[horde] ActiveSync problem

[Simon Wilson]

Quoting Patrick Domack <patrickdk at patrickdk.com>:

> 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.
>
>

Thanks Patrick, will check what is being loaded. I haven't changed PHP  
config other than adding modules needed by Horde and I had to change  
memory to 128MB (was running fine on 96MB, but address book import  
falls over).

I have just been doing more tests.

Horde -> iPad is virtually instant.

iPad -> Horde is now syncing a change, but it takes up to 30 minutes  
during which time the iPad is constantly trying. For example I  
modified a contact on the iPad at 12:11pm, and it synced with Turba at  
12:36pm. During this time the iPad's network activity indicator is  
constantly spinning.

During this period activesync logs the same "no changes" messages  
every 5 seconds.

By contrast, if I change on my iPad a contact on my work Exchange  
server it syncs back to Exchange immediately.

Simon