What are Orphans?

[eddieedwards]

Could someone please explain what the "orphans" are that show up in my ommaint reports? From context, it sounds like they are files that have lost whatever connection to the mailstore they had. Are they worth saving? Can they be reunited with their parents? I apparently have a lot of orphans, but am not sure what to do about them.

Thanks!
Mike

[mikethebike]

Mike,

you are correct, they are just files that have become...orphaned...from a message or container. They can safely be removed using omscan (see the other recent threads).

Mick

[eddieedwards]

I run omscan as part of the ommaint weekly script, with the -a option. It is not clear from other posts if I should run this at an off-peak time or not. I suppose I should to be safe.

Thanks for your help!
Mike

[eddieedwards]

I ran omscan -Aavfx last week, but my weekly omscan (as part of ommaint) still kicked back a truckload of orphans:

Code: Select all

Orphans found ....
 Orphan name                  Orphan type
 ~/data/0000001/002hi0f       Container.
 ~/data/0000001/00234do       Data Item.
 ~/data/0000001/002hi02       Container.
 ~/data/0000002/00484gg       Serialised File.
 ~/data/0000002/00484gh       Serialised File.
 ~/data/0000002/0009e3n       Container.
  ...


And it goes on like that for 6,681 lines! Not sure what to do to clean this up...

[KevinAnderson]

Run omscan -Aavfx 3 or 4 times consecutively. You can run it while users are working on your server, but be aware that this will put a load on the server, so they will likely see slower performance.

If you see no difference after running this 3-4 times, please post the results of the relevant section of the scan here.

Kev.

[eddieedwards]

I ran omscan -Aavfx three times, then ran omscan -a. Here are the abridged results of the latter:

Code: Select all

omscan running on 05.16.07 at 06:52:39.
Host computer : yeti.ega.com.
Report mode requested.

Last omscan tool run on 05.15.07 at 22:34:10; duration 44 minute(s).
Previous server cycle run on 05.15.07 at 19:41:01; duration 68 minute(s).
Current server cycle not started; service reset or delayed.


Passive scan option requested.

Scanning file/dir links .... done.

CAUTION: Scanning of message store has started.
         Mounted file/dir links must be maintained during the scan.
         VxFS file system must not be reorganized - see omscan(1M).

Checking/Scanning data domain .................................................................................... done.
Checking data orphans .... done.
Checking data orphan files .... done.
Checking/Scanning bulletin board area .... done.
Checking/Scanning user trays ........... done.
Checking/Scanning message lists .... done.
Scanning name directories .... done.
Scanning temp domain .... done.
Checking/Scanning message queues .... done.

Orphans found ....
Orphan name                  Orphan type
~/data/0000001/002hi0f       Container.
~/data/0000001/00234do       Data Item.
~/data/0000001/002hi02       Container.
[ -- skipping 6,500+ lines -- ]
~/data/00000jv/005ujup       Container.
~/data/00000k0/005pjvh       Data Item.
~/data/00000k0/005pjvj       Data Item.

Missing user directories ....
~/user/u00003k

Disk usage ....
[ -- skipping user disk usage -- ]


[sjefferies]

Is there a command to delete orphans? I too have a several (about 30) orphans.

[KevinAnderson]

omscan -Aavfx.

Run it repeatedly. If the isses remain, post the output here and we'll advise further. But really, that should be all you need.

Thanks
Kev.

[sjefferies]

Hi Kev,

I ran the omscan -Aavfx a few times and here is the output of the missing childern I am getting:

Missing children ....

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 0
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/00000v8
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 1
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/0000001
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 2
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/0000002
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 3
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/0000003
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 4
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/0000004
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 5
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/0000005
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 0
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/00000v8
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 1
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/0000001
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 2
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/0000002
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 3
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/0000003
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 4
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/0000004
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003d, RecNum : 5
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003d/0000005
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder.

Missing user directories ....
~/user/u00003c
~/user/u00003d

Thanks in advance for you help on this!

[KevinAnderson]

Ok, for both Shane and Eddie.

You have missing user directories. This isn't serious, but omscan will not delete data, so this will never be fixed without manual intervention.

Shane, you posted last, I'll just address one of yours, Eddie, you have the same problem, and the resolution is the same.

Where it says "missing user directories..." it then lists them. I'll go through the first entry.

~/user/u00003c

This is almost certainly a deleted user where the delete didn't finish. So lets first verify that the user doesn't exist.

omshowu -O $((32#3c))

This will show details of the user. Hopefully they do not exist. The folder referenced above shows the user number in base 32. $((32#??)) will convert that for the omshowu command. (You can test it on your own ID if you'd like, "omshowu <authid> -f" will show your folder, you can use your folder number there to see that it works correctly).

If the user exists, stop and check back here.

If the user doesn't exist, what generally happens is that 1 of 2 folders have not been deleted. Each user will have a "g" and a "u" folder. The missing folder that is shown means you need to delete the other half of the pair. In this case, we see a missing folder of ~/user/u00003c, so we'll need to delete ~/user/g00003c.

rm -rf /var/opt/scalix/??/s/user/g00003c.

If you'd like, you could move the folder somewhere else rather than deleting it, so that you could copy it back if needed.

Then rerun omscan, and you should see the errors from that folder are now resolved. Rinse and repeat as neccessary.

[sjefferies]

Thanks Kev! You the man! That worked great. I ran removed those 2 directories in question and ran omscan and everything is clean now!

Thanks!

[LHD-Tech]

rm -rf /var/opt/scalix/??/s/user/g00003c.

Since you have the ?? in there, i am guessing that is for Scalix 11. Would the same thing apply for 10? I am running Scalix 10 on CentOS 4.5

Here is my omscan from my weekly report:

Code: Select all

Scanning file/dir links .... done.
 
 CAUTION: Scanning of message store has started.
          Mounted file/dir links must be maintained during the scan.
          VxFS file system must not be reorganized - see omscan(1M).
 
 Checking/Scanning data domain ......................................................................................................................... done.
 Checking data orphans .... done.
 Checking data orphan files .... done.
 Checking/Scanning bulletin board area .... done.
 Checking/Scanning user trays ....................... done.
 Checking/Scanning message lists .... done.
 Scanning name directories .... done.
 Scanning temp domain .... done.
 Checking/Scanning message queues .... done.
 
 Orphans found ....
 Orphan name                         Orphan type
 ~/data/0000001/005f0j4         In transit message.
 ~/data/0000001/006mc02       Data Item.
 ~/data/0000001/005ljuk          In transit message.
 ~/data/0000001/005gt6h        Transaction file.
 ~/data/0000001/0071al3        Transaction file.
 ~/data/0000001/006jg0k        In transit message.
 ~/data/0000001/005n822       Data Item.
 ~/data/0000001/0065a0j       Transaction file.
 ~/data/0000001/0063u04       In transit message.
 ~/data/0000001/0062i0k        In transit message.
 ~/data/0000001/006ks23       Transaction file.
---- Continues for a little while ----
 ~/data/00000tb/00e1adi        Container.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co207      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co20n      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co1v9      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co1vp      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co209      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co20p      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co1vb      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00e1adl       Transaction file.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co1vr       Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00e1adm      Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co20b       Data Item.
 ~/data/00000tb/00co20r       Data Item.
 
 Disk usage ....


I see that omscan has removed the entries that look like this:

Code: Select all

Missing children ....

Owner Info :
Parent Container : ~/user/g00003c, RecNum : 0
Missing Child : ~/user/g00003c/00000v8
Child Type : Container.
Child Creator : ********
Child Subject : User Folder

I had about 15 of these entries and those are all taken care of but is there anything that can be done to remove that loooooong list of orphans? I dont seem to be noticing any change in the amount of orphans the report returns.

Thanks for the help!

[kanderson]

Same thing, just the different location of the user folder.

Kev.

[pcrock]

I've got a problem with this also, when I run ommaint, I get the following out,

Checking/Scanning data domain .................................................................................... done.
Checking data orphans .... done.
Checking data orphan files .... done.
Checking/Scanning bulletin board area .... done.
Checking/Scanning user trays ............... done.
Checking/Scanning message lists .... done.
Scanning name directories .... done.
Scanning temp domain .... done.
Checking/Scanning message queues .... done.

Orphans found ....
Orphan name Orphan type
~/data/0000001/006uu81 Container.
~/data/0000001/006uu83 Transaction file.
~/data/0000001/006utv8 Container.
~/data/0000001/006utva Transaction file.
~/data/0000001/006utvb Data Item.
~/data/0000004/009m701 Container.
~/data/0000004/009m6gs Serialised File.
~/data/0000004/009m6gt Container.


There are a few hundred orphans, I've run omscan -Aavfx repeatedly (like 6 six times) It doesn't seem to fix it. What's confused me from the post above, is that the reports other people are getting seem to be ~/user/folder so I'm not sure whether these orphans are user related or possibly public folder messages? Either way, omscan isn't clearing them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Phill