Z-Push Zimbra Backend (Push Email, Contacts, Appointments & Tasks)

[undertoe]

I guess i am not sure how activesync works. Because I know the zimbra backend for z-sync is soap. So could it be cause z-sync is constantly checking for new mail and hitting the soap interface pretty frequently. That could cause some load. I am not sure, I have one active user using z-sync but I have not noticed a spike in cpu usage. I will really not implement z-sync on a company level until they support HTML mail rendering.

[andywhy]

Does any of you notice a high increase in CPU usage when z-push clients are connected? Zimbra's main java process goes from almost no cpu usage to a steady 100%-200% with only two clients. Load average goes from 0.50 to 4.0-5.0.

Using z-push 1.4 and backend revision 42 and the two clients are WM6.5, syncing mail, contacts and calendar. Had the same behavior with earlier revisions (37 at least) and z-push 1.3.

Any ideas?

Thanks

No problems here, using WM 6.5 Clients (syncing mail, calendar, contacts, tasks) and z-push 1.4 with backend rev 41 (with corrected adressbook issue). Load average at 0.3, cpu idles at ~10-15%. My zimbra/z-push installation runs on a virtualmachine using kvm (2 cores and 2GB RAM) based on ubuntu server 8.04 LTS...

[gmichels]

Sure there is some problem here then... these two phones are actually an implementation test.

I turned off both phones and still get stuff in debug.txt. Is this how it's supposed to be? It seems to me there are several thing being done in double, although I only see 3 different pids in the log.

BTW is there any way to reduce debug log output? I get the entire item output in xml format and the log get huge after a little while.

[powrrrplay]

Everything on my zimbra z-push is working well except for the time stamp when calendar syncs.

I have a palm pre and when the calendar sync's the time stamp on my zimbra calendar shows up 6 hours earlier on my phone sync.

I have google calendar sync on my palm pre and it sync's the time properly.

Any ideas?

[gmichels]

Just o followup to my load issues, I managed to lower it by disabling virtual calendars for an user which had 3 really filled calendars (subscriptions).

Anyway, I still feel the server gets pretty busy by just two users and I think it has something to do with polling the mailboxes for changes after the ping is received from the mobile. Is there a way to make the polling interval bigger? Currently it seems to look for changes every couple seconds or so.

edit: found out, it's in request.php, function HandlePing, change the timeout to whatever you like.

Thanks

Everything on my zimbra z-push is working well except for the time stamp when calendar syncs.

I have a palm pre and when the calendar sync's the time stamp on my zimbra calendar shows up 6 hours earlier on my phone sync.

I have google calendar sync on my palm pre and it sync's the time properly.

Any ideas?

Did you change your timezone in config.php (z-push)?

[rimkasot]

I encounter a problem with z-push.
When syncing contacts from my mobile to zimbra.
it creates in my loop contacts in zimbra
I look in the debug file to understand and I do not see that this error could be related

 /var/www/z-push/backend/zimbra.php:2261 Object of class SyncContact could not be converted to string (4096)

thank you for your help

[lk2oo3]

Hi all,
for me it was not so simple but at the end it finally worked
Thanks for the lenghty discussion, bye, Luca.

This is my scenario:

SamsungOmnia, WM6.1 pro,
Sync (mail, contacts, calendar) OTA (WI-FI & GPRS/UMTS) OK

* debian lenny + Apache2 + PHP 5
z-push 1.3 + zimbraBackend 42

* Ubuntu Linux 8.04.4
zimbra 6.07 FOSS

[liverpoolfcfan]

Just o followup to my load issues, I managed to lower it by disabling virtual calendars for an user which had 3 really filled calendars (subscriptions).

Is there a way to make the polling interval bigger? Currently it seems to look for changes every couple seconds or so.

edit: found out, it's in request.php, function HandlePing, change the timeout to whatever you like.

I have figured out a more efficient method of operation for the HandlePing routine. It does a lot less hits on the backend. It will be in the next release - but will only work differently if used with the z-push 1.4 backend.

You are right in terms of the HandlePing timing. The duration of the Ping request is set by the phone or server (not entirely sure which) - but the frequency of the looping is dictated by the 5 second setting in request.php - If you are happy to not receive mail quite so real-time then you can increase that. Bear in mind that your change will get overwrtten if you download a new copy of z-push though.

[liverpoolfcfan]

Sure there is some problem here then... these two phones are actually an implementation test.

I turned off both phones and still get stuff in debug.txt. Is this how it's supposed to be? It seems to me there are several thing being done in double, although I only see 3 different pids in the log.

BTW is there any way to reduce debug log output? I get the entire item output in xml format and the log get huge after a little while.

I would expect you to get stuff in the logs for a period of time after the phones are turned off. The phone issues a Ping to the server - essentially HTTP request with a long timeout. This timeout seems to change dynamically based on the client/server/activity - not sure how that all works.

Anyway, if your phone has just issued a 480 second Ping and then you turn it off - the zimbra backend is looping checking for changes in folders. It will continue to do so until either it sees a change or the 480 seconds finishes. It is only then that it would attempt to return to the phone - at which stage it should detect the session is gone. I have seen longer pings that 480 seconds on my system too by the way.

The next release will considerably reduce the log output - it will use a more efficient Ping method when deployed with z-push 1.4

I assume you are aware that you can of course turn off debugging entirely at any time if you so wish. Just rename the debug.txt file and it will stop.

[liverpoolfcfan]

I encounter a problem with z-push.
When syncing contacts from my mobile to zimbra.
it creates in my loop contacts in zimbra
I look in the debug file to understand and I do not see that this error could be related

 /var/www/z-push/backend/zimbra.php:2261 Object of class SyncContact could not be converted to string (4096)

thank you for your help

This error message has nothing to do with your issue.

It is more likely a phone issue.

It was well documented that earlier releases of Nokia Mail for Exchange had this issue. I think they have fixed it more recently but haven't actually tried a test in the last while. Other phones may have similar issues.

What is your setup ? Zimbra version/z-push version/zimbra backend version and what phone(s) are you testing with ?