QMail well broken

[Frank_Rizzo]

I ran a customary apt-get update, upgrade / webmin update, from within Webmin which subsequently broke QMail. Dont know what happened. QMail just stopped. Tried removing then reinstalling qmail but now it is well screwed.

The server support guys say that they 'lock' QMail to prevent webmin from updating it but somehow the latest version of webmin ignored this and caused the problems.

I havent had any mail for nearly a week now. For the first two days mail was being bounced back to the recipients and I never got to know about - I thought it was quiet due to the holidays. Now it is not being bounced and I dont know where the mail is queing.

I'm in a difficult position here. The support guys were working over christmas (not especially, they were just the ones covering that shift). Now they have a few days off and the current support guys dont want to get involved because the others are 'working on it'.

I have tried what I can by uninstalling and reinstalling. I have read every *&%^%$ manual and how to for QMail but still no joy. I'm losing trade and my patience.

So what do I do now? The support guys said they couldnt get it to work and they will reinstall the standard server image on their return.

1) Is there a known problem and solution for QMail? I know you require details of server, versions, error messages etc. but I'm just wondering if this is a common thing.

2) If the server is reimaged I will backup the website directory /home/mysite etc into a tar.gz. Will this preserve rights etc?

3) As well as QMail not working the MAIL program is duff too so my scripts are not working and telling me when I got customers. Can I just reinstall MAIL for now?

[dingman]

1) Not that I know of, but don't take that as conclusive.
2) Depends on the options you use when you make the tarball.
3) 'mail' needs a working MTA installed, so I'm afraid not.

[Frank_Rizzo]

Ok, they're going to do a total reimage of the server to sort it out.

Cheers.

[bcc1234]

Before you reformat your stuff check:
- that your accounts are set-up in corresponding matter (most likely either mailboxes or maildirs).
- your queue directories have correct premissions and qmail* users/groups are fine.
- /var/run dir does not contain any qmail pid or lock files
- your rc file is properly located (/var/qmail/boot/...) and either linked from your startup dir (eithe init.d or rc.d depending on what you are running); make sure qmail-send is in fact working;
type
ps aux ¦ grep qmail
and see if qmail-send, qmail-rspawn and qmail-lspawn are running
- check inet.d (xinet.d) setting to point to qmail-smtpd
- log in as root and type /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qstat and /var/qmail/bin/qmail-qread - check if there is anything in the queue that was not dispatched by qmail-local (your missing emails)
- check that you replaced all sendmail binaries with the new qmail's sendmail after you upgraded the versions
- check /var/log/maillog for any errors

<added>- Hire a system administrator :) </added>