custom transport for postfix on RHEL 4/AS (CentOS 4.3)

I was told to use a special server to relay outbound emails for a new NMS server I built. The NMS server has POSTFIX installed and is configured to send production alerts to a new duty pager, a Blackberry 6230 with BIS account served by T-mobile. I did POSTFIX relay thingy once elsewhere, so, I instantly did the following

• vi /etc/postfix/transport & added the following two lines at the bottom of the file

tmo.blackberry.net smtp:smartrelay2.intranet.com
intranet.com smtp:10.9.9.99

• run 'postmap' to generate the hashed transport:
  

postmap /etc/postfix/transport

• vi /etc/postfix/main.cf and commented out the global relay

#relayhost = 10.9.9.99

• reload configuration for the running postfix. Reloading was met with some nonsense error/warnings, so I ended up with a full restart.
  

/etc/init.d/postfix reload OR service postfix reload

• tested it and it didn't work. it seemed that the transport map doesn't exist, since it looked up MX record to find SMTP servers to send mail to.

man postmap, man postfix, man 5 transport, grep -i transport main.cf.

• It became obvious that main.cf doesn't have reference to use which transport hash at all. so I added the following then restarted POSTFIX. Bingo!
  

transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport

It still made me curious why this is not enabled by default since one needs to consciously insert rules into the transport configuration file as well as to consciously run postmap to generate the hash. This would save me the hassle to figure out it is not there, and save a service outage in production environment should custom transport becomes necessary. The only argument I can find up to now is the security, only if it takes different credentials to modify transport.db and to start use transport.db at first place.

Of course, "crazy" default behavior can be identified on other modern operating systems also. Don't get me started with that Solaris halts if it receives the POWER Fail signal sent by a resetting serial console.

technical interview for an enterprise job

Two days ago, I went for an on-site interview at a major media company. The lobby is similar to Google's in that you have  their namesake news channel  on a big LCD TV instead of a big screen showing all the current buzz words people are searching using Google Search. The schedule seemed a bit rushed than Google's, since it is 1.5 hours instead of 3.  Of course,  I flew from ATL to SFO just for the Google interview, thus they'd want  to ask any/all questions they have at one shot.

At this point of my life and career, I am really interested in a technical lead or hands-on manager type position, as a transition to move up the ladder, so to speak. I have advanced degree (MS/MIS) and broad exposure to major IS/IT components such as OS, RDBMS, network, security, etc. Over the course of the interview, I started to get the feeling that this position was purely technical thus no upward opportunity would be there. That said, the group is sizable and currently has no manager or lead, plus the job description in the ad requires tech lead experience. So, we'll see. Before he took off for another meeting, the director asked me a PM-type question and told me that my answer was a good one though a little bit too detailed. Is this a hint ?!

Two potential peers showed me around the working places and introduced me to the other three guys/gals. A classic textbook hint that they view you as a potential peer (a good thing). Or, I could have read too much into it, since they could have been just showing off their manners.

On my drive back to work, I thought of a couple of cons:

• The cube is tiny though private
• The drive would be bad and I don't think telecommuting would be an option.
• On-call duties would definitely be rotated.
• Money won't be so great either, since the high end of the range is lower than what I make now.
• could be pigeon-holed into an OS-only type person
• could be victim of outsourcing or politics in a large organization
  

And, of a few Pros:

• The name recognition of the group
• The enterprise experience you definitely won't have from working with SMBs.
• opportunity to specialize & get deep onto topics of interest
  

Working with SMBs are more stressful, since you are the ONE, plus very limited resource to address same type of concerns that large enterprises pour money/man-hour into.