[horde] ActiveSync problem

[Simon Wilson]

Quoting Simon Wilson <simon at simonandkate.net>:

> On 18/07/2011, at 1:00 AM, Michael J Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org> wrote:
>
>> Simon Wilson <simon at simonandkate.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I have been trying to get ActiveSync working for a while with limited
>>> success.
>>>
>>> Horde 4.0.7, Turba 3.0.4. Hordeauth is set to use LDAP. Turba links
>>> into LDAP for both a Personal LDAP address book and also a Shared
>>> Address Book.
>>>
>>> In Turba this config works fine, I have all the appropriate access
>>> across all users to their relevant address books and also the shared
>>> one.
>>>
>>> Now ActiveSync.
>>>
>>> I have tried this on multiple devices - an iPhone that has other
>>> "Exchange" email accounts active, and an iPad that does not, which is
>>> what I am testing on now.
>>>
>>> Initial discovery and sync - works fine. The iPad "sees" Horde, and
>>> syncs the Contacts from LDAP immediately.
>>> Changes in Turba - add, delete, edit: all sync almost immediately thru
>>>
>>> to the iPad.
>>> Changes on iPad end - This is the problem child. Nothing happens in
>>> Turba. The iPad sits spinning its "network activity" wheel, and Turba
>>> doesn't update. All through this period, I see this set of messages
>>> every five seconds in the Activesync log:
>>>
>>> And nothing changes in Turba.
>>>
>>> As an unrelated thing I restarted Apache on the server, and then when
>>> it came back up BANG - the queued test entry activity hit Turba with
>>> the following log messages:
>>>
>>> <Snip>
>>>
>>> That got me interested - so i tried again. Created a new contact on
>>> the iPad. The iPad sat there trying to contact server, but nothing
>>> synced.
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> But nothing into Turba. Waited for ten minutes. Still nothing. Stopped
>>>
>>> Apache, iPad activity wheel goes into immediate intermittent motion
>>> instead of constant. Restart Apache, Horde Portal presents 503 error
>>> for about 15 seconds, then at the same instant that the iPad
>>> successfully syncs the contact the Portal comes back to life. The
>>> contact is now synced back into Turba LDAP, and the logs show that as
>>> per above first example.
>>>
>>> I can now reproduce this every time, even the 503 errors from Horde
>>> portal for 15 seconds after an Apache restart. If there are no queued
>>> ActiveSync requests then the 503 errors don't occur, the Portal
>>> responds again immediately after an Apache restart. Apache logs
>>> nothing unusual, just the usual "resuming normal operations" messages
>>> it does on a restart.
>>>
>>> Simon
>>>
>>
>> That sounds as if there are no more apace or php-cgi processes  
>> available to answer the HTTP requests, i.e., a configuration issue.
>> --
>> Mike
>> Sent from mobile
>>
>>
>
> Hmmm... Thanks Mike. I have been running Apache with a reduced  
> spareserver count and a faster server turnover as the Apache  
> instances tend to otherwise take over the server. Horde has been  
> running fine, but I will reset to out of box defaults and see how it  
> goes.
>
> Cheers
> Simon
> --

OK, put Apache back to stock config for the prefork MPM -

StartServers 8
MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServes 20
ServerLimit 256
MaxClients 256
MaxRequestsPerChild 4000

Note that at most I have 4 concurrent users.

Restarted Apache. At first it worked, a contact made on the iPad  
appeared in Turba. Then it stopped, with no further edits or additions  
working. So I made a new contact in Turba, it synced, and then added  
an email address to it on the iPad. 30 minutes later that email  
address still was not in Turba. Restart Apache, and it comes through.  
No error messages in Apache log (Apache usually logs when it is  
running out of servers). Note also that a device activesync reset from  
Horde preferences works within seconds, as it appears does all server  
-> iPad sync traffic.

This is a bog standard CentOS server with "yum install httpd", and the  
config is now as per out of box. If I need to boost Apache servers  
beyond standard to run Horde ActiveSync then some sort of guide as to  
"what and by how much" would be great. How does everyone else have  
their Apache configured?

Boosting Apache beyond these will also require more RAM - the server  
has 1.5GB RAM, and ONLY runs Apache / PHP / Horde. Surely that's  
enough for Horde?

Simon.