Why did Squirrelmail 1.49a, dovecot/IMAP and Outgoing Mail all break at once?

[TGPlatt, WebMaster-2]

I need advice please.

We're running the OldStable version of Debian Etch from August 2008
(vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-amd64). We've been using squirrelmail (1.4.9a-2007)
connecting through Dovecot's IMAP (1.0.rc15-2) and Pop3 (1.0.rc15-2) servers
ever since then to provide either SSH or TLS/SSL connections to postfix
(2.3.8-2+et) mail via SquirrelMail on our server. Although the SSL
capability is installed, we're not using it -- choosing to use SSH with
strong passwords instead.

This configuration has given us NO problems since we started 14 months
ago... until today. For unexplained reasons this morning the IMAP interface
suddenly began refusing or failing connections to everyone trying to connect
through SquirrelMail (or that's the way it looks from the outside). It also
fails to send out any emails. I tried rebooting the server but that made
[i]almost[/i] no difference.

The problem was first reported by a user. I then verified it. What I was
seeing BEFORE the reboot when I tried to login was an error from
SquirrelMail that said:

Error connecting to IMAP server: myserver.com.
11074 :

but the error I'm seeing since the server reboot is:

Error connecting to IMAP server: myserver.com.
11087 :

The IMAP server connect problem seems to be isolated to SquirrelMail. At
least I ran 2 tests and found I CAN connect to the IMAP server using both
Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express and can see the contents of all
folders on the server. So the IMAP problem only shows up in SquirrelMail.
But it DOES prevent ANY users from login in through SquirrelMail

However, the inability to send mail OUT from the server shows up everywhere.
Mail sent internally between accounts on the server -- either within a
single domain or between domains -- and even from remote users connected to
the server through Outlook or Outlook express gets delivered fine. But email
addressed to anyone outside the server to any domain -- whether Yahoo or MSN
or Google or wherever is all getting bouncing back with a "relay request
denied" error.

Other things I've tried are:

checked port status with

nmap -qT

both port 443 and 993 are reported as open -- one with imap and the other
with imaps.

I restarted inetd. It had no effect.

I restarted postfix. It had no effect.

I restarted the server. The IMAP login error code when attempting to login
via SquirrelMail changed 11074 to 11087. That's all. All other behaviors
remain the same.

I also confirmed the SquirrelMail login failure problem occurs in IE 7, IE 8
and Firefox from 3 different machines in multiple geo-locations and networks
AND both with and without the user's local firewall running. So the issue is
definitely ON the server and seems to be isolated to squirrelmail even
though no changes have been made to squirrelmail or any of its components in
months.

When I checked the /var/log/mail.err log, I found the following series of
seemingly useless error messages:

[code]Oct 25 08:40:33 axx012503 dovecot: POP3(sarah):
unlink(/var/mail/sarah.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 25 09:31:48
axx012503 dovecot: POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox
file /var/mail/mymailname Oct 25 10:02:28 axx012503 dovecot:
POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox file
/var/mail/mymailname Oct 26 01:01:06 axx012503 postfix/sendmail[30523]:
fatal: root(0): queue file write error Oct 26 15:06:53 axx012503 dovecot:
POP3(sarah): unlink(/var/mail/sarah.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 27
01:01:04 axx012503 postfix/sendmail[6715]: fatal: root(0): queue file write
error Oct 27 08:56:15 axx012503 dovecot: POP3(bigdork):
unlink(/var/mail/bigdork.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 27 08:56:16
axx012503 dovecot: POP3(bigdork): file_dotlock_delete() failed with mbox
file /var/mail/bigdork: No such file or directory Oct 27 14:57:56 axx012503
dovecot: POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox file
/var/mail/mymailname[/code]

They seem useless because I frankly can't make heads nor tails out of what
they're telling me.

That's it. I've racked my brain all day on this and I'm no closer to a
solution now than I was when the problem was reported 14 hours ago. At this
point, any hints, helpful suggestions or questions would be appreciated!

Thanks!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
-----
squirrelmail-users mailing list
Posting guidelines: http://squirrelmail.org/postingguidelines
List address: squirrelmail-users@...
List archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.squirrelmail.user
List info (subscribe/unsubscribe/change options): https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users

[Tilman Schmidt]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Am 2009-10-28 07:11 schrieb TGPlatt, WebMaster:
> [...] For unexplained reasons this morning the IMAP interface
> suddenly began refusing or failing connections to everyone trying to connect
> through SquirrelMail (or that's the way it looks from the outside). It also
> fails to send out any emails. I tried rebooting the server but that made
> [i]almost[/i] no difference.
[...]

> The IMAP server connect problem seems to be isolated to SquirrelMail. At
> least I ran 2 tests and found I CAN connect to the IMAP server using both
> Microsoft Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express and can see the contents of all
> folders on the server. So the IMAP problem only shows up in SquirrelMail.
> But it DOES prevent ANY users from login in through SquirrelMail
>
> However, the inability to send mail OUT from the server shows up everywhere.
> Mail sent internally between accounts on the server -- either within a
> single domain or between domains -- and even from remote users connected to
> the server through Outlook or Outlook express gets delivered fine. But email
> addressed to anyone outside the server to any domain -- whether Yahoo or MSN
> or Google or wherever is all getting bouncing back with a "relay request
> denied" error.

[...]

> When I checked the /var/log/mail.err log, I found the following series of
> seemingly useless error messages:
>
> [code]Oct 25 08:40:33 axx012503 dovecot: POP3(sarah):
> unlink(/var/mail/sarah.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 25 09:31:48
> axx012503 dovecot: POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox
> file /var/mail/mymailname Oct 25 10:02:28 axx012503 dovecot:
> POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox file
> /var/mail/mymailname Oct 26 01:01:06 axx012503 postfix/sendmail[30523]:
> fatal: root(0): queue file write error Oct 26 15:06:53 axx012503 dovecot:
> POP3(sarah): unlink(/var/mail/sarah.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 27
> 01:01:04 axx012503 postfix/sendmail[6715]: fatal: root(0): queue file write
> error Oct 27 08:56:15 axx012503 dovecot: POP3(bigdork):
> unlink(/var/mail/bigdork.lock) failed: Permission denied Oct 27 08:56:16
> axx012503 dovecot: POP3(bigdork): file_dotlock_delete() failed with mbox
> file /var/mail/bigdork: No such file or directory Oct 27 14:57:56 axx012503
> dovecot: POP3(mymailname): UIDs broken with partial sync in mbox file
> /var/mail/mymailname[/code]
>
> They seem useless because I frankly can't make heads nor tails out of what
> they're telling me.

Well, they are definitely not useless, although their use would be
greatly enhanced if you had preserved the original linebreaks.
In the future, please avoid munging log excerpts like that - it makes
them horribly difficult to read.

Anyway, this log excerpt seems to indicate some things going seriously
wrong on your server. I'd recommend starting with checking for simple
reasons for general malfunctions, such as:
- - insufficient free space, particularly on the /var and /tmp filesystems
- - hard disk errors
- - memory errors
- - automatic update gone wrong
- - system compromise / unauthorized access

HTH
T.

- --
Tilman Schmidt
Abteilungsleiter Technik
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phoenix Software GmbH                               Tel. [phone]
Adolf-Hombitzer-Str. 12                            Fax  [phone]
53227 Bonn, Germany                               www.phoenixsoftware.de
Geschäftsführer: W. Grießl                     Amtsgericht Bonn HRB 2934
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFK6CY1780oymN0g8MRAnkyAKDaq5hE4mpz0+IA0oLMYraMU5vFYQCePwVd
47nhp6OIECL7PP33rcVCfE8=
=mp3b
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
-----
squirrelmail-users mailing list
Posting guidelines: http://squirrelmail.org/postingguidelines
List address: squirrelmail-users@...
List archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.squirrelmail.user
List info (subscribe/unsubscribe/change options): https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users

[Tomas Kuliavas]

2009.10.28 07:11 TGPlatt, WebMaster rašė:

> I need advice please.
>
> We're running the OldStable version of Debian Etch from August 2008
> (vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-amd64). We've been using squirrelmail (1.4.9a-2007)
> connecting through Dovecot's IMAP (1.0.rc15-2) and Pop3 (1.0.rc15-2)
> servers
> ever since then to provide either SSH or TLS/SSL connections to postfix
> (2.3.8-2+et) mail via SquirrelMail on our server. Although the SSL
> capability is installed, we're not using it -- choosing to use SSH with
> strong passwords instead.
>
> This configuration has given us NO problems since we started 14 months
> ago... until today. For unexplained reasons this morning the IMAP
> interface
> suddenly began refusing or failing connections to everyone trying to
> connect
> through SquirrelMail (or that's the way it looks from the outside). It
> also
> fails to send out any emails. I tried rebooting the server but that made
> [i]almost[/i] no difference

....
> When I checked the /var/log/mail.err log, I found the following series of
> seemingly useless error messages:
...
> /var/mail/mymailname Oct 26 01:01:06 axx012503 postfix/sendmail[30523]:
> fatal: root(0): queue file write error Oct 26 15:06:53 axx012503 dovecot:
...
> They seem useless because I frankly can't make heads nor tails out of what
> they're telling me.
>
> That's it. I've racked my brain all day on this and I'm no closer to a
> solution now than I was when the problem was reported 14 hours ago. At
> this
> point, any hints, helpful suggestions or questions would be appreciated!

Check disk usage on your mail server. Are you sure that partition with
/var/ directory has enough free space.

Make sure that disk is not failing. Check kernel log for disk related
error messages.

Check your mail queue and make sure that it is not filled with spam.

--
Tomas



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
-----
squirrelmail-users mailing list
Posting guidelines: http://squirrelmail.org/postingguidelines
List address: squirrelmail-users@...
List archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.squirrelmail.user
List info (subscribe/unsubscribe/change options): https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/squirrelmail-users