ZCS didn't work with Dovecot 1.2.x

[itscnew]

Hi there,

When we tried to set up an external IMAP account in a Zimbra user account, there was a datasource error (attached). The error was captured below.

This problem happened when the external IMAP server was running dovecot 1.2.x (e.g. 1.2.5 and 1.2.6). However, it was running dovecot 1.1.x (e.g. 1.1.9), there was no such error.
Is there any clue ?

Thank a lot in advance


---------------------------------------
error log in mailbox.log
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2009-10-20 16:21:36,626 INFO [btpool0-2] [name=user@cal.domain.tld;mid=4;ip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz; ua=ZimbraWebClient - SAF3 (Win)/6.0.1_GA_1816.RHEL5;ds=EmailAccount;] SoapEngine - handler exception
com.zimbra.common.service.ServiceException: system failure: Unable to connect to IMAP server: DataSource: { id=eca577ba-87d0-4734-a96e-0aa83be91089, type=imap, isEnabled=true, name=EmailAccount, host=mail.domain.tld, port=143, connectionType=cleartext, username=user, folderId=257 }
ExceptionId:btpool0-2:1256026896562:0e5d9a07dc1b0b4c
Code:service.FAILURE
at com.zimbra.common.service.ServiceException.FAILURE (ServiceException.java:251)
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.ImapSync.connect(ImapSync .java:196)
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.ImapSync.importData(ImapS ync.java:149)
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.DataSourceManager.importD ata(DataSourceManager.java:167)
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.DataSourceManager.importD ata(DataSourceManager.java:130)
at com.zimbra.cs.service.mail.ImportData.handle(Impor tData.java:60)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatchRequest(SoapEng ine.java:417)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatch(SoapEngine.jav a:272)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapEngine.dispatch(SoapEngine.jav a:156)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapServlet.doWork(SoapServlet.jav a:291)
at com.zimbra.soap.SoapServlet.doPost(SoapServlet.jav a:212)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:727)
at com.zimbra.cs.servlet.ZimbraServlet.service(Zimbra Servlet.java:187)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet .java:820)
at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(Ser vletHolder.java:502)
at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedCha in.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1148)
at org.mortbay.servlet.UserAgentFilter.doFilter(UserA gentFilter.java:81)
at org.mortbay.servlet.GzipFilter.doFilter(GzipFilter .java:129)
at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedCha in.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1139)
at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(Se rvletHandler.java:378)
at org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle( SecurityHandler.java:216)
at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.SessionHandler.handle(Se ssionHandler.java:181)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(Co ntextHandler.java:765)
at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.handle(WebA ppContext.java:417)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection .handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:230)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle (HandlerCollection.java:114)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(Ha ndlerWrapper.java:152)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.rewrite.RewriteHandler.h andle(RewriteHandler.java:230)
at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(Ha ndlerWrapper.java:152)
at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:324)
at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(Htt pConnection.java:517)
at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.co ntent(HttpConnection.java:868)
at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser. java:747)
at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpPa rser.java:218)
at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnec tion.java:386)
at org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(Selec tChannelEndPoint.java:409)
at org.mortbay.thread.BoundedThreadPool$PoolThread.ru n(BoundedThreadPool.java:451)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.ImapSync.checkImportingSe lf(ImapSync.java:204)
at com.zimbra.cs.datasource.ImapSync.connect(ImapSync .java:189)
... 35 more
2009-10-20 16:21:41,853 INFO [btpool0-2] [name=user@cal.domain.tld;mid=4;ip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz; ua=ZimbraWebClient - SAF3 (Win)/6.0.1_GA_1816.RHEL5;] soap - GetImportStatusRequest

[ArcaneMagus]

The error is telling you that it can't connect to the external mail server. Since the external server is going up from 1.1.x to 1.2.x they might have changed some of the default settings on you. My guess would be that cleartext IMAP password authentication has been disabled in the 1.2.x branch, so you are unable to authenticate using the settings you have configured for this user.

[itscnew]

Hi there, thanks so much for your hints.
I've been also thinking about that. When I intentionally input an incorrect password, there would be an "authentication error" and dovecot logged
the following error :

------------
Oct 21 11:55:56 imap-login: Info: Disconnected (auth failed, 1 attempts): user=<itscstud>, method=PLAIN, rip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz, lip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz
------------

when the password was correct, no auth error was reported, and dovecot logged the following:
------------
Oct 21 11:56:26 imap-login: Info: Login: user=<itscstud>, method=PLAIN, rip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz, lip=www.xxx.yyy.zzz
Oct 21 11:56:26 IMAP(itscstud): Info: Effective uid=xxxxxx, gid=xxxx, home=/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd
Oct 21 11:56:26 IMAP(itscstud): Info: maildir: data=~/Maildir:INDEX=~/indexes
Oct 21 11:56:26 IMAP(itscstud): Info: maildir++: root=/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd, index=/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd, control=, inbox=/aaa/bbb/ccc/ddd
Oct 21 11:56:26 IMAP(itscstud): Info: Connection closed bytes=12/294

------------

Therefore I didn't think that it's an password authentication problem. Moreover, our Squirrel mail deployment, as well as other IMAP clients such as Thunderbird have been working happily with Dovecot 1.1.x and 1.2.x. I just confused what made ZCS being so "sensitive" between these two versions... Perhaps ZCS has just adopted some proprietary elements (like M$) ??

The error is telling you that it can't connect to the external mail server. Since the external server is going up from 1.1.x to 1.2.x they might have changed some of the default settings on you. My guess would be that cleartext IMAP password authentication has been disabled in the 1.2.x branch, so you are unable to authenticate using the settings you have configured for this user.