[horde] ActiveSync problem

[Patrick Domack]

Quoting Simon Wilson <simon at simonandkate.net>:

> 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?

That seems odd, horde should run just find in 1gig of ram, though I  
wouldn't if you have a lot of users using it. Currently my personal  
email (only has about 10 users on it) has 2gigs of ram, running  
everything  
(postfix+dovecot+amavis+spamassassin+clamav+apache+php+ftp+mysql+quagga+...)

     StartServers          8
     MinSpareServers       8
     MaxSpareServers      10
     MaxClients           50
     MaxRequestsPerChild 1000

currently apache is using about 200megs of ram.

I would only load the min required php modules needed though, some of  
them have nasty effects. I know for me, gd leaks memory, and smnp just  
adds some kind of huge delay to each script start.