[horde] ActiveSync problem

[Simon Wilson]

Quoting Michael J Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org>:

> 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
>
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Mike - thanks, on first check setting a forced heartbeat seems to have  
resolved it. I made an edit and it went through very quickly. Will  
follow up and look in more detail at the parameters that can be set  
later.

I had looked at heartbeat but discounted it as the description  
inferred to me that it was server to client, which seemed to be  
working fine.

Now to try and work out whether I can get LDAP directory to be useful  
at all... Setting an address on iPhone goes nowhere at the moment, and  
the lack of multiple email addresses is going to be a problem.

Simon