Sometime during the weekend, the ftp server on www2 decided that its license had expired. Until a new license could be obtained, the standard ftp server (wu-ftpd) was run. This led to some slow response (wu-ftpd operates under the xinetd master daemon) for much of the day. The vendor provided a new license key at 4:30 PM. This was installed, and ftp service was restored to normal.
5/25 – www2 failed
The secondary web server www2 became unresponsive when the SurgeFTP service began consuming 99% of the CPU cycles. We were unable to stop the service or gracefully restart the system. The system was powered down, then back on, after which the system ran normally.
5/24 – MERLIN2 failure
Merlin2 became unresponsive to fileshare access today at 5:30 PM. The console was still responding, and we were able to log on. Access to the disk arrays appeared to be impaired – we were unable to list the disks or view their contents. No pertinent events were logged in the Event Log. The system was rebooted, and was back to normal.
We have made an adjustment to the antivirus software (changed vendors), and will keep monitoring.
5/19 – Merlin2 data move complete
Reply
The movement of files from the old Merlin2 server was completed successfully. The new server is ready and available.
5/19 – Merlin2 data to be moved to new server
Data from the Administrative file server Merlin2 will be moved to a new server in an effort to solve the recent instability problems. Merlin2 will be unavailable from 5:30 PM until midnight Friday, May 19th, 2006.
5/10 – ALEXANDRIA Stable – for the moment
ALEXANDRIA activated its spare memory bank on 11 April. Since that time it has not frozen. A new server is en route to replace the defective replacement server.
Change in authentication for the VPN and Dialin Services
Effective noon on Monday, December 5th, 2005, you will need your Windows password instead of your email password to access the campus Virtual Private Network (VPN) service and the campus dialup modem service. You will still use your email name. If you are connected to one of these services around this time, please log out before this time and date. This change is part of the larger effort to reduce the number of usernames and passwords we now use, culminating with the replacement of the current email system with Microsoft Exchange.
Those users of the dialup modem service who have pre-saved their passwords will need to change them. To do so, double click on the UPS dialup icon you have created on your desktop. In the User name field enter your e-mail username (your e-mail address without “@ups.edu”). In the Password field, enter your Windows password and check Save password if you want Windows to remember your password for future connections.
Banner Downtime for Upgrade
The Banner system, Banner Tools and the Budget Administration Web application will be unavailable Friday, December 2, at 5:00 p.m., through Monday, December 5, at 8:00 a.m., to allow time for the upgrade to Banner version 7.1
Email server maintenance
In order to address the problems that began with IMAP, POP3, and Webmail Slowness, we are tentatively scheduling email server maintenance for Monday, 21 November. The new disk array will be installed at this time. During the hours 7PM to 2 AM, all email service will be unavailable.
UPS CA No. 2 Decomissioned
The temporary CA “UPS CA No.2” has been decomissioned, as has the CA on dm-2. These are superseded by University of Puget Sound Certification No. 3
Email Problems
There were reports last night and this morning that user were having problems connecting to webmail. The problem appears to be linked to the Sophos PureMessage software and the timing of the quarantine digest messages and the slow disk array.
We updated our PureMessage configuration to send on digest messages instead of having each server send individual messages. The result being that all the messages hit the mail server and the same time and overwhelmed it with e-mail and client access with the start of the business day.
We are modifying the interval for digest messages from twice a day to once per day and moving the time to 1:30 am each morining.
MERLIN2 Problems
MERLIN2, the administrative file server became unresponsive for unknown reasons, causing workstations connected to it to also become unresponsive.
The server was rebooted, which cleared the problem. Workstations my need to be rebooted as well.
IMAP, POP3, and Webmail Slowness IV
The firmware upgrades did not resolve the problem with disk performance, even though we had a good couple of days. Sun’s final analysis led them to the conclusion that the disk array on which mailboxes reside has simply reached a saturation level in terms of I/O rate. This will mean that we will have to get a faster disk array.
Continue reading
IMAP and POP3 and Webmail Slowness III
Firmware upgrades to the mail server disks have been applied. This had little effect on performance. We’re following up with Sun to determine next steps.
Mail Server Maintenance
All email service will be unavailable from 5PM to 6PM today. Firmware upgrades will be applied to address Webmail, IMAP, and POP3 slowness first noted in this entry: http://www2.ups.edu/ois/nssg/blog/maintenance/archives/000449.html