Question Restart Dovecot, repair mail after Server reboot

[rordallas]

Server operating system version

Debian 12.10

Plesk version and microupdate number

Version 18.0.68 Update #2

Occasionally I have to reboot my VPS server. After reboot, Dovecot does not restart automatically, I have to manually start it. I also have to issue 'plesk repair mail-y' for email to function properly (i.e to be able to send mail from webmail). I am running Debian 12. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Raul A.]

Your Postfix service might not be set to start on boot.
Please share the output of

systemctl status postfix

# systemctl status postfix
● postfix.service - Postfix Mail Transport Agent
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/postfix.service; enabled; vendor preset: disab> Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/system/postfix.service.d

If you don't have "service; enabled" run

systemctl enable postfix

 

[rordallas]

systemctl status postfix
● postfix.service - Postfix Mail Transport Agent
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/postfix.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Wed 2025-04-23 05:45:46 EDT; 7h ago
Docs: manostfix(1)
Main PID: 14174 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 1ms

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Could you please also run:

systemctl is-enabled dovecot.service

 

[rordallas]

Ah, that is disabled. How do I enable it?

 

[Raul A.]

systemctl enable dovecot

 

[rordallas]

Thanks. It is now set to enabled. Any ideas on why I have to run 'plesk repair mail-y'? No hurry, just very curious.

 

[Raul A.]

Plesk repair mail also restarted Dovecot throughout the repair process. That is why the service recovered after running it.
A simple systemctl start dovecot would have had the same result.

I have noo idea whythe Dovecott service was not enabled and since when.

 

[rordallas]

Thanks to all for the speedy and helpful replies!