Dashboard displays Dovecot not running but it is

Virtualmin
1

This server is running for around 5 months. Centos 7, Postfix/Dovecot, up-to-date.
Looking at my Dashboard I see Dovecot is “not running”. I put it to “run” but its state still is displayed as stopped.
I don’t see problems. tailf /var/log/maillog displays dovecot activity.
ps aux | grep dovecot

dovenull 24957  0.0  0.0  44232  4256 ?        S    09:57   0:00 dovecot/imap-login
user1  24966  0.0  0.0  17884  2672 ?        S    09:57   0:00 dovecot/imap
dovecot  30494  0.0  0.0  34520  2380 ?        S    19:30   0:00 dovecot/auth
root     30495  0.0  0.0   9744  1116 ?        S    19:30   0:00 dovecot/ssl-params
root     30513  0.0  0.0  38976  2788 ?        S    19:30   0:00 dovecot/auth -w
root     31185  0.0  0.0 112716   972 pts/0    S+   19:31   0:00 grep --color=auto dovecot
root     31848  0.0  0.0  16212  1224 ?        Ss   feb25   0:17 /usr/sbin/dovecot
dovecot  31849  0.0  0.0   9748  1116 ?        S    feb25   0:06 dovecot/anvil
root     31850  0.0  0.0   9880  1304 ?        S    feb25   0:05 dovecot/log
root     31853  0.0  0.1  22548 12108 ?        S    feb25   0:24 dovecot/config

I remember it also happened after “Current Certificate” -> “Copy to Dovecot”. This button didn’t disappear like the others after clicking on them.
This time I didn’t do anything. Maybe a Let’s Encrypt auto renew is involved.

2

Hi,

What is the output of:

systemctl status dovecot

The state should be active (running), I assume it’s not to various reasons.

Can you connect to IMAP?

3

Hi Ilia,
These are the answers to your questions.

telnet MyHost.com 143

Trying IP...
Connected to MyHost.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot ready.

systemctl status dovecot

 dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since sáb 2020-02-29 18:59:51 -03; 18h ago
     Docs: man:dovecot(1)
           http://wiki2.dovecot.org/
  Process: 31847 ExecStop=/usr/bin/doveadm stop (code=exited, status=75)
  Process: 8919 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dovecot (code=exited, status=89)
  Process: 8912 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/dovecot/prestartscript (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1425 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com systemd[1]: Starting Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com dovecot[8919]: Fatal: Dovecot is already running? Socket already exists: /var...ogin
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com dovecot[8919]: master: Fatal: Dovecot is already running? Socket already exis...ogin
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service: control process exited, code=exited status=89
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com systemd[1]: Unit dovecot.service entered failed state.
feb 29 18:59:51 host.MyHost.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service failed.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

Thank you

4

Have you tried killing the process and restarting it again?

5

Not yet. Because it is not affecting email system I let it in that state to allow tests you might suggest.
Maybe there’s a bug somewhere.
I repeat I had the same issue after trying to apply Let’sEncrypt cert to Dovecot via “Copy to Dovecot” button in the past

6

There was a bug in this regard, that we fixed few weeks ago.

7

Which process should I kill?

dovenull  5297  0.0  0.0  44240  4256 ?        S    15:19   0:00 dovecot/imap-login
user1     5300  0.0  0.0  19600  3652 ?        S    15:19   0:00 dovecot/imap
dovecot  10759  0.0  0.0  34520  2380 ?        S    18:47   0:00 dovecot/auth
root     11836  0.0  0.0   9744  1116 ?        S    18:48   0:00 dovecot/ssl-params
root     11839  0.1  0.0  38976  2792 ?        S    18:49   0:00 dovecot/auth -w
dovenull 12142  0.0  0.0  44240  4260 ?        S    18:49   0:00 dovecot/imap-login
user1    12166  0.0  0.0  17904  2436 ?        S    18:49   0:00 dovecot/imap
root     12508  0.0  0.0 112716   972 pts/0    S+   18:50   0:00 grep --color=auto dovecot
dovenull 28774  0.0  0.0  44240  4256 ?        S    18:27   0:00 dovecot/imap-login
user1    28792  0.0  0.0  18892  4056 ?        S    18:27   0:00 dovecot/imap
root     31848  0.0  0.0  16212  1232 ?        Ss   feb25   0:21 /usr/sbin/dovecot
dovecot  31849  0.0  0.0   9748  1116 ?        S    feb25   0:07 dovecot/anvil
root     31850  0.0  0.0   9880  1304 ?        S    feb25   0:06 dovecot/log
root     31853  0.0  0.1  22548 12108 ?        S    feb25   0:29 dovecot/config
8

All of them.

pkill dovecot

or forcefully, if above fails:

pkill -9 dovecot

However, you could simply run:

systemctl force-reload dovecot
1 Like
9

Done.
I “Copy to Dovecot” current certificate and it was applied correctly, the button is not displayed anymore.
I left wondering why Dovecot was displayed as not running in Dashboard.
Thank you

10

It had to be restarted manually. Next Virtualmin release will fix that though.