[Mailman-Users] Approved message is discarded

[Mark Sapiro]

On 11/13/2010 4:12 AM, Andre van Kan wrote:
> 
> I should have firstly explained the consistency of our recently
> installed mailsystem: three separate IP-clusters (!) cooperate to 
> handle our e-mail and except for MM they perform very well.
> (btw, it was designed and installed by an external party)
> 
>  - cluster 1: runs the MTA (Postfix) and MM
>  - cluster 2: runs Horde and the MM-webinterface
>  - cluster 3: runs Cyrus-imapd
> 
> Cluster 1 and 2 share - via NFS - the MM-lists etc. I found out however
> that data/heldms* was only available on cluster 1. 
> From the moment that I shared this directory between cluster 1 and 2 the
> approved messages were visible with the admin webinterface and approving
> resulted in a transfer of the messages to cluster2:/var/spool/mailman/in
> and are waiting there for the things to come. 
> So the problem is partly solved, albeit that the messages still are not
> delivered, supposedly because cluster 1 should be able to transfer the
> messages to cluster 3, the IMAP-server (?). 


The approved message is requeued in cluster 2 /var/spool/mailman/in, but
no qrunners are running on cluster 2 so there it sits. This directory
(in fact all of the /var/spool/mailman/ directory) must be shared with
cluster 1.

In fact, all of Mailman's mutable directories except maybe logs should
be shared between clusters 1 and 2. The rest of Mailman's directories
can be either shared or duplicated as you wish. Assuming this is
RedHat's Mailman as indicated by the queues being in /var/spool/mailman,
the directories that must be shared are

/var/lib/mailman/archives
/var/lib/mailman/data
/var/lib/mailman/lists
/var/lock/mailman
/var/spool/mailman

Sharing of /var/log/mailman is optional.


> So I want to share the directory cluster2:/var/spool/mailman/in with
> cluster 1 since this cluster is configured to send the messages to the
> IMAP-server.


I'm not sure what the IMAP server has to do with it except for the
ultimate delivery of "local user" messages from a mailbox or maildir to
the user's MUA.

Mailman's OutgoingRunner on cluster 1 delivers to Postfix, and delivery
from there is handled by Postfix.


> Does this sound reasonable to you, or should cluster 2 itself better be
> configured to send the approved messages to the IMAP-server directly?


No. Don't try to configure cluster 2 to deliver mail from Mailman. This
will result in much unnecessary duplication. Just share the directories
I indicate above between clusters 1 and 2. Note that it is critically
important to share the locks directory (/var/lock/mailman).

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan