Zimbra server suddenly stopped working properly today

[antikx]

Hello,
I suspect it has to do with it being a year since I last set this new server up.
Server is Zimbra 7.1.1 on Ubuntu 10.04.3
I have LDAP authentication setup for user auth and none of them can log in now.
I can go into the admin panel and then click "View mail" to access my email account, but it is very slow. Also, all of the POP accounts I have set up to pull email into my Zimbra account are saying that they can't authenticate.

I was getting the "system failure: exception during auth {RemoteManager: mail.domain.com->zimbra@mail.domain.com:22... yadda yadda" in the admin panel, but I think I fixed that.

I have:
followed this post: [SOLVED] system failure: exception during auth

Generating the new certs as per the page above got rid of the system failure messages in the admin interface.
I also went through here and did everything:
Mail Queue Monitoring - Zimbra :: Wiki

If I run the following as root:

ssh -vi .ssh/zimbra_identity -o strictHostKeyChecking=no zimbra@servername

...it asks me for a password
When i run it as the zimbra user, it seems to hang after:

debug1: Sending env LANG = C

when I press control C, it says:

debug1: channel 0: free: client-session, nchannels 1
Connection to servername closed.

I checked and the zimbra user was locked. The usermod command wanted me to assign a password, so I just went into the shadow file and changed the ! to a *.

sshd:*:15028:0:99999:7:::
zimbra:*:15074:0:99999:7:::
postfix:!:15074:0:99999:7:::

Still no joy.

Any other advice, please?

[phoenix]

I'll move this to the correct forum as it's not a question about Zimbra Desktop (which is where you've posted).

I suspect it has to do with it being a year since I last set this new server up.

Go to the wiki (link at the top of this page) and search for the words "certificates cli" and you'll find a certified document that tells you how toi regenerate the certificates. Pick the instructions that relate to your Zimbra release and run the commands that are given,

[antikx]

Thanks. I went through the instructions here:
Administration Console and CLI Certificate Tools - Zimbra :: Wiki
I rebooted the server. Still no joy.

Here's some log info.
mailbox.log snippets:

2011-11-16 11:22:05,702 WARN  [btpool0-0://localhost/service/soap/AuthRequest] [name=username@servername;oip=ipaddress;ua=zclient/7.1.1_GA_3196;] account - ldap auth for domain servername failed, fall back to zimbra default auth mechanism
2011-11-16 11:22:05,704 INFO  [btpool0-0://localhost/service/soap/AuthRequest] [name=username@servername;oip=ipaddress;ua=zclient/7.1.1_GA_3196;] SoapEngine - handler exception: authentication failed for [username], missing userPassword

2011-11-16 11:28:10,547 WARN  [ScheduledTask-8] [name=username@servername;mid=14;ds=email@address.ca;] datasource - Scheduled DataSource import failed.

from zimbra.log

Nov 16 11:35:57 mail slapd[986]: slap_queue_csn: queing 0x7f323092c420 20111116173557.637807Z#000000#000#000000
Nov 16 11:35:57 mail slapd[986]: => bdb_idl_delete_key: c_del id failed: DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed to resolve a deadlock (-30994)
Nov 16 11:35:57 mail slapd[986]: => bdb_idl_delete_key: c_del id failed: DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK: Locker killed to resolve a deadlock (-30994)
Nov 16 11:35:57 mail slapd[986]: conn=1176 op=2: attribute "entryCSN" index delete failure
Nov 16 11:35:57 mail slapd[986]: conn=1176 op=2: attribute "entryCSN" index delete failure

[phoenix]

2011-11-16 11:22:05,702 WARN  [btpool0-0://localhost/service/soap/AuthRequest] [name=username@servername;oip=ipaddress;ua=zclient/7.1.1_GA_3196;] account - ldap auth for domain servername failed, fall back to zimbra default auth mechanism
2011-11-16 11:22:05,704 INFO  [btpool0-0://localhost/service/soap/AuthRequest] [name=username@servername;oip=ipaddress;ua=zclient/7.1.1_GA_3196;] SoapEngine - handler exception: authentication failed for [username], missing userPassword

The above error would indicate there's a problem authenticating the suer, do you have an external authentication enabled? Is the external authentication source still accessible?

[antikx]

yes, external (LDAP) authentication is enabled.
Get this...
I went for lunch... came back... everything is working now. *bangs head against wall*

If the LDAP server was down/inaccessible would that cause users POP settings to stop working?
I am puzzled...