Newbie question about replication

Sun Oct 18 23:53:58 EEST 2020

On Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 11:17:34PM +0200, John Fawcett wrote:
> > I have observed my mail storage directories on both instances and have
> > noticed that they diverge a little over time - the instance B not having
> > all the updates. However the moment I connect another client to instance
> > B and log in as a particular user, the state on instance B springs to the
> > correct state and I see the same content on both clients, and the storage
> > directories become identical as well.
>
> Are there any replication errors logged? Does doveadm replicator status or
> doveadm replicator status <mailbox> give any sign of errors?
>
> Can you give some example or evidence of the disalignment that is happening?

Thank you for response. I was asking if such difference in directories is
normal or not and do I have the approach right or is there some obvious error
in my configuration.

I still have an example that prompted me to write this email. Instance B had
three mails missing in comparison to instance A, when I listed the storage
directories from the command line. They got replicated fine just after I
connected a client to instance B. No difference since then, but I need to
observe the servers for some more time, it seems like it happens over a few
weeks or so. No errors in dovecot logs, doveadm replicator status output does
not show any errors as well, but instances have been restarted, so it is not
a goof indication. I am going to enable debug to see what's going on. Maybe it
was some transient situation or human error on my part during setting it all up
or tweaking the configuration. I will come back if I observe such thing again.

Here are the listings. Hostnames etc. replaced for privacy.

--- Instance A
root at serverA:/var/vmail/user at example.net/mail/INBOX/.MailDir/cur# ll
total 14684
drwx------ 2 vmail vmail    4096 Oct 16 13:15  .
drwx------ 5 vmail vmail    4096 Oct 16 13:15  ..
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  303371 Oct 30  2019 '1572438988.M167729P10012.hostname.mydomain.net,S=303371,W=307546:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 1789790 Oct 30  2019 '1572438998.M633142P10012.hostname.mydomain.net,S=1789790,W=1814325:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  171191 Nov 17  2019 '1574012316.M188507P14607.hostname.mydomain.net,S=171191,W=173557:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 3430888 Nov 29  2019 '1574956300.M308957P25339.hostname.mydomain.net,S=3430888,W=3475534:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    7185 Mar 14  2020 '1584150674.M740366P21925.hostname.mydomain.net,S=7185,W=7294:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    5543 Mar 25  2020 '1585148832.M609262P877.hostname.mydomain.net,S=5543,W=5674:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    3052 Apr 19 22:23 '1587327803.M423484P19471.hostname.mydomain.net,S=3052,W=3122:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   13690 Apr 23 14:47 '1587646046.M939301P22621.hostname.mydomain.net,S=13690,W=13886:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 8917623 May 25 19:06 '1590426395.M585516P47979.hostname.mydomain.net,S=8917623,W=9033467:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    5473 Jun 20 20:14 '1592676840.M810974P68188.hostname.mydomain.net,S=5473,W=5576:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    8776 Jun 21 19:25 '1592760350.M765525P68795.hostname.mydomain.net,S=8776,W=8936:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    4624 Jul 23 17:25 '1595517903.M310464P9504.hostname.mydomain.net,S=4624,W=4715:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    4378 Aug 18 00:16 '1597702561.M109036P34930.hostname.mydomain.net,S=4378,W=4453:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   14522 Sep 17 11:52 '1600336372.M982371P3862.hostname.mydomain.net,S=14522,W=14813:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   30411 Sep 23 14:43 '1600865025.M865916P104.hostname.mydomain.net,S=30411,W=30850:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   39928 Sep 30 08:27 '1601447231.M21429P464.hostname.mydomain.net,S=39928,W=40487:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    8529 Oct  9 15:32 '1602250379.M823144P212.hostname.mydomain.net,S=8529,W=8701:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   17972 Oct 15 00:59 '1602716371.M291521P5700.hostname.mydomain.net,S=17972,W=18407:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   38528 Oct 15 08:24 '1602743049.M23930P5928.hostname.mydomain.net,S=38528,W=39224:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   52350 Oct 15 12:05 '1602756328.M324186P6101.hostname.mydomain.net,S=52350,W=53436:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  112458 Oct 16 13:05 '1602846323.M415371P7147.hostname.mydomain.net,S=112458,W=114768:2,S'

--- Instance B
root at serverB:/var/vmail/user at example.net/mail/INBOX/.MailDir/cur# ll
total 14608
drwx------ 2 vmail vmail   12288 Oct 16 13:15  .
drwx------ 5 vmail vmail    4096 Oct 16 13:15  ..
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  303371 Oct 30  2019 '1572438988.M167729P10012.hostname.mydomain.net,S=303371,W=307546:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 1789790 Oct 30  2019 '1572438998.M633142P10012.hostname.mydomain.net,S=1789790,W=1814325:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  171191 Nov 17  2019 '1574012316.M188507P14607.hostname.mydomain.net,S=171191,W=173557:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 3430888 Nov 29  2019 '1574956300.M308957P25339.hostname.mydomain.net,S=3430888,W=3475534:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    7185 Mar 14  2020 '1584150674.M740366P21925.hostname.mydomain.net,S=7185,W=7294:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    5543 Mar 25  2020 '1585148832.M609262P877.hostname.mydomain.net,S=5543,W=5674:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    3052 Apr 19 22:23 '1587327803.M423484P19471.hostname.mydomain.net,S=3052,W=3122:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   13690 Apr 23 14:47 '1587646046.M939301P22621.hostname.mydomain.net,S=13690,W=13886:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail 8917623 May 25 19:06 '1590426395.M585516P47979.hostname.mydomain.net,S=8917623,W=9033467:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    5473 Jun 20 20:14 '1592676840.M810974P68188.hostname.mydomain.net,S=5473,W=5576:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    8776 Jun 21 19:25 '1592760350.M765525P68795.hostname.mydomain.net,S=8776,W=8936:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    4624 Jul 23 17:25 '1595517903.M310464P9504.hostname.mydomain.net,S=4624,W=4715:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail    4378 Aug 18 00:16 '1597702561.M109036P34930.hostname.mydomain.net,S=4378,W=4453:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   14522 Sep 17 11:52 '1600336372.M982371P3862.hostname.mydomain.net,S=14522,W=14813:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   30411 Sep 23 14:43 '1600865025.M865916P104.hostname.mydomain.net,S=30411,W=30850:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   39928 Sep 30 08:27 '1601447231.M21429P464.hostname.mydomain.net,S=39928,W=40487:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail   38528 Oct 15 08:24 '1602743049.M23930P5928.hostname.mydomain.net,S=38528,W=39224:2,S'
-rw------- 1 vmail vmail  112458 Oct 16 13:05 '1602846323.M415371P7147.hostname.mydomain.net,S=112458,W=114768:2,S'

-- 
Piotr "Malgond" Auksztulewicz                     firstname at lastname.net