Attachment corruption?

[pcrock]

Hellom

Can anyone tell me exactly what happens to attachments going through Scalix. We have one particular web app (php/mysql code) that creates an excel spreadsheet (.xls) and when sent through scalix it reports as being corrupted by excel when opened although it does open.

On looking at the file in a hex editor, there appears to be about 10k added onto the end by going through scalix.
Excel sheets created by excel are fine

I've got no AV running on the box and only other 3rd party app is spamassassin and I'd like to know how the attachments are processed to see if I can find what's happening to it.

TIA

Phill

[pcrock]

Anyone able to give me any hints on this, scalix staff?

I'm getting to the point where I will need to buy more licences soon, but I'm at the point with Scalix where I really daren't invest any more money on it.

I've got this problem, reminders not working sporadically, the ldapmapper dies for no discernible reason about once a fortnight, messages stuck in outboxes, Outlook not connecting despite a green tick on the smartcache icon, Activesync being unusable, users on Outlook 2007 being excluded (we cannot get any more 2003 licences without buying 2007 and downgrading, but paying the higher 2007 costs which is way more than the usual OEM we get).

Phill

[Valerion]

This may be hard to debug. Scalix doesn't change the attachments as far as I can tell (except for conversions, eg. uuencode -> MIME).

Does the script you use create a MIME-compliant message, or something like an uuencoded one? If MIME-compliant, you will need to activate debug logging in the SMTP relay as well as archiving.

The SMTP relay should output the message as it was received, so you can check if the relay itself does anything funny to it. If you archive the mail, you can see it after the UNIX gateway is finished with it, where all conversions needed happens. If you have a sendmail milter/plugin/replacement of some sort running, you will have to check that on its own, that would depend on the milter/plugin/replacement in question.

You can activate debug logging by putting DEBUG_LOG=TRUE in the ~/sys/smtpd.cfg file and restarting the SMTP relay. The log will be placed in ~/tmp. BE CAREFUL: Do not let this file grow over 2GB in size, in previous versions of Scalix it crashed the SMTP relay.

Archiving is easier to do and find the message, so I suggest you try that first. Have a look in the Administration Guide on page 153 for different options here.

[pcrock]

Varlerion,

Thanks for the assistance, the script only generates the xls file, not the entire email. It's only when this file is emailed do we see this.

What's interesting is that it only seems to affect internal mails, if I send it to an external address it seems OK and send from external to internal is OK. Only Internal to internal is affected which means it's got to be a scalix process somewhere.

I've already got archiving running, and looking at the archive, there is several k's worth of junk stuck on the end of the attachment.

I've tried the DEBUG_LOG = TRUE, but apart from creating a smtpd-SMTP.log it didn't populate anything into it (am I missing a step here?)

Phill

[pcrock]

Anyone? Scalix Staff?

I'm absolutely stuck with this. I'm in the position that I'm out of the support period, I daren't spend any more money on this until I can be 100% sure I'm not investing in a product that is going to cause me more problems than it sorts. The prices I've been quoted for the additional licenses could get me software from a competitor, but I really don't want to have to move everyone again, apart from the grief it causes, it also makes me look like I've made a major blunder buying into a broken product.

This forum seems to be the only place I can get any support in any form from.

Please can someone from scalix staff help me on this.

Phill

[pcrock]

And to top it off this morning, I've just been , to use an English bit of slang, bollocked, about the reminders problem seeing as how two managers here were late for a meeting and neither of them got reminders popping up.

Phill

[kanderson]

You can open a support incident with Scalix even if your maintenance has expired. They are not related. The software subscription allows you to upgrade the version of Scalix you are running to be current. You can open an incident with Scalix at any time by emailing suport@sclaix.com (oops). A single incident costs $300. Depending on the cause of the problem, you may be eligible for a refund of the cost.

But I'll tell you now, this will be an AV or something similar type problem, it always is.

Kev

[pcrock]

I've not AV running on the box and this only affects internal mail, the mail isn't going through sendmail so there shouldn't be any 3rd party stuff affecting it. The only 3rd party software I've got is spamassassin which as far as I'm aware only sees mail going through the sendmail queue.

In regards the support incidents, am I right in thinking that if I submit a ticket, it might cost me $300 dollars but depending on whether you decide it's a bug or not is to whether I don't have to pay? I really can't afford to take that chance. I've got three significant problems with scalix which could cost me $900 dollars but might not, I really daren't take that chance.

Phill

[dkelly]

In regards the support incidents, am I right in thinking that if I submit a ticket, it might cost me $300 dollars but depending on whether you decide it's a bug or not is to whether I don't have to pay? I really can't afford to take that chance. I've got three significant problems with scalix which could cost me $900 dollars but might not, I really daren't take that chance.

There's no "might" about it. You will need to pay $900 if you have three discrete issues you need help with.

It's really your choice. If you don't need to speak to a Scalix support engineer, you can continue to use the forums and rely on goodwill from other forum members. If you require a SLA for response and continued communication through to solution, a support incident is what you need.

Cheers

Dave

[btisdall]

Hi pcrock - do I understand it that your LAMP app generates the Excel spreadsheet but doesn't mail it, it just writes it to file somewhere & then this file is manually attached to a msg by one Scalix user & sent to another on the same system?

If this is so then how do other Excel files fair? What happens if you create a very similar file from scratch using Excel & process it in the same way?

Edit: sorry - it's been some time since I read your OP, I see that you've already answered these Qs. Have you had any luck looking at your app to see if the output can be made to play nicely with Scalix?