no full syncs after upgrading to dovecot 2.3.18

Paul Kudla (SCOM.CA Internet Services Inc.) paul at scom.ca
Tue Apr 26 13:38:06 UTC 2022


Agreed there seems to be no way of posting these kinds of issues to see 
if they are even being addressed or even known about moving forward on 
new updates

i read somewhere there is a new branch soming out but nothing as of yet?

2.4 maybe ....
5.0 ........

my previous replication issues (back in feb) went unanswered.

not faulting anyone, but the developers do seem to be disconnected from 
issues as of late? or concentrating on other issues.

I have no problem with support contracts for day to day maintence 
however as a programmer myself they usually dont work as the other end 
relies on the latest source code anyways. Thus can not help.

I am trying to take a part the replicator c programming based on 2.3.18 
as most of it does work to some extent.

tcps just does not work (ie 600 seconds default in the c programming)

My thoughts are tcp works ok but fails when the replicator through 
dsync-client.c when asked to return the folder list?


replicator-brain.c seems to control the overall process and timing.

replicator-queue.c seems to handle the que file that does seem to carry 
acurate info.


things in the source code are documented enough to figure this out but i 
am still going through all the related .h files documentation wise which 
are all over the place.

there is no clear documentation on the .h lib files so i have to walk 
through the tree one at a time finding relative code.

since the dsync from doveadm does see to work ok i have to assume the 
dsync-client used to compile the replicator is at fault somehow or a 
call from it upstream?

Thanks for your input on the other issues noted below, i will keep that 
in mind when disassembling the source code.

No sense in fixing one thing and leaving something else behind, probably 
all related anyways.

i have two test servers avaliable so i can play with all this offline to 
reproduce the issues

Unfortunately I have to make a living first, this will be addressed when 
possible as i dont like systems that are live running this way and 
currently only have 5 accounts with this issue (mine included)




Happy Tuesday !!!
Thanks - paul

Paul Kudla


Scom.ca Internet Services <http://www.scom.ca>
004-1009 Byron Street South
Whitby, Ontario - Canada
L1N 4S3

Toronto 416.642.7266
Main 1.866.411.7266
Fax 1.888.892.7266

On 4/26/2022 9:03 AM, Reuben Farrelly wrote:
> 
> I ran into this back in February and documented a reproducible test case 
> (and sent it to this list).  In short - I was able to reproduce this by 
> having a valid and consistent mailbox on the source/local, creating a 
> very standard empty Maildir/(new|cur|tmp) folder on the remote replica, 
> and then initiating the replicate from the source. This consistently 
> caused dsync to fail replication with the error "dovecot.index reset, 
> view is now inconsistent" and sync aborted, leaving the replica mailbox 
> in a screwed up inconsistent state. Client connections on the source 
> replica were also dropped when this error occurred.  You can see the 
> error by enabling debug level logging if you initiate dsync manually on 
> a test mailbox.
> 
> The only workaround I found was to remove the remote Maildir and let 
> Dovecot create the whole thing from scratch.  Dovecot did not like any 
> existing folders on the destination replica even if they were the same 
> names as the source and completely empty.  I was able to reproduce this 
> the bare minimum of folders - just an INBOX!
> 
> I have no idea if any of the developers saw my post or if the bug has 
> been fixed for the next release.  But it seemed to be quite a common 
> problem over time (saw a few posts from people going back a long way 
> with the same problem) and it is seriously disruptive to clients.  The 
> error message is not helpful in tracking down the problem either.
> 
> Secondly, I also have had an ongoing and longstanding problem using 
> tcps: for replication.  For some reason using tcps: (with no other 
> changes at all to the config) results in a lot of timeout messages 
> "Error: dsync I/O has stalled, no activity for 600 seconds".  This goes 
> away if I revert back to tcp: instead of tcps - with tcp: I very rarely 
> get timeouts.  No idea why, guess this is a bug of some sort also.
> 
> It's disappointing that there appears to be no way to have these sorts 
> or problems addressed like there once was.  I am not using Dovecot for 
> commercial purposes so paying a fortune for a support contract for a 
> high end installation just isn't going to happen, and this list seems to 
> be quite ordinary for getting support and reporting bugs nowadays....
> 
> Reuben
> 
> On 26/04/2022 7:21 pm, Paul Kudla (SCOM.CA Internet Services Inc.) wrote:
> 
>>
>> side issue
>>
>> if you are getting inconsistant dsyncs there is no real way to fix 
>> this in the long run.
>>
>> i know its a pain (already had to my self)
>>
>> i needed to do a full sync, take one server offline, delete the user 
>> dir (with dovecot offline) and then rsync (or somehow duplicate the 
>> main server's user data) over the the remote again.
>>
>> then bring remote back up and it kind or worked worked
>>
>> best suggestion is to bring the main server down at night so the copy 
>> is clean?
>>
>> if using postfix you can enable the soft bounce option and the mail 
>> will back spool until everything comes back online
>>
>> (needs to be enable on bother servers)
>>
>> replication was still an issue on accounts with 300+ folders in them, 
>> still working on a fix for that.
>>
>>
>> Happy Tuesday !!!
>> Thanks - paul
>>
>> Paul Kudla
>>
>>
>> Scom.ca Internet Services <http://www.scom.ca>
>> 004-1009 Byron Street South
>> Whitby, Ontario - Canada
>> L1N 4S3
>>
>> Toronto 416.642.7266
>> Main 1.866.411.7266
>> Fax 1.888.892.7266
>>
>> On 4/25/2022 10:01 AM, Arnaud Abélard wrote:
>>> Ah, I'm now getting errors in the logs, that would explains the 
>>> increasing number of failed sync requests:
>>>
>>> dovecot: imap(xxxxx)<2961235><Bs6w43rdQPAqAcsFiXEmAInUhhA3Rfqh>: 
>>> Error: Mailbox INBOX: /vmail/l/i/xxxxx/dovecot.index reset, view is 
>>> now inconsistent
>>>
>>>
>>> And sure enough:
>>>
>>> # dovecot replicator status xxxxx
>>>
>>> xxxxx         none     00:02:54  07:11:28  -            y
>>>
>>>
>>> What could explain that error?
>>>
>>> Arnaud
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 25/04/2022 15:13, Arnaud Abélard wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> On my side we are running Linux (Debian Buster).
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure my problem is actually the same as Paul or you 
>>>> Sebastian since I have a lot of boxes but those are actually small 
>>>> (quota of 110MB) so I doubt any of them have more than a dozen imap 
>>>> folders.
>>>>
>>>> The main symptom is that I have tons of full sync requests awaiting 
>>>> but even though no other sync is pending the replicator just waits 
>>>> for something to trigger those syncs.
>>>>
>>>> Today, with users back I can see that normal and incremental syncs 
>>>> are being done on the 15 connections, with an occasional full sync 
>>>> here or there and lots of "Waiting 'failed' requests":
>>>>
>>>> Queued 'sync' requests        0
>>>>
>>>> Queued 'high' requests        0
>>>>
>>>> Queued 'low' requests         0
>>>>
>>>> Queued 'failed' requests      122
>>>>
>>>> Queued 'full resync' requests 28785
>>>>
>>>> Waiting 'failed' requests     4294
>>>>
>>>> Total number of known users   42512
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So, why didn't the replicator take advantage of the weekend to 
>>>> replicate the mailboxes while no user were using them?
>>>>
>>>> Arnaud
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 25/04/2022 13:54, Sebastian Marske wrote:
>>>>> Hi there,
>>>>>
>>>>> thanks for your insights and for diving deeper into this Paul!
>>>>>
>>>>> For me, the users ending up in 'Waiting for dsync to finish' all have
>>>>> more than 256 Imap folders as well (ranging from 288 up to >5500; 
>>>>> as per
>>>>> 'doveadm mailbox list -u <username> | wc -l'). For more details on my
>>>>> setup please see my post from February [1].
>>>>>
>>>>> @Arnaud: What OS are you running on?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Best
>>>>> Sebastian
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] https://dovecot.org/pipermail/dovecot/2022-February/124168.html
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 4/24/22 19:36, Paul Kudla (SCOM.CA Internet Services Inc.) wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Question having similiar replication issues
>>>>>>
>>>>>> pls read everything below and advise the folder counts on the
>>>>>> non-replicated users?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i find  the total number of folders / account seems to be a factor 
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> NOT the size of the mail box
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ie i have customers with 40G of emails no problem over 40 or so 
>>>>>> folders
>>>>>> and it works ok
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 300+ folders seems to be the issue
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i have been going through the replication code
>>>>>>
>>>>>> no errors being logged
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i am assuming that the replication --> dhclient --> other server is
>>>>>> timing out or not reading the folder lists correctly (ie dies after X
>>>>>> folders read)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> thus i am going through the code patching for log entries etc to find
>>>>>> the issues.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> see
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [13:33:57] mail18.scom.ca [root:0] /usr/local/var/lib/dovecot
>>>>>> # ll
>>>>>> total 86
>>>>>> drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  uarch    4B Apr 24 11:11 .
>>>>>> drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel  uarch    4B Mar  8  2021 ..
>>>>>> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  uarch   73B Apr 24 11:11 instances
>>>>>> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  uarch  160K Apr 24 13:33 replicator.db
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [13:33:58] mail18.scom.ca [root:0] /usr/local/var/lib/dovecot
>>>>>> #
>>>>>>
>>>>>> replicator.db seems to get updated ok but never processed properly.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> # sync.users
>>>>>> nick at elirpa.com                   high     00:09:41 463:47:01 -     y
>>>>>> keith at elirpa.com                  high     00:09:23 463:45:43 -     y
>>>>>> paul at scom.ca                      high     00:09:41 463:46:51 -     y
>>>>>> ed at scom.ca                        high     00:09:43 463:47:01 -     y
>>>>>> ed.hanna at dssmgmt.com              high     00:09:42 463:46:58 -     y
>>>>>> paul at paulkudla.net                high     00:09:44 463:47:03 
>>>>>> 580:35:07
>>>>>>     y
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> so ....
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> two things :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> first to get the production stuff to work i had to write a script 
>>>>>> that
>>>>>> whould find the bad sync's and the force a dsync between the servers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i run this every five minutes or each server.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> in crontab
>>>>>>
>>>>>> */10    *                *    *    *    root /usr/bin/nohup
>>>>>> /programs/common/sync.recover > /dev/null
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> python script to sort things out
>>>>>>
>>>>>> # cat /programs/common/sync.recover
>>>>>> #!/usr/local/bin/python3
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #Force sync between servers that are reporting bad?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> import os,sys,django,socket
>>>>>> from optparse import OptionParser
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> from lib import *
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #Sample Re-Index MB
>>>>>> #doveadm -D force-resync -u paul at scom.ca -f INBOX*
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> USAGE_TEXT = '''\
>>>>>> usage: %%prog %s[options]
>>>>>> '''
>>>>>>
>>>>>> parser = OptionParser(usage=USAGE_TEXT % '', version='0.4')
>>>>>>
>>>>>> parser.add_option("-m", "--send_to", dest="send_to", help="Send 
>>>>>> Email To")
>>>>>> parser.add_option("-e", "--email", dest="email_box", help="Box to 
>>>>>> Index")
>>>>>> parser.add_option("-d", "--detail",action='store_true',
>>>>>> dest="detail",default =False, help="Detailed report")
>>>>>> parser.add_option("-i", "--index",action='store_true',
>>>>>> dest="index",default =False, help="Index")
>>>>>>
>>>>>> options, args = parser.parse_args()
>>>>>>
>>>>>> print (options.email_box)
>>>>>> print (options.send_to)
>>>>>> print (options.detail)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #sys.exit()
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> print ('Getting Current User Sync Status')
>>>>>> command = commands("/usr/local/bin/doveadm replicator status '*'")
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #print command
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sync_user_status = command.output.split('\n')
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #print sync_user_status
>>>>>>
>>>>>> synced = []
>>>>>>
>>>>>> for n in range(1,len(sync_user_status)) :
>>>>>>          user = sync_user_status[n]
>>>>>>          print ('Processing User : %s' %user.split(' ')[0])
>>>>>>          if user.split(' ')[0] != options.email_box :
>>>>>>                  if options.email_box != None :
>>>>>>                          continue
>>>>>>
>>>>>>          if options.index == True :
>>>>>>                  command = '/usr/local/bin/doveadm -D force-resync 
>>>>>> -u %s
>>>>>> -f INBOX*' %user.split(' ')[0]
>>>>>>                  command = commands(command)
>>>>>>                  command = command.output
>>>>>>
>>>>>>          #print user
>>>>>>          for nn in range (len(user)-1,0,-1) :
>>>>>>                  #print nn
>>>>>>                  #print user[nn]
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                  if user[nn] == '-' :
>>>>>>                          #print 'skipping ... %s' %user.split(' ')[0]
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                          break
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                  if user[nn] == 'y': #Found a Bad Mailbox
>>>>>>                          print ('syncing ... %s' %user.split(' ')[0])
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                          if options.detail == True :
>>>>>>                                  command = '/usr/local/bin/doveadm -D
>>>>>> sync -u %s -d -N -l 30 -U' %user.split(' ')[0]
>>>>>>                                  print (command)
>>>>>>                                  command = commands(command)
>>>>>>                                  command = command.output.split('\n')
>>>>>>                                  print (command)
>>>>>>                                  print ('Processed Mailbox for ... 
>>>>>> %s'
>>>>>> %user.split(' ')[0] )
>>>>>>                                  synced.append('Processed Mailbox 
>>>>>> for ...
>>>>>> %s' %user.split(' ')[0])
>>>>>>                                  for nnn in range(len(command)):
>>>>>> synced.append(command[nnn] + '\n')
>>>>>>                                  break
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                          if options.detail == False :
>>>>>>                                  #command = 
>>>>>> '/usr/local/bin/doveadm -D
>>>>>> sync -u %s -d -N -l 30 -U' %user.split(' ')[0]
>>>>>>                                  #print (command)
>>>>>>                                  #command = os.system(command)
>>>>>>                                  command = subprocess.Popen(
>>>>>> ["/usr/local/bin/doveadm sync -u %s -d -N -l 30 -U" %user.split(' 
>>>>>> ')[0]
>>>>>> ], \
>>>>>>                                  shell = True, stdin=None, 
>>>>>> stdout=None,
>>>>>> stderr=None, close_fds=True)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                                  print ( 'Processed Mailbox for 
>>>>>> ... %s'
>>>>>> %user.split(' ')[0] )
>>>>>>                                  synced.append('Processed Mailbox 
>>>>>> for ...
>>>>>> %s' %user.split(' ')[0])
>>>>>>                                  #sys.exit()
>>>>>>                                  break
>>>>>>
>>>>>> if len(synced) != 0 :
>>>>>>          #send email showing bad synced boxes ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>          if options.send_to != None :
>>>>>>                  send_from = 'monitor at scom.ca'
>>>>>>                  send_to = ['%s' %options.send_to]
>>>>>>                  send_subject = 'Dovecot Bad Sync Report for : %s'
>>>>>> %(socket.gethostname())
>>>>>>                  send_text = '\n\n'
>>>>>>                  for n in range (len(synced)) :
>>>>>>                          send_text = send_text + synced[n] + '\n'
>>>>>>
>>>>>>                  send_files = []
>>>>>>                  sendmail (send_from, send_to, send_subject, 
>>>>>> send_text,
>>>>>> send_files)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sys.exit()
>>>>>>
>>>>>> second :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i posted this a month ago - no response
>>>>>>
>>>>>> please appreciate that i am trying to help ....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> after much testing i can now reporduce the replication issues at hand
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am running on freebsd 12 & 13 stable (both test and production 
>>>>>> servers)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> sdram drives etc ...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Basically replication works fine until reaching a folder quantity 
>>>>>> of ~
>>>>>> 256 or more
>>>>>>
>>>>>> to reproduce using doveadm i created folders like
>>>>>>
>>>>>> INBOX/folder-0
>>>>>> INBOX/folder-1
>>>>>> INBOX/folder-2
>>>>>> INBOX/folder-3
>>>>>> and so forth ......
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I created 200 folders and they replicated ok on both servers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I created another 200 (400 total) and the replicator got stuck and 
>>>>>> would
>>>>>> not update the mbox on the alternate server anymore and is still
>>>>>> updating 4 days later ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> basically replicator goes so far and either hangs or more likely 
>>>>>> bails
>>>>>> on an error that is not reported to the debug reporting ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> however dsync will sync the two servers but only when run manually 
>>>>>> (ie
>>>>>> all the folders will sync)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have two test servers avaliable if you need any kind of access - 
>>>>>> again
>>>>>> here to help.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [07:28:42] mail18.scom.ca [root:0] ~
>>>>>> # sync.status
>>>>>> Queued 'sync' requests        0
>>>>>> Queued 'high' requests        6
>>>>>> Queued 'low' requests         0
>>>>>> Queued 'failed' requests      0
>>>>>> Queued 'full resync' requests 0
>>>>>> Waiting 'failed' requests     0
>>>>>> Total number of known users   255
>>>>>>
>>>>>> username                       type        status
>>>>>> paul at scom.ca                   normal      Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>> keith at elirpa.com               incremental Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>> ed.hanna at dssmgmt.com           incremental Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>> ed at scom.ca                     incremental Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>> nick at elirpa.com                incremental Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>> paul at paulkudla.net             incremental Waiting for dsync to 
>>>>>> finish
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> i have been going through the c code and it seems the replication 
>>>>>> gets
>>>>>> requested ok
>>>>>>
>>>>>> replicator.db does get updated ok with the replicated request for the
>>>>>> mbox in question.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> however i am still looking for the actual replicator function in the
>>>>>> lib's that do the actual replication requests
>>>>>>
>>>>>> the number of folders & subfolders is defanately the issue - not the
>>>>>> mbox pyhsical size as thought origionally.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> if someone can point me in the right direction, it seems either the
>>>>>> replicator is not picking up on the number of folders to replicat
>>>>>> properly or it has a hard set limit like 256 / 512 / 65535 etc and 
>>>>>> stops
>>>>>> the replication request thereafter.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am mainly a machine code programmer from the 80's and have
>>>>>> concentrated on python as of late, 'c' i am starting to go through 
>>>>>> just
>>>>>> to give you a background on my talents.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It took 2 months to finger this out.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> this issue also seems to be indirectly causing the duplicate messages
>>>>>> supression not to work as well.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> python programming to reproduce issue (loops are for last run 
>>>>>> started @
>>>>>> 200 - fyi) :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> # cat mbox.gen
>>>>>> #!/usr/local/bin/python2
>>>>>>
>>>>>> import os,sys
>>>>>>
>>>>>> from lib import *
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> user = 'paul at paulkudla.net'
>>>>>>
>>>>>> """
>>>>>> for count in range (0,600) :
>>>>>>          box = 'INBOX/folder-%s' %count
>>>>>>          print count
>>>>>>          command = '/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s 
>>>>>> %s'
>>>>>> %(user,box)
>>>>>>          print command
>>>>>>          a = commands.getoutput(command)
>>>>>>          print a
>>>>>> """
>>>>>>
>>>>>> for count in range (0,600) :
>>>>>>          box = 'INBOX/folder-0/sub-%' %count
>>>>>>          print count
>>>>>>          command = '/usr/local/bin/doveadm mailbox create -s -u %s 
>>>>>> %s'
>>>>>> %(user,box)
>>>>>>          print command
>>>>>>          a = commands.getoutput(command)
>>>>>>          print a
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>          #sys.exit()
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Happy Sunday !!!
>>>>>> Thanks - paul
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Paul Kudla
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Scom.ca Internet Services <http://www.scom.ca>
>>>>>> 004-1009 Byron Street South
>>>>>> Whitby, Ontario - Canada
>>>>>> L1N 4S3
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Toronto 416.642.7266
>>>>>> Main 1.866.411.7266
>>>>>> Fax 1.888.892.7266
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 4/24/2022 10:22 AM, Arnaud Abélard wrote:
>>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am working on replicating a server (and adding compression on the
>>>>>>> other side) and since I had "Error: dsync I/O has stalled, no 
>>>>>>> activity
>>>>>>> for 600 seconds (version not received)" errors I upgraded both 
>>>>>>> source
>>>>>>> and destination server with the latest 2.3 version (2.3.18). While
>>>>>>> before the upgrade all the 15 replication connections were busy 
>>>>>>> after
>>>>>>> upgrading dovecot replicator dsync-status shows that most of the 
>>>>>>> time
>>>>>>> nothing is being replicated at all. I can see some brief 
>>>>>>> replications
>>>>>>> that last, but 99,9% of the time nothing is happening at all.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have a replication_full_sync_interval of 12 hours but I have
>>>>>>> thousands of users with their last full sync over 90 hours ago.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "doveadm replicator status" also shows that i have over 35,000 
>>>>>>> queued
>>>>>>> full resync requests, but no sync, high or low queued requests so 
>>>>>>> why
>>>>>>> aren't the full requests occuring?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There are no errors in the logs.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Arnaud
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
> 


More information about the dovecot mailing list