[Kolab-devel] make kolabd more robust

[Alain Spineux]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Gunnar Wrobel <wrobel at pardus.de> wrote:
> Hi Alain,
>
> Quoting Alain Spineux <aspineux at gmail.com>:
>
>> The "kolabDeleteflag" avoid kolabd to forget to delete a user.
>> But for the user creation, we have no guaranty no users will not be
>> forgotten by kolabd !
>> The current system is based only on a _transation less_ ldap
>> replication mechanism !
>> This means user could be forgotten !
>
> Do you have a specific scenario for this? This would of course be a bug and
> should get fixed.

I read the user mailing list and see sometime user creating themself
the mailbox using cyradmin !
And yes I remember than when changing abruptly the server clock, the
synchronisation was lost.

>
> The idea within kolabd is that new users are stored in a local user db once
> they are created. If they are not in there the account will be created. So I
> wouldn't say it is "transaction less".

Yes this is transaction less because kolabd don't
use this information even if  it exists. This is too much work to
check that all account has it existing mailbox created
at each startup ! This was done in the past but was taking hours ! I
dont know what is the empyrical system used now,
but as shown in the user mailing list some mailbox look to be
forgotten sometime.

> It does not store the information in
> LDAP though - that is correct.

Storring the info in LDAP could speed up the check.

>The question would be if that would really be
> necessary.

This why we are chatting :-)

>
> The deletion flag exists as all servers need to purge the entry. But for
> creation only one server needs to create the account. So the local db
> solution should be okay.

The deletion flag is not mandatory at all ! Kolabd could compare imap
mailbox and ldap entries
and delete missing items. But this become slow and then "transaction less"

>
> But I admit the code is not 100% clean and I could imagine there are
> situations where user creation could fail.
>
> It would be good to clarify such a scenario though and put it in an issue in
> the tracker.

Sorry I have no time for this !
I saw a problem (that I didn't investate myself) and proposed a solution.

>
> Cheers,
>
> Gunnar
>
>>
>> We could have a kolabNewflag that will help kolabd to create mailbox
>> of these "fogotten" users !
>> When a user is created in IMAP, kolabd could simply remove the
>> kolabNewflag key. The key was created
>> a user creation by the kolabgui.
>>
>> When kolabd start or is waked up by slurp (or LDAP sync mechanism),
>> then kolabd could query for
>> kolabDeleteflag or kolabNewflag and update the users accordingly.
>>
>>
>> Maybe the inverse idea could be used too, kolabd search for user not
>> having the kolabCreatedflag, create the mailbox
>> and then add the kolabCreatedflag key to the ldp record !
>> That way the webgui dont need to be chnaged and only kolabd has to
>> manage the kolabCreatedflag.
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> --
>> Alain Spineux
>> aspineux gmail com
>> May the sources be with you
>>
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>> Kolab-devel at kolab.org
>> https://kolab.org/mailman/listinfo/kolab-devel
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ______ http://kdab.com _______________ http://kolab-konsortium.com _
>
> p at rdus Kolab work is funded in part by KDAB and the Kolab Konsortium
>
> ____ http://www.pardus.de _________________ http://gunnarwrobel.de _
> E-mail : p at rdus.de                                 Dr. Gunnar Wrobel
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> Fax    : +49 721 1513 52322                          D-20146 Hamburg
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-- 
Alain Spineux
aspineux gmail com
May the sources be with you