system failure: unable to modify attrs

[ccmacmil]

After a restart, the following started happening:

zimbra@mailserv6:~> zmprov sp user@tld.com password

ERROR: service.FAILURE (system failure: unable to modify attrs) (cause: javax.naming.LimitExceededException Referral limit exceeded)

Likewise, /opt/zimbra/log/zimbra.log now has lots of the following:

2006-05-03 01:10:58,451 WARN  [Pop3Server-8] [ip=192.168.4.100;] account - updating zimbraLastLogonTimestamp
com.zimbra.cs.service.ServiceException: system failure: unable to modify attrs
        at com.zimbra.cs.service.ServiceException.FAILURE(ServiceException.java:131)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapEntry.modifyAttrsInternal(LdapEntry.java:167)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapEntry.modifyAttrs(LdapEntry.java:135)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapEntry.modifyAttrs(LdapEntry.java:126)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapProvisioning.authAccount(LdapProvisioning.java:2045)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapProvisioning.authAccount(LdapProvisioning.java:1988)
        at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.doPASS(Pop3Handler.java:519)
        at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.processCommandInternal(Pop3Handler.java:248)
        at com.zimbra.cs.pop3.Pop3Handler.processCommand(Pop3Handler.java:142)
        at com.zimbra.cs.tcpserver.ProtocolHandler.processConnection(ProtocolHandler.java:231)
        at com.zimbra.cs.tcpserver.ProtocolHandler.run(ProtocolHandler.java:198)
        at EDU.oswego.cs.dl.util.concurrent.PooledExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Caused by: javax.naming.LimitExceededException: Referral limit exceeded [Root exception is com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralException: [LDAP: error code 10 - Referral]; remaining name '']; remaining name ''
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.processReturnCode(LdapCtx.java:2835)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.processReturnCode(LdapCtx.java:2737)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1437)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralContext.modifyAttributes(LdapReferralContext.java:511)
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.c_modifyAttributes(LdapCtx.java:1453)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.ComponentDirContext.p_modifyAttributes(ComponentDirContext.java:255)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:172)
        at com.sun.jndi.toolkit.ctx.PartialCompositeDirContext.modifyAttributes(PartialCompositeDirContext.java:161)
        at javax.naming.directory.InitialDirContext.modifyAttributes(InitialDirContext.java:148)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapUtil.modifyAttrs(LdapUtil.java:543)
        at com.zimbra.cs.account.ldap.LdapEntry.modifyAttrsInternal(LdapEntry.java:158)
        ... 11 more
Caused by: com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapReferralException: [LDAP: error code 10 - Referral]; remaining name ''
        at com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx.processReturnCode(LdapCtx.java:2824)
        ... 59 more

What has happened? I have checked perms, ldap is running and read-only seems to work...

Running on:
zimbra version 3.0.1_GA_160
Suse Enterprise Linux 9

[ccmacmil]

Additional information in /opt/zimbra/log/zimbra.log:

pop - -ERR system failure: getDirectContext (PASS password)

Same from web interface...


--------- UPDATE ------------

Somehow (still investigating) the ldap_root_password and zimbra_ldap_password changed (or were no longer the same). Resetting them to their original password(s) required some guile for some reason though...

zmldappasswd --root PASSWORD
zmldappasswd PASSWORD
zmsetup.pl (save updated config)

[KevinH]

Are you using external auth? Or just local Zimbra LDAP?