Yuri,
I've tested a lot of electronic hardware in my days and the likelihood of
failure is greatest in the early life (about the first 170 hours of running)
then it tapers off (reaching lowest failure after about 1 month of running)
and only goes back up again after about 10 years. This is called the
'bathtub' curve. So just because you have new equipment, does not mean the
likelihood of failure is low, just the opposite, unless it has been running
for more than about 7-15 days (which yours now has) or has been running in
an accelerated life test (higher ambient temperatures cause faster aging).
All that being said, I think I would agree, the problem is more likely your
methods of adding users and their data. That the problem was noticed shortly
after the last update, is not necessarily meaningful, unless you had checked
the same things before the update. But it is probably as good a correlation
as we will be able to find, after the fact.
Somewhat glad to hear that the Init LDAP did clear up the problem, and
sympathize about all the work needed to get back to the prior state. As for
backup, definitely a good idea, just make sure you have good data to
restore. Unless you are making many changes, constantly during a single day,
daily backup is probably sufficient.
Daniel Donnelly
________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yuri Levenfeld" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] problem with Admin utility
> Daniel,
>
> I really don't think there is any problem with the disk. It is a brand new
> Dell server, with all monitoring gizmos installed.Besides, since this
server
> is only two weeks in production environment, I watch it like a hawk. There
> is slight chance that, since this drive(RAID5) is clustered through Vinca
> standby server software, it might lead to a corruption
>
> I think the problem might lie in the way I added users. I did it by
sending
> e-mail to the server, using customer supplied data files, all in different
> formats, that I convetred to text files and e-mailed to my server for
> processing.
>
> One more observation: since I am Russian and I use MS russification on my
> home PC, some of my e-mails do arrive to the destination in corrupted
state.
> I don't exclude the possibility of corrupting my last text file that I
sent
> to Imail server yesterday. Actually, I noticed the problem about two hours
> after I sent that file: of 16 users only 14 were actually added, and some
> information fields for these users that were added by this file, contained
> odd characters like $ or %, or & and so on that were not in original file.
>
> I'll probably just do full backup of LDAP every day, or better yet, will
use
> scheduler to copy LDAP folder to another disk partition 3-4 times a day.
And
> next time I will not use my home PC to send text files to the server
>
> P.S. After I reintialized LDAP everything went back to normal, except that
> usual mess with having first and last name in "first name" field. However,
I
> just finished re-entering user's phone numbers by hand and it was
> awful....:((((
>
> Generally I like Ipswitch, but I think developers need to look into some
> things that Imail is noticably lacking: inability to set up a predefined
> welcome e-mail message to every new user (with phone and e-mail info for
> corporate techsupport, for instance) or the utility to force users to
change
> password at certain time.
>
> thanks
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Daniel Donnelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 5:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] problem with Admin utility
>
>
> > Yuri,
> >
> > I did get more info (and saw your registry) when I talked to one of the
> > support people (about a totally separate issue!). I won't say I know
what
> > the problem is, because that would be a lie.
> >
> > Certainly a backup of the LDAP directory would make life easier for you!
I
> > would use a process that allows you to have either incremental backups
or
> > multiple copies of a full backup. That way you can go back in time,
beyond
> > the last backup, just in case the problem is not found the next day
(just
> > good techniques!).
> >
> > Did the Init LDAP 'fix' the problem? Once you enter one users info or
> create
> > a new one, did the first/last names 'stay' in the right places? If it
did,
> > then I would say the backup of LDAP dir would be very useful!
> >
> > Since we are talking about disk files, it would not hurt to perform some
> > checking on the file system and the disk. Maybe the problem is not
IMail,
> > but the disk?
> >
> > Daniel Donnelly
> > ________________________________________________________
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 3:55 PM
> > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] problem with Admin utility
> >
> >
> > > Unfortunately, it is much worse than that.
> > >
> > > Old accounts were OK, but the new accounts wouldn't get any LDAP
> > attributes
> > > and any change to LDAP information would be instantly reversed. Also,
if
> I
> > > add new account it will not be searchable by LDAP client at all,
whereas
> > old
> > > ones will be still searchable.
> > >
> > > I know that Imail stores LDAP info in separate directory. I wonder if
> full
> > > backup of LDAP directory every night would help me prevent what I am
> doing
> > > now: I had to re-initialize LDAP because nothing else worked, and now
I
> am
> > > entering 860 accounts information by hand. What a great job for system
> > > administrator!
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Daniel Donnelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 2:03 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] problem with Admin utility
> > >
> > >
> > > > Yuri,
> > > >
> > > > Sounds like someone (on the console) clicked the 'Initialize LDAP'
> > button.
> > > > This will cause any added data (like phone number, etc...) to be
> cleared
> > > and
> > > > change the first name. The new accounts you have created since this
> > action
> > > > will have the correct data, but everyone else will be set back to
> > > > 'defaults'.
> > > >
> > > > Daniel Donnelly
> > > > ________________________________________________________
> > > >
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Mail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 11:51 AM
> > > > Subject: [IMail Forum] problem with Admin utility
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > We used to add users from both Admin utility on the server and
> through
> > > > Web.
> > > > > Everything was okay for awhile, but recently something started
> > > happening:
> > > > > when user is added via Web, his last and first name as displayed
in
> > > > > respective settings in Web normally, but when we open Admin
utility
> on
> > > the
> > > > > server to look at this user, his first and last names are both
> listed
> > in
> > > > > "first name" window. Moreover, some names that were seen in
correct
> > > format
> > > > > before, all of a sudden were moved into "first name" window, and
> some
> > > > people
> > > > > even lost other settings, like organization name or phone number.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any idea what's going on?
> > > > >
> > > > > thank you
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
> > > > > to be removed from this list.
> > > > >
> > > > > An Archive of this list is available at:
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> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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