[OPLINTECH] OPLIN e-mail failure

[Karl Jendretzky]

Well, frankly trying to host mail with limited staff is what got us in
this spot in the first place. OPLIN is 5 people, and I'm the only
sysadmin we have. I've been mostly awake since 2:45am on Friday, and
though I may be overruled at some point I hope that we don't offer
mail any more. Even when working properly it strains the staff an
unnecessary amount.

Currently I'm in talks with the mail group with the State of Ohio.
They work with Microsoft to provide email to state agencies. I'd like
to have a info sheet we can give to libraries outlining how they can
move onto the state's mail system, but initial response from the state
indicates their team might not be able to handle the load. I've got a
conference call tomorrow morning with the state mail team, and should
know more after.

-Karl

On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Chad Neeper <cneeper at level9networks.com> wrote:
> Ouch.  Thanks for the info.
>
> That's a sinking feeling when you're in the middle of it and watching the
> server not do what it's supposed to. I don't wish that feeling on anyone!
>
> This is probably early and you may not be ready to announce, but any
> thoughts to set up another mail server and web front-end available to all
> libraries, or are you getting out of that game entirely? Knowing that will
> help to decide what to do.
>
> Thanks,
> Chad
>
> ______________________________
> Chad Neeper
> Senior Systems Engineer
>
> Level 9 Networks
> 740-548-8070 (voice)
> 866-214-6607 (fax)
>
> Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools
>
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 10:09 AM, Karl Jendretzky <karljendretzky at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Everything besides the Zimbra server is running properly.
>>
>> The Zimbra server was running Ubuntu 10, which is reaching end of life and
>> needed updated. The server was pushed to Ubuntu 14, and a patch was run on
>> Zimbra to bring it up to date, but after the patching finished the 80GB LDAP
>> database was corrupted. Attempts to fix the corrupted database failed.
>> Backups were restored, and a small patch was attempted to bring it up to
>> U14, but once again there were LDAP issues. A new Ubuntu 10 mail server was
>> built, and the exact version of Zimbra for the backups was installed, and
>> the backup data was put in place, but failed. Each step was slightly
>> different errors.
>>
>> My thought is that the Zimbra server went through many updates through
>> it's life, and at some point some of the data went out of spec just enough
>> that it could only ever run on the exact U10 environment that it had. That
>> U10 environment no longer exists.
>>
>> Zimbra is a nasty beast. It uses many packages, but none are the
>> repository default packages. All are bundled with Zimbra, and all work just
>> the way Zimbra wants them to, meaning that support resources are sparse.
>>
>> The only thing that the Zimbra server was doing was personal email
>> accounts.
>>
>> -Karl Jendretzky
>>
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>>
>
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-- 
-Karl