Resolved Dovecot IMAP issues with Plesk Premium Email (Kolab)

[Boas Simon]

Server operating system version

Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS

Plesk version and microupdate number

18.0.61 #4

Hi all,

so I'm testing Plesk Premium Email (Kolab) and can't manage to run IMAP propper. Here's the issue:

Plesk 18.0.61 running on Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS an a VServer hosted by Strato (Germany).

Installed Plesk Premium Email, running smooth and fine. Trying to connect via IMAP from a client (Thunderbird/Windows and K9-Mail/Android) fails with no entry in /var/log/maillog.

Found this thread (Resolved - dovecot imap ssl - not working) but since POP3 is working and SMTP is working SSL is not the issue. Switched from dovecot to courier and all of a suddon everything with IMAP is fine. But with courier Kolab is not working. The thread though gives a hint on a solution (https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...t-connect-to-localhost-143-Connection-refused) but this solution is vanished in the void (404). Nevertheless I checked and yes, there is something with the ports:

dovecot netstat:
root@BLAHH:~# netstat -plutn | grep dovecot tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9993 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:110 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9143 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:4190 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:995 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::110 :::* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::4190 :::* LISTEN 131310/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::995 :::* LISTEN 131310/dovecot

courier netstat:
root@BLAHH:~# netstat -plutn | grep courier tcp6 0 0 :::110 :::* LISTEN 163777/couriertcpd tcp6 0 0 :::143 :::* LISTEN 164450/couriertcpd tcp6 0 0 :::993 :::* LISTEN 164541/couriertcpd tcp6 0 0 :::995 :::* LISTEN 163835/couriertcpd

so ... 993 is ... missing ...

So .. what do I do??

Thanks,
Boas

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Is there another application listening on port 993?

 

[Boas Simon]

Hi Kaspar,

nope:

root@BLAAH:~# netstat -plutn | grep 993 tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9993 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 169790/dovecot root@BLAAH:~#

Thanks,
Boas

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Plesk Premium Email uses it's own fronted for IMAP/POP3 connections called guam. Is the guam service running systemctl status guam.service ?

Are there any error messages in the system logs about guam and/or kolab?

 

[Boas Simon]

AHA!!

root@XXX:~# systemctl status guam.service × guam.service - Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/guam.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2024-05-29 21:24:15 CEST; 1 day 23h ago Main PID: 28396 (code=exited, status=127)

a manual restart does not work either:
root@XXX:~# systemctl start guam.service root@XXX:~# systemctl status guam.service × guam.service - Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/guam.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2024-05-31 21:06:40 CEST; 48s ago Process: 215858 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/guam foreground (code=exited, status=127) Main PID: 215858 (code=exited, status=127) Mai 31 21:06:40 XXX.fqhn systemd[1]: guam.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5. Mai 31 21:06:40 XXX.fqhn systemd[1]: Stopped Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy. Mai 31 21:06:40 XXX.fqhn systemd[1]: guam.service: Start request repeated too quickly. Mai 31 21:06:40 XXX.fqhn systemd[1]: guam.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Mai 31 21:06:40 XXX.fqhn systemd[1]: Failed to start Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy. root@XXX:~#

no logs AT ALL in /var/log/guam

root@XXX:/var/log/guam# ls -l insgesamt 0

Thanks,
Boas

 

[Boas Simon]

Hi again,
so I played around a bit - I read in another thread that uninstalling Plesk Premium Email anr reinstalling could help.

So I uninstalled Plesk Premium Email and yes, dovecot is back again:
root@XXX:~# netstat -plutn | grep 993 tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:993 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1716/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::993 :::* LISTEN 1716/dovecot

So I installed Premium Email again and I have the same issue again - nobody listening on Port 993, dovecot is running (but opnly POP3) and guam failed to start:
root@XXX:~# netstat -plutn | grep dovecot tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9143 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:4190 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:995 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9993 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:110 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::4190 :::* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::995 :::* LISTEN 9698/dovecot tcp6 0 0 :::110 :::* LISTEN 9698/dovecot root@XXX:~#

root@XXX:~# systemctl status guam.service × guam.service - Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/guam.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2024-06-02 16:06:47 CEST; 4min 20s ago Process: 9917 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/guam foreground (code=exited, status=2) Main PID: 9917 (code=exited, status=2) Jun 02 16:06:47 h2719208.stratoserver.net systemd[1]: guam.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5. Jun 02 16:06:47 h2719208.stratoserver.net systemd[1]: Stopped Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy. Jun 02 16:06:47 h2719208.stratoserver.net systemd[1]: guam.service: Start request repeated too quickly. Jun 02 16:06:47 h2719208.stratoserver.net systemd[1]: guam.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Jun 02 16:06:47 h2719208.stratoserver.net systemd[1]: Failed to start Intelligent IMAP Reverse Proxy.

I think I have to open a case at plesk ...

Thanks,
Boas

 

[Boas Simon]

Whoever is interested - the problem is solved with the support from the Plesk support guys.

Plesk Premium Email needs "logger" to function. Obviously this package is not mandatory for the Plesk Premium Email extension,

So anybody having similar issues needs to install "logger" which is part of bsdutils:

sudo apt install bsdutils

regards,
Boas

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Good to read the issue has been resolved and thank you for sharing the solution.