[horde] ActiveSync problem

[Michael J Rubinsky]

Quoting Simon Wilson <simon at simonandkate.net>:

> Simon Wilson
> M: 0400 12 11 16
>
> 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.

I just wiped my ipod touch and tried this from scratch. I ame seeing  
_some_ delay in writing back changes to the server, though this is  
more on the order of a few minutes, not 30 minutes.  Maybe try  
changing the activesync configuration on the Horde side to use a  
"forced" hearbeat instead of device managed. Then try setting the  
heartbeat interval to something small, like maybe 10 or 20.

Another thing to note, it's only the *first* change that is delayed  
for me. It seems that once a change is pushed, subsequent changes are  
pushed more quickly, though still not instantaneously. No idea what's  
causing that. There is no command that I know of that we could be  
sending to the iOS devices to change this behavior, this is all device  
managed. Since there is not even any attempt at device->server  
communication, I don't think this is protocol related.

-- 
mike

The Horde Project (www.horde.org)
mrubinsk at horde.org