[Dovecot] Linux Bootup: Dovecot Failure

[Christopher Metter]

  Am 31.10.2010 19:04, schrieb Stan Hoeppner:
> Was ntpd really the problem or were you missing a loopback interface?
> What is the output of 'cat /etc/network/interfaces'?  Do you see:
>
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> or something similar?
>
Im Sorry, loopback interface was installed properly and is in 
/etc/network/interfaces indeed.
And it really was something around the ntp service. After purging both 
ntp and ntpdate I rebooted the system.
And voila, the timed out error was gone.
> ntpd and ntpdate serve two different functions, well, actually the same
> function but in two different ways.  Most Linux distros have both
> installed automatically.  Removing ntpdate won't fix a config problem
> with ntpd.  ntpdate is an interactive (command line) utility.  It can be
> setup to run via cron once or twice a day to sync the time to an ntp
> server instead of using ntpd.  Best practices calls for ntpd however,
> and recommends against using cron'd ntpdate.  The latter puts too much
> stress on the world's ntp servers when everyone does it that way, since
> most OPs that did so scheduled syncs at noon and midnight.  So the ntp
> servers would get flooded with millions of requests in a period of a few
> seconds, twice a day--not good.
>
> You really, really need accurate time on a mail server, which means you
> should have ntpd configured properly and running.  On most Linux distros
> today all you have to do is install the package and the install script
> takes care of the rest.  You may need to configure your pool servers
> manually.  For you those should probably be:
>
> 0.de.pool.ntp.org
> 1.de.pool.ntp.org
>
> Just for fun, what is the complete output of (executed on the mail
> server shell of course):
>
> ntpdate -q 0.de.pool.ntp.org
>
> This will make a query without changing the local machine time.  It will
> tell us the current error of your clock.
>
I just installed ntpdate for you ;) again and this is the output:

# ntpdate -q 0.de.pool.ntp.org
server 188.40.77.71, stratum 2, offset 0.000922, delay 0.03386
server 89.238.71.130, stratum 2, offset -0.004381, delay 0.04456
server 131.234.137.24, stratum 1, offset -0.003588, delay 0.03430
31 Oct 19:33:46 ntpdate[1412]: adjust time server 131.234.137.24 offset 
-0.003588 sec

But actually, my first two ntp servers are some local ones. They are run 
by another SystemOperator and do their job fine.


After installing ntpdate, the error "Unexpected first line <localhost: 
timed out, nothing received>" reoccured.
Purgin it again, removed it...

Here is another output (without ntpdate installed):
# ntpq -p
      remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  
jitter
==============================================================================
+wrzx03.rz.uni-w 131.188.3.220    2 u   14   64    1    0.551    0.038   
0.028
+wrz1003.rz.uni- 131.188.3.220    2 u   17   64    1    0.542    0.042   
0.018
  interactive21.d 192.53.103.104   2 u   23   64    1   16.345   
-9.671   0.002
  formularfetisch 160.45.10.8      2 u   25   64    1    8.340   
-1.062   0.002
  valiant.die-com 192.53.103.103   2 u   26   64    0    0.000    
0.000   0.002
*netz.smurf.nori 131.234.137.24   2 u   11   64    1    7.356   -5.412   
0.241
  zit-net2.uni-pa .DCF.            1 u   26   64    0    0.000    
0.000   0.002


To sum it up:
Config with packet ntp installed runs properly and I still think that 
ntpdate throws the errors.
Even system Startup is faster without it. Its 60seconds vs ~18seconds on 
rc2.d startuptime.


If I aint wrong, my system time is still accurate.
And the problem is solved, or did I miss something?


Greetings,
Christopher Metter