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Bug 69129 - mail delays ?
Summary: mail delays ?
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: obsolete
Classification: Unclassified
Component: collabnet (show other bugs)
Version: 5.x
Hardware: All All
: P3 blocker (vote)
Assignee: support
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-11-22 18:14 UTC by jcatchpoole
Modified: 2009-11-08 02:35 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Exception Reporter:


Attachments
one of returned mails (9.06 KB, message/rfc822)
2005-11-23 11:21 UTC, rbalada
Details
attaching again as plain text (9.06 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-23 11:23 UTC, rbalada
Details
Bounced msg sent to webmaster@netbeans.org (5.95 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-23 12:21 UTC, jcatchpoole
Details
Warning e-mail received after ~14 hours (5.52 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-23 12:33 UTC, Jiri Kovalsky
Details
Warning could not send message for past 4 hours.eml (5.98 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-24 13:21 UTC, Lukas Hasik
Details
Warning could not send message for past 4 hours.eml (6.88 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-24 13:21 UTC, Lukas Hasik
Details
netcatWarning could not send message for past 4 hours.eml (6.68 KB, text/plain)
2005-11-25 10:13 UTC, Lukas Hasik
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description jcatchpoole 2005-11-22 18:14:58 UTC
This may be a false alarm, but I've been getting bounces from mail addressed to
@netbeans.org addresses since about 3pm CET (2pm GMT).  So far they're only
coming for mails originating from netbeans.info, which sends a warning if
unsuccessfull after just 2hrs.  I may not have seen any from mail I sent
directly simply bcs Sun's servers have a longer timeout before sending a warning
(6hrs I think). 

Here's a sample bounce :
--
Your message has been received by rocko.futurequest.net but has been
undeliverable to the following recipients for at least 2 hours.
The mail system will continue to attempt to deliver your message
to these recipients for a total of 2 days.  You do not need to
resend your message at this time.

Recipient(s):
	webmaster@netbeans.org

--- Below this line is a copy of the original message.

I also note no new mail on the nbusers@ list since 3:42pm CET, which seems
unusual (but is not impossible).

Can Collab pls verify that there are no mail problems right now ?  Thanks.
Comment 1 jcatchpoole 2005-11-22 18:24:10 UTC
Hmm, well the automated notification of this issue arrived after a few minutes,
so seems this is not a general problem.

Any idea why mail originating from netbeans.info, sent to netbeans.org
addresses, would be getting delayed ?
Comment 2 Jiri Kovalsky 2005-11-23 10:14:42 UTC
I know about several people complaining about it too. I for one sent 3 e-mails
to netcat@netbeans.org list some ~14 hours ago and they did not reach the list
yet. For NetCAT program this is really crucial problem because of impossibility
to react to bug waiver requests in time (24 hours). Please investigate what's
wrong as soon as possible.
Comment 3 rbalada 2005-11-23 11:21:26 UTC
Created attachment 27190 [details]
one of returned mails
Comment 4 rbalada 2005-11-23 11:23:54 UTC
Created attachment 27191 [details]
attaching again as plain text
Comment 5 jcatchpoole 2005-11-23 12:18:43 UTC
Obviously is a real problem here, I have 993 bounces of mail from nb.info to
nb.org, also several bounces of mails I sent directly to nb.org addresses. 
Others have reported the same (some of them attached here).  I will attach one
of my direct bounces.
Comment 6 jcatchpoole 2005-11-23 12:21:36 UTC
Created attachment 27195 [details]
Bounced msg sent to webmaster@netbeans.org
Comment 7 Jiri Kovalsky 2005-11-23 12:33:20 UTC
Created attachment 27196 [details]
Warning e-mail received after ~14 hours
Comment 8 Unknown 2005-11-23 17:17:38 UTC
Hi Jack
             I am working on the issue right away and would update you as soon 
as possible.

Regards
Karthik-Helpdesk
Comment 9 Unknown 2005-11-23 17:32:45 UTC
The engineers are working on the issue and would update you as soon as 
possible.

Regards
Karthik-Helpdesk
Comment 10 Unknown 2005-11-23 19:14:50 UTC
Hi Jack
            The engineers have checked and have updated that at the moment the 
mail queue for netbeans.org is not having a major problem at all.
About the "bounced" messages provided - this is not a hard bounce. It is just a
notification that mail transfer agent was not able to deliver the message for
more than 3 hours. Let me know if the situation looks better.

Regards
Karthik-Helpdesk
Comment 11 Unknown 2005-11-23 20:26:23 UTC
A quick update:

I heard reports that the mail gateways were hammered by a Virus/Worm attack 
which could have triggered a mail delay too.
Comment 12 jcatchpoole 2005-11-24 10:20:46 UTC
*** Issue 69231 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 13 jcatchpoole 2005-11-24 10:25:28 UTC
Karthik - pls inform the engineers that we very strongly disagree with the "not
having a major problem" assessment.

For close to 48 hours now we have been getting bounce warnings.  I don't think
ignoring them, or sitting around and waiting for them to resolve themselves is a
good idea.

This is a P1.  Pls keep us posted on :

1) what is causing this
2) what you are doing to fix it
3) when we can expect mail delivery to return to normal 
Comment 14 jcatchpoole 2005-11-24 10:35:26 UTC
Ani - I missed your update, many thanks for the info.  Do we know for sure that
is the cause ?  Any further new ?  Thanks.
Comment 15 Lukas Hasik 2005-11-24 13:21:06 UTC
Created attachment 27241 [details]
Warning  could not send message for past 4 hours.eml
Comment 16 Lukas Hasik 2005-11-24 13:21:52 UTC
Created attachment 27242 [details]
Warning  could not send message for past 4 hours.eml
Comment 17 Unknown 2005-11-25 00:28:05 UTC
Hi Jack
              I have updated my engineers about this and will keep you posted 
as soon as possible.I apologise for the inconvenience faced.

Regards
Karthik-Helpdesk
Comment 18 kalali 2005-11-25 09:40:02 UTC
None of mails in past 24 H reaches netcat mailing list.
I recieved no delivery failure ,and i supposed that my mailes reached the list
but when i check the mailing list archive from web front-end i found that none
of my mails are there ...
Maybe the Mail gateway is running some M... Operating System and it is under a
worm attack ;-)
Comment 19 Lukas Hasik 2005-11-25 10:13:15 UTC
Created attachment 27275 [details]
netcatWarning  could not send message for past 4 hours.eml
Comment 20 jcatchpoole 2005-11-25 11:28:04 UTC
Some mails are now hard bouncing, having waited too long in the queue
(netbeans.info mail server timeout is 2 days).  Email is critical.  Still no
real update here.  What is going on?  Please update immediately with :

1) what is causing this
2) what you are doing to fix it
3) when we can expect mail delivery to return to normal 
Comment 21 jcatchpoole 2005-11-25 12:03:05 UTC
There is now a very large mail queue on our netbeans.info server, mail to
netbeans.org addresses that is backed up.  The ISP of that machine has contacted
us  and informed us that queue is already causing delays and problems for other
users of that system.
Comment 22 rbalada 2005-11-28 08:15:28 UTC
*** Issue 69351 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 23 _ rkubacki 2005-11-28 09:21:45 UTC
My few attempts to unsubsribe some mailing lists were not processed. If they had
been delivered I would recieve confirmation but I did not get any they are
rather lost than delayed. My mails to nbdev@netbeans.org were not delivered too.
This is really serious problem that already lasts for more than 5 days.
Comment 24 jcatchpoole 2005-11-28 11:20:43 UTC
No update here in days - the last official word we have is "there is no
problem".  This issue is almost week old.  Mails have now been *hard* bouncing
for a few days.  Please update ASAP with :

1) what is causing this
2) what you are doing to fix it
3) when we can expect mail delivery to return to normal  
Comment 25 kalali 2005-11-28 17:20:11 UTC
i did not post anymore to netcat list to check the problem 
is it fixed ?
Today there were no weekly report for netcat members , and i come here to check
the issue .


Comment 26 Unknown 2005-11-29 19:30:46 UTC
A quick update on this issue:

So, here is the current scenario.  Spamms/virus had saturated most of the 
available smtp connections to Sun's smtp server, asmx1.sfo machine. We can 
only determine if the email is spam or not after we establish the smtp 
connection. These smtp connections get maxed out soon. As a workaround it 
would be possible to increase the # of smtp connections allowed to asmx1.sfo. 
However there is a capacity problem with the spam filter (Brightmail) 
currently in place, which can't handle unlimited number of connections to the 
filter process. CN operations are trying to minimize the spread of the 
spam/virus at this point by:
1) Adding known virus subjects to the mail server so that it will reject those 
mails;
2) Limiting the # of sendmail processes so that we are allowing mail to flow 
slowly but surely. 

The Brightmail server as it exists now neither has neither clustering facility 
nor the Virus scanning ability. The upgrade to the next version of Brightmail 
promises to reduce the occurrences of such mail delays due to spam/virus 
attacks. CN is currently reviewing those options with the SUN account team.

AFAIK, there is a significant improvement in the mail flow. If that is not 
what you are seeing, please let us know.
Comment 27 kitfox 2005-11-30 01:22:34 UTC
Does this mean our emails are lost, or are they just delayed?  Should we resend
them in the hopes they will find a connection and get through to the mailing list?
Comment 28 Unknown 2005-11-30 01:57:10 UTC
To answer that, I checked with operations the backlog (if any). They told me 
that for netbeans.org:
1498 remote queue length
23 not-yet-preprocessed queue length

BTW, do you see the mails archived in the mailing lists though? It may not 
make it to the recepient for some other reasons, but it should definitely make 
it to the mailing list archive (unless it was rejected as Spam/Virus).
Comment 29 kitfox 2005-11-30 02:36:37 UTC
I've sent five emails and a couple of subscribe/unsubscribe requests to the mail
list in the last two days, none of which show up in the archives.  The last to
appear in the archives is
http://openide.netbeans.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=dev&msgNo=18204

Subject lines from missing emails since then are

What docs did other folks use?
How to include native code in library wrapper?
Tutorial Idea
Re: [openide-dev] documentation
Can't post

Time of the first missing email is 28/11/2005 6:19PM EST
Comment 30 Unknown 2005-11-30 03:28:52 UTC
Hi kitfox,

Can you please verify the archive now, as we are able to view the recent mails
in the below archive list

http://openide.netbeans.org/servlets/BrowseList?listName=dev&by=date&from=2005-11-01&to=2005-11-30&first=1&count=317

Please let us know if you have questions.

Thanks,
Kavitha-Helpdesk
Comment 31 kitfox 2005-11-30 03:41:33 UTC
Hi,

Well, I can see more recent emails too.  However, none of my emails are making
it onto the mailing list since the one I mentioned above.  Subscribe and
unsubscribe requests are also being lost.  I thought that perhaps that only
internal email service had been restored.

Any ideas why my emails are being lost?  Is this my end or your end?
Comment 32 kitfox 2005-11-30 05:31:40 UTC
Okay, now I'm having emails rejected.  I had the following bounced to my email:



This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  dev@openide.netbeans.org
    SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data:
    host asmx1.sfo.collab.net [64.125.133.81]: 550 5.7.1 "Test"... Virus
signature in Subject rejected

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <mark@kitfox.com>
Received: from node-9120.tor.pppoe.execulink.com ([69.63.51.163]
helo=[192.168.0.100])
	by smtp1.golden.net with esmtp (Exim 4.50)
	id 1EhIt9-0002j3-4J
	for dev@openide.netbeans.org; Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:44:11 -0500
Message-ID: <438D2008.3030409@kitfox.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 22:44:08 -0500
From: Mark McKay <mark@kitfox.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12)
Gecko/20050915
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To:  dev@openide.netbeans.org
Subject: Test
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Test
Comment 33 kitfox 2005-11-30 05:33:54 UTC
Looks like all my other emails got through all at once.  Is the problem fixed? 
Or is the email program batching them all together to deliver once a day?
Comment 34 jcatchpoole 2005-11-30 12:36:15 UTC
Ani, thank you for the updates.

Make no mistake - mails *are* being irretrievably lost.  Mails from me to
various nb.org addresses have been (on and off) "hard bouncing", ie sitting in
the queue until they expire, since 27/11.  Eg :

-->%--
The original message was received at Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:55:03 -0800 (PST)
from [129.157.72.190]

   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<webmaster@netbeans.org>

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
<webmaster@netbeans.org>... Deferred: Connection refused by asmx1.sfo.collab.net.
Message could not be delivered for 3 days
Message will be deleted from queue

Original-Envelope-Id: 0IQD000QSB3P0T@bohemia2-mail1.czech.sun.com
Reporting-MTA: dns; nwkea-mail-2.sun.com
Arrival-Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:55:03 -0800 (PST)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; webmaster@netbeans.org
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.7
Last-Attempt-Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 18:31:47 -0800 (PST)

Subject: Re: WHY Posting FRENCH tutorials
From: Jack Catchpoole <Jack.Catchpoole@sun.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 18:54:58 +0100
To: "rodneyg11@hotmail.com" <rodneyg11@hotmail.com>
CC: webmaster@netbeans.org
--%<--

Note : "Message will be deleted from queue".  So it is gone, and never reached
it's intended recipient.

I can't tell if that msg made it to the web archive or not - the web archive
search doesn't find either the original msg (which did get through, so
definitely should be there), nor my reply (which is the one that hard bounced
above).

Mark, the msg you include here was bounced as it looks like a virus.  The error
you include says :

    SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data:
    host asmx1.sfo.collab.net [64.125.133.81]: 550 5.7.1 "Test"... Virus
signature in Subject rejected

This is unrelated to our current problems, it would be rejected under any
circumstances.

Collab - how is the situation now ?  I am still getting a constant stream of
"msg rejected, will keep trying" warnings (soft bounces).  Is the queue clearing
itself, or can you take some action ?
Comment 35 Unknown 2005-11-30 23:21:41 UTC
Here are some further updates:

The problem was that we had the number of smtp connection to our mail server 
limited to 100, and most of these connections were used by spam/virus.  That 
is why the nb.org server was not able to make connection to our server to make 
the delivery.  

As of now, operations team have increased the # of smtp connections on our 
mail server (asmx1.sfo) to 200.  The spam filter on the server seems to be 
holding with this setting, but they will keep an eye on things to make sure it 
doesn't crash.  Sending a test message at netbeans.org came through within 5
minutes.  The increased number of smtp connections seems to be helping now.  

So at this point the NB.org users can do a couple of things.  They can resend 
their messages they sent 3 or 5 days ago (depends on what their holding period 
is on their server-- the server from which they sent the original e-mails -- 
NOT the nb.org server), or they can wait until their mail server tries again 
to connect to our mail servers to deliver the message (which might take longer 
to get to the list/people than resending the message).  If they resend they 
would see duplicates once the messages they sent a few days ago finally makes 
to the server.  The reason for this is, for certain mail servers, once it 
fails to deliver a message, it takes longer and longer break to try to resend 
the message, where a new message is in the queue, it tries to send it right 
away.

The situation seems to be under control now; please call/let us know ASAP if 
the situation is not improving on your end.


Comment 36 jcatchpoole 2005-12-01 11:04:16 UTC
Only 100 delay notifications in my inbox this morning (compared to eg ~700
yesterday and thousands the days before), so yes, seems to be improving.  Let's
keep this issue open until completely resolved.
Comment 37 Unknown 2005-12-01 21:19:11 UTC
CN Support will start testing the Brightmail appliances from to-morow. There 
will be 3 of those and these will considerably improve the current situation 
and also any such Spam/Virus related issues in the future.
Comment 38 Unknown 2005-12-01 21:21:42 UTC
Correction! That was CN operations who will start the work tomorrow. Hopefully 
they will be in operation by next week.
Comment 39 Unknown 2005-12-01 21:43:18 UTC
*** Issue 51173 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 40 jcatchpoole 2005-12-06 18:03:07 UTC
Bounces and delays seemed almost gone, but as of 6pm CET I am getting a lot of
delay notifications again.
Comment 41 Unknown 2005-12-07 00:16:31 UTC
Jack, The new Brightmail server/appliances are scheduled to be rolled out for 
Netbeans.org next week. They are already setup and being deployed for smaller 
SUN sites. The initial testing has been promising. Also, the introduction of 
these appliances will diminish the Virus/Spam attacks; with more than 1 MTA 
available for the mail gateway, you should see significant improvements.

In the interim with the current setup the outgoing messages seem to be 
delivered with minimal delays. The in-bound mails, b'coz of the heavy 
spams/viruses, are taking longer to process. 
Comment 42 jcatchpoole 2005-12-07 10:25:33 UTC
*** Issue 69988 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 43 Unknown 2005-12-20 01:20:19 UTC
netbeans is now placed behind the new anti-spam filter from Brightmail.
Comment 44 jcatchpoole 2006-04-03 13:50:21 UTC
Haven't seen or heard of mail delays in a while; I think this is fixed.
Comment 45 padmar 2006-10-31 06:28:33 UTC
This was a temporary issue and is fixed now. Marking this as verified. Anytime
this is noticed again can be dealt with in a new issue.

Marking as verified
Comment 46 Marian Mirilovic 2009-11-08 02:35:16 UTC
We recently moved out from Collabnet's infrastructure