:

  CONFIG_TEXT: Unable to send email using PHP mail(). Your server might not be configured to send mail using this method.

• The following error might be shown in the following log files:

  • Apache log file /var/log/httpd/error.log:

    CONFIG_TEXT: sh: /usr/sbin/sendmail: Permission denied

  • In the PHP-FPM log file /var/log/plesk-phpXX-fpm/error.log:

    Note: Where XX is the PHP-FPM version selected in the domain.

    CONFIG_TEXT: WARNING: [pool example.com] child 21423 said into stderr: "sh: /usr/sbin/sendmail: Permission denied"

• The symlink /etc/alternatives/mta is as follows:

  # ls -l /etc/alternatives/mta
  lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 26 Oct 23 23:07 /etc/alternatives/mta -> /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix

Cause

This is a Plesk bug with the ID #PPP-46267 which is planned to be fixed in future Plesk updates.

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Resolution

As a workaround:

1. Connect to the server via SSH

2. Create two symlinks:
   

   # ln -s /etc/pam.d/smtp.postfix /etc/alternatives/mta-pam
   # ln -s /etc/alternatives/mta-pam /etc/pam.d/smtp

3. Unlink the file /etc/alternatives/mta:

   # unlink /etc/alternatives/mta

4. Re-create the Symlink pointing to /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/postfix-sendmail-wrapper binary:

   # ln -s /usr/lib64/plesk-9.0/postfix-sendmail-wrapper /etc/alternatives/mta