Scalix Forums

I need to open an emergency ticket with Scalix Support, my server has been e-mail bombed and I can not clean it up.

Server has been down for almost 24 hours. I call the 800 number for the US in New York, asked to leave a message, Hit Zero a couple of times and the receptionist mail box is Full.

I need to talk to a live body with in the next hour to fix this.

I am very desperate to get our server up and running at this point.

Sincerley,

Sideband Samurai

Did you try any of the numbers on the Xandros web site?

Um,

Yea I did every one of them did not anser all went to voice mail. Tried to call Germany but it was to late in thier day to help. (9:00pm thier time when I called).

Also I am running the script specified in the forums that deletes messages out of the internet message queue. UP to this point I have been deleted messages at about 1 per minute average, and it looks like evein though I have shut off access to port 25 on the firewall, these messages keep building. I had knocked it down from 175,000 to just over 70,000 then it started deleted messages about one per minute and the intenet mail queue started growning. It now has over 95,000 messags in it (up from 70,000)

I am thinking this is a mail looping situation. I had configured access.db to only allow sendmail to accept mail from authorized users, (its a backscatter issue) so I am thinking at this point this migh be the cause of the problem. I have backed out the changes in the access.db and restarted the server. Now I will try to remove these messages again.

Sideband Samurai

It appears that backing out the changes to access.db and rebooting the server has cleared the logjam. It also appears I was correct about the mail looping problem. I am back to deleting 50 messages a second from the internet mail queue. I will keep everyone posted.

With regards to the Mail looping problem, I beleive it happes like this: Because sendmail MTA was configured to only allow authrized users to send or receive internet email, I beleive what happened is somehow we received a spam mail from a person not authorized to send mail so sendmail sent it back to scalix, stating that this person is not authrized, but then Scalix thinks Oh this needs to be sent out and sends out another copy when gets return, now you have two copies. and on and on and on. Worse we have an infected computer that knows how to talk to the sendmail mta on our end and inject email into the mail server that way. Then

It does not appear that we have a root kit on our system.

Sincerley,

SidebandSamurai

Did you use this page?

https://cls.scalix.com/support.php

@Bill3

You know Bill that is a good suggestion. um... please don't take this as I am yelling at you, but the problem I have is I needed the support yesterday! Your response was a valid one, but I am not chastizing you or yelling at you for suggesting that. If it was a minor issue that could wait, I would have definitely done that, and have.

You see the server was down for over 24 hours. I was instructed by the partners of the firm, the very ones that sign my check every month, that I needed to work with someone to fix this issue. In other words, I needed to dial a number and talk to a warm body. I am very disappointed with Scalix support. I have a critical server DOWN and I have to call Germany to get support AND THEN its ONLY email!!! I was willing to pay what ever it cost to get that server up and running, and the only support is EMAIL!. That makes me feel really uncomfortable.

Now the partners are considering Microsoft Exchange. Why? Certainly not the cost, but the support and good access to it. Even if a credit card has to be taken out and ms support called. At least I get to talk to a warm body 24 hours a day 7 days a week. With Scalix its Email, or a support partner.

Fortunately I was able to work through most of the issue, and at about 3:00am this morning I did get a call from one of Scalix Support partners in Germany. This person was not part of the Scalix team, but and independent contractor. Awesome person and I could tell he was very skilled with Scalix. He has worked with HP open mail and now Scalix for at least 10 years. This person called me on his DAY OFF! now that is what i call support. With a commercial product, that is what i expect. If it were back in the days where the licenses were 25 users, and it was free to use, I would not have complained. Now that have to pay an annual maintenance agreement plus pay for support points that expire in one year, I just don't like the way Xandros handles their technical support, i don't like it one bit.

It is why we are very much considering moving to Exchange, and why Scalix has left a bad taste in my mouth. I am not saying Scalix (the server) is not a great product. It has served us well, even with the add-in incompatibilities, the outlook lockups and at times the inaccessibility to the web service, or worse yet, the rebuilding of SmartCache. I am saying there is no access to instant support even with a critical outage like I experienced the past two days. That alone is just unacceptable

My 2 cents worth.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai