service dovecot

donkeyKICK

donkeyKICK

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Jul 24, 2007
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387
I was wondering why every couple of days I get:

The service 'dovecot' on server server.nightowlpc.com is currently down

It comes back up on its own, but still, is it supposed to do that?
 
It seems to happen AFTER a backup is completed. About 15 minutes after. Not during... That could just be a coincindence, and it doesn't happen every backup, and not for same jobs (I have 3 daily backup crons, it picks one every couple of days, not every day).
 
You don't say which kind of backup. Have you asked DirectAdmin support if the backup you use stops Dovecot?

Jeff
 
I think I found the problem, but don't have a good solution yet. Scouring the logs, and the internet, I discovered that because I am running on a vmware VPS, the time doesn't sync well with the hardware. The solutions available on the web for keeping the time correct is to grab the time VERY regularly from the internet. This problem is caused by the CPU throttling up and down. The solution of resetting the clock regularly works okay, but when the time is set back, dovecot gets upset and restarts.

The backups obvously throttle up the CPU, and when they end, the CPU goes back down.

Backups are just the admin backups RC1 in DA
 
I don't know about what those backups do, but if Dovecot is starting because time is changing, maybe you should not update the time during the period you're running backups, and then create a special cronjob that will stop dovecot, update the time, and restart dovecot.

Is dovecot in the DirectAdmin service monitor? If so, DA should be checking it every minute.

However ... the problem may really be with crond, which may skip running crons during duplicate times after a set back of the clock; I just don't know.

Jeff
 
Interesting... I'll post again after I find out more about the problem. Obviously the best solution would be to resolve the timekeeping issue so the VPS can actually keep fairly decent time.

However, the idea of not running the sync during backups is really interesting. I haven't considered that viewpoint (thanks!)
 
Don't forget my point about cronjobs not being repeated when the clock is set back; be sure to look into that.

Jeff
 
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