RE: I crashed the SMTP server on V3r7

["York, Albert" <albert.york@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had the same problem and the only way I could get it to stabilize was
to have a program monitor the  MSF server and restart it if needed. As
long as the monitor program is running email gets through okay. 

I will be glad to send a copy of the CL source as an attachment to an
email if anyone wants it.  

>----------
>From:  Neil Palmer[SMTP:npalmer@NxTrend.com]
>Sent:  Tuesday, April 14, 1998 12:53 PM
>To:    'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
>Subject:       RE: I crashed the SMTP server on V3r7
>
>For what it's worth, I know someone at a large University that is going
>to abandon the AS/400 POP3/SMTP mail because of this very problem.  They
>have had this problem for over a year and IBM have not been able to
>solve it.
>
>
>
>Neil Palmer                                AS/400~~~~~      
>NxTrend Technology - Canada   ____________          ___  ~     
>Thornhill, Ontario,  Canada   |OOOOOOOOOO| ________  o|__||=   
>Phone: (905) 731-9000  x238   |__________|_|______|_|______)   
>Cell.: (416) 565-1682  x238    oo      oo   oo  oo   OOOo=o\   
>Fax:   (905) 731-9202       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
>mailto:NPalmer@NxTrend.com    AS/400  The Ultimate Business Server      
>http://www.NxTrend.com
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:        PaulMmn [SMTP:PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com]
>> Sent:        Monday, April 13, 1998 9:18 PM
>> To:  MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>> Subject:     Re: I crashed the SMTP server on V3r7
>> 
>> >Does anyone has the similar experience? I manage to crash the SMTP
>> >server on the v3r7 and cause it to stop functioning such that no one
>> is
>> >able to send any mails via SMTP for that matter.
>> >
>> >Please advise if there is a patch to fix this loop hole?
>> >
>> >--
>> >Ferdinand Tang
>> 
>> 
>> I wouldn't have called it a crash, but we've had an ongoing
>> intermittent
>> problem with SMTP Mail.  We get a 'clog' in the outgoing mail stream.
>> Incoming mail works fine, but outgoing mail won't.
>> 
>> Symptoms include complaints that mail won't send.  If you look in
>> subsystem
>> QSYSWRK, check the joblog for job QSMTPSRVR.  The first few entries
>> include
>> the number of jobs in the outgoing and incoming queues.  If the
>> numbers
>> aren't zero, you may have a clog, or the system may be slow.  Only way
>> to
>> tell is to ENDTCPSVR *SMTP, then re-start it.  If the numbers go down,
>> your
>> system is slow.  If they stay the same, you may have a clog.  Or the
>> recipient of one or more messages is temporarily unavailable; the
>> message
>> may send later.
>> 
>> Even at those times when things seemed their worst, outgoing mail
>> would
>> trickle through, sometimes after -weeks.-  IBM maintains that a single
>> 'faulty' message should have no effect on other messages.
>> 
>> We've found no cure.  The only work around is to ENDMSF and ENTCPSVR
>> *SMTP.
>> Set  the data area for SMTP to start and throw away the first mail
>> item it
>> finds (Yes, it's lost).  Start MSF and SMTP and examine the joblog.
>> Repeat
>> until the outgoing queue is empty.  Now restart both MSF and SMTP with
>> the
>> cold-start options (to flush things out totally).
>> 
>> After a cold start, SMTP behaves itself for a while (weeks, months).
>> Then
>> a clog may happen again.
>> 
>> IBM has taken dumps, logs, looked at the flight records, and poked
>> around,
>> but without any definite answers.  Going back a ways, one problem was
>> that
>> AOL had so many name servers, but IBM only checked the first 2.  If
>> the
>> name servers you were after on AOL were down, the mail wouldn't send.
>> This
>> has been fixed.
>> 
>> Looking at the flight recorders is just about the only way to decipher
>> the
>> problem; we just don't have the time to constantly monitor the files.
>> 
>> We're currently running fine (knock on wood).  However, we keep
>> looking at
>> the joblog to make sure we're not clogged up again.
>> 
>> --Paul E Musselman
>> PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com
>> 
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