Netscape Messaging Server 4.01

These notes were last updated December 20, 1999.

Important Product Alert: Root Certificate Expiration

If you are are using SSL with Netscape Messaging server, you need to be aware of important information related to root certificate expiration by the end of 1999. At a minimum, you may need to ask your users to upgrade their browsers to Communicator 4.7. Depending on how you are using SSL, you may also need to update the root certificate in your server. For important and urgent information on root certificate expiration, see Digital Certificate Security Alert.

These release notes contain important information about Netscape Messaging Server 4.01. Please read these notes before using the product. Messaging Server 4.01 is available for the Solaris 2.6 platform, the HP-UX 11.00 platform, the DEC Digital UNIX 4.0d platform, and the IBM AIX 4.3.1 platform.

Use of this product is subject to the terms detailed in the license agreement accompanying it. For information on Installing the Netscape Messaging Server 4.01, visit this site: http://home.netscape.com/eng/server/messaging/4.0/relnotes/install.htm. Note the 4.01-specific changes to the Installation Guide:

These release notes contain the following sections:

• What's New in This Release
• Known Limitations
• Potential Problems and Solutions
• Changes to the Installation Guide
• Corrections to the Documentation
• How to Report Problems
• Where to Go for More Information

What's New in This Release

• The protocol-level plug-in function PPGetHostByName was only returning the first byte of the four-byte address. The functions PPGetHostByName and PPGetHostByAddr in the library file protplug.h have been updated to correct the problem. All Messaging Server 4.0 plug-ins should be recompiled after upgrading to Messaging Server 4.01. (340756)

• Messaging Server 4.0 could not deliver mail to an email address with an all-numeric domain. For instance, mail to user@123.com could not be delivered, whereas user@2corp.com could be delivered. Messaging Server 4.01 can deliver mail to addresses with all-numeric domains, such as user@123.com. (337169)

• When Messaging Server 4.0 sent a vacation responder message, the header was incorrect, indicating that the response was from the sender of the original message instead of from the user with the vacation responder set. Messaging Server 4.01 sends vacation responders (and other autoreply messages) that properly show the sender as the user with the reply responder set. (334743, 337124)

• Messaging Server 4.0 could not be installed in the same server root as Directory Server 4.0. The installation terminated with this error message:

  You are installing Netscape core components over an existing installation that is incompatible.

  Installation over an incompatible version is not allowed.

  Messaging Server 4.01 can be installed in the same server root as Directory Server 4.0. (339455)

• If the STORE daemon process took a long time to start up, Messaging Server 4.0 might try to start another stored process during server startup. In 4.01, the program will exit with an error message if the stored process fails to start in the alloted time. (331861, 334268)

• After running the qconvert tool converted envelope files might be missing the message ID. In 4.01, the message ID and all other information is properly conserved when using the qconvert tool.(334531)

• In Messaging Server 4.0, DSN header information was sometimes sent out in text/plain format. In 4.01, the DSN information is properly sent in multipart/report format. (337569)

Known Limitations

• Program-Delivery does not work on the HP-UX platform.
• Messaging Server 4.01 does not support certmap plugins.
• service.smtp.mailbox-deliver.minruncount must be set to 1 on the AIX platform (more information available below).
• Administration Server must be run as user root (more information available below).

Potential Problems and Solutions

See also the previous section, Known Limitations, and the following section, Documentation Errors, for other issues that may affect product capability or use.

Installation (Excluding Upgrading)

• nsds3setup fails if an incorrect Users/Groups directory URL is specified.

  If you specify an LDAP URL that does not exist at the nsds3setup Users/Groups directory URL prompt, the error will not be detected but installation will later fail and display this message: (324733)

  ERROR: Cannot connect to the specified directory server

  Solution:

  • Make sure Directory Server is running.
  • Check the domain name and modify as necessary as follows, using an LDAP tool such as ldapmodify to make sure that the nsDirectoryURL attribute of the entry cn=UserDirectory, ou=GlobalPreferences, ou=AdminDomain, o=NetscapeRoot is correct.

• Users and Groups LDAP server may need to be set after installation.

  If you wish to create both a new MS 4.01 installation and a new DS 3.x or 4.0 Users and Groups LDAP server, you must manually update the MS 4.01 Users and Groups server setting after installation. The MS 4.01 install process will use the default Users and Groups LDAP server setting in the Config LDAP server you provide during the MS 4.01 installation.

  Solution: After installing MS 4.01 with the proper Config LDAP server, go to the Console and reconfigure the Users and Groups LDAP server setting to point at your new Users and Groups server.

• Installation fails to detect the previous queue and store directories.

  During the 4.01 custom migration if you choose 'yes' to migrate from the previous Messaging Server configuration, it prompts again for some of the parameters from the previous version of the Messaging Server. The default value inside the bracket is not always the parameter used in the previous server. This happens in the mail queue and mailstore path. The installation uses the normal default value instead of the actual Messaging Server values. (324711)

  Solution: You need to find out what these values were for the previous server and set them during the custom installation.

• HP-UX sendmail link isn't replaced during installation.

  On HP-UX, installation of Messaging Server 4.01 creates a symbolic link to the Netscape sendmail binary which replaces the default /usr/lib/sendmail. However, on the HP-UX platform, the file /usr/lib/sendmail is itself a symbolic link to the actual sendmail binary, which is /usr/sbin/sendmail. If any other applications reference /usr/sbin/sendmail, this may cause inconsistent message formats. (326153)

  Solution: Replace /usr/sbin/sendmail with a symbolic link to <server-root>/bin/msg/admin/bin/sendmail, which is the Netscape replacement for the sendmail binary.

• The installation only includes Netscape Console for the installed platform.

  Solution: Netscape Console may be used from any machine to administer your Netscape Servers remotely. To obtain the necessary version of Netscape Console for your platform and operating system, visit http://home.netscape.com/eng/server/console/4.0/download/ (316806)

Installation (Including Upgrading)

• Something interrupts the upgrade process.

  Solution: If something interrupts the upgrade process, the process can be resumed. The upgrade process will not attempt to upgrade mailboxes that have already been upgraded to the 4.01 format. However, if the upgrade process stops, then you must run reconstruct -m before starting up the Messaging Server.

• Migration doesn't upgrade SNMP information.

  When doing a migration from Messaging Server 4.0 beta to 4.01, the SNMP configuration information, such as organization name, contact person, and server location, is not migrated to the newly installed Messaging Server. (324574)

  Solution: Manually configure the SNMP from the Netscape Console.

• Incorrect 3.x MailStorePath attribute in the __up.<non-primary>.txt file during upgrade.

  When running the upgrade utility against a non-primary 3.x mail store, the __up.<non-primary-partition>.txt file uses the primary store path for the 3.x MailStorePath attribute instead of the non-default one. This will cause the problem when running the upgrade utility with the -u option. The -m and -i options do not cause the problem. (329093)

  Solution: Manually edit the file to point to the correct custom defined MailStorePath value.

• Upgrade <userList file> doesn't remove messages if the -r and -u options are used together.

  Currently the Messaging Server 4.01 upgrade utility won't remove the Messaging Server 3.5 messages if the -r option is specified with the -u option. Netscape recommends that you upgrade manually. For help with a manual upgrade refer to Installing the Netscape Messaging Server 4.0 at http://home.netscape.com/eng/server/messaging/4.0/relnotes/install.htm. (331514)

  Solution: Specify the -r option during the folder upgrade:

  1. # ./upgrade -s -r
  2. # ./upgrade -u <userlist file>

• Dynamic upgrade failed when stopping/starting the Messaging Server.

  If you shut down the Messaging Server while it is in the middle of migrating the messages in a folder, when you later start the server the owner of the folder will get an invalid mailbox format error message when attempting to access that folder. (331050)

  Solution:

  • Use the mboxutil -d tool to delete the corrupted mailbox.
  • Re-run the upgrade -s utility to create the mailbox in transition state.

• On upgrade, the 4.01 installer may not stop the Messaging Server 3.x, even though the installation says that it has.

  Solution: Before running the 4.01 installer, verify that the 3.x server is not running. (339052)

• At the end of the upgrade, you may see an error message indicating an assertion failure.

  Solution: This happens after completion of the upgrade and can be ignored. (339179)

• When upgrading from Messaging Server 3.x to 4.01 on HP-UX, if you choose NOT to migrate the queue/mailboxes, the installer skips a screen during the post-install phase.

  The skipped screen prompts you to convert the Messaging Server 3.x queue and preserve the mailboxes from the 3.x server. (338957)

  Solution: To do these tasks, you can run the following two commands immediately after the upgrade is complete.

  1. <server-root>/bin/msg/admin/bin/upgrade -s -m -f <server-root>/msg-<instance>/config/configdb -l "ldap://<DS-host>:<DS-port-number>/o=<suffix>"
  2. <server-root>/bin/msg/admin/bin/qconvert -f <server-root>/msg-<instance>/config/configdb

Other known problems

• Messaging Server 4.0 and 4.01 can suffer from load-induced lockup on rare occasions.

  The problem is generally caused by a mass startup of Communicator 4.0x IMAP users. A new user mailbox is not created until the user logs in for the first time or mail is sent to the mailbox. If a large number of new users log in at the same time (such as Monday morning following a weekend installation of Messaging Server), the autocreate process may not be able to process all the mailboxes simultaneously. (This problem does not occur with client versions of Communicator 4.5 and above.) (338709)

  Solution: After a lock-up, shut down the server, run the tool reconstruct -m, and then start the server again. To minimize the chances of this problem occuring, create mailboxes during non-peak hours and immediately send a mail message to the new mailboxes. This will trigger the auto-create process and therefore prevent it from happening during peak hours.

• Reloading of configuration information using the refresh utility may not work.

  Solution: Restart the server after changing configuration information. (335963)

• Configuration of MS 4.01 may give error: ERR cannot setuid or setgid.

  This is a permissions conflict caused by running the Administration Server as a user other than root. (341197)

  Solution: Administration Server must be run as root.

• CGI scripts may try to use the incorrect server instance.

  CGI scripts check the <server-root>/bin/msg/admin/Instances.conf configuration file to find the proper server instance. If more than one is found, the script uses the first listed. (341014

  Solution: Make sure the proper CGI script server is listed first in the <server-root>/bin/msg/admin/Instances.conf configuration file.

• On AIX only, the startconsole command needs to be used with the -nojit option.

  Solution: Use the command: startconsole -nojit (336274)

• AIX requires the minruncount tuning parameter to be set to 1.

  The service.smtp.mailbox-deliver.minruncount must be set to the value 1. (337032, 337135)

  Solution: Use the command configutil -o service.smtp.mailbox-deliver.minruncount -v 1

• You may not be able to launch the help screens from the Messaging Server windows.

  Solution: You need to include the Netscape browser client in your path. (339214)

• stored does not remove unneeded store/mboxlist/log.00* files.

  These files use up disk space, and if they aren't removed, can slow down the server restart. (338964)

  Solution: To remove the unneeded files manually, run the following command.

  <server-root>/bin/msg/dbutil/bin/db_archive -a -h <mailstore location(s)>/store/mboxlist | xargs rm

• Server hangs after a crash.

  Solution: If the server process terminates unexpectedly, shut down all Messaging Server processes before restarting the server. Otherwise, the remaining processes may stop responding while waiting for locks held by the terminated process.

• Directory referrals are not supported.

  Messaging Server 4.0 does not support Directory Server referrals. Note these requirements: (328272)

  • The directory used by Messaging Server cannot contain any smart referral entries under the base distinguished name for the user and group directory setting.
  • The directory cannot be set up with a default referral so that LDAP operations performed by the Messaging Server result in a referral execution.
  • Messaging Server works with directory replicas. However, during the Online Replication Creation (ORC), when LDAP operations in a consumer directory server are referred to a master directory, referral execution causes the Messaging Server to fail. Here's what you can do as a workaround:
    • Temporarily shut down Messaging Server during the course of ORC.
    • Reconfigure Messaging Server to use a working replica or the master directory, and restart it.
    • Once the first replica has been restored, shut down the Messaging Server, restore its original configuration, and restart it.

• UBE: Using the RUN or SCAN command does not work.

  The UBE filter RUN or SCAN command may cause Messaging Server 4.x to crash. (334886)

  Solution: Don't use the UBE RUN or SCAN command.

• SNMP subagent cannot be started from Netscape Console on HP-UX.

  Solution: Start the SNMP subagent manually with /etc/NscpMsg start snmpagt. (330391)

• Reconstruct -r loses authenticated sender info.

  Netscape supports the XSERVER private extension for authenticating message submissions. Reconstructing a mailbox causes all of the authenticated sender information to be discarded.

• Netscape Console allows you to enter multiple comma-separated addresses.

  The Send Error To field under mail property of a group incorrectly allows multiple email address entries. (90830)

  Solution: Enter one address in the Errors To field. Do not attempt to use comma separated multiple addresses.

• Uninstall doesn't remove the sendmail link.

  Uninstalling didn't remove the /usr/lib/sendmail /usr/lib/processq or /usr/bin/mailq links. (315727)

  Solution: If uninstalling doesn't remove all files or directories, see the "Uninstalling Messaging Server Components" section of Installing Messaging Server 4.0 for UNIX for a complete list of manual uninstallation instructions.

• Uninstall calls the incorrect server stop command.

  All server processes must be shut down before running uninstall. (327038)

  Solution: Manually run the command: /etc/NscpMsg stop

• Adding a store partition via Netscape Console fails.

  You may see the following error message adding store partitions: (324196)

  Server error, not all attributes are saved. See logfiles for details.

  Solution: You must use the configutil utility to add partitions.

• Changing the quota may not take effect until a new message is received.

  If a user goes over quota and then deletes mail to get back under quota, the user account summary still reports the old quota value. (319715)

  Solution: Send mail to the user in order to update the user quota value.

• Creating multiple alternate message queues via Netscape Console does not work.

  Alternate Message Queues cannot be created via Netscape Console. The SMTP service cannot get started after any creation of multiple alternate queues. (331540)

  Solution: The work around is to use configutil to modify service.smtp.altqueues directly.
  The format is <dir path>[, <dir path>]. Note that there is a space after the comma.

Changes to the Installation Guide

Changes to the Installation Guide are listed by section.

• Additions to the Installation Overview
• Corrections to Uninstalling Messaging Server Components

Additions to the Installation Overview

The following text replaces the subsection Messaging Server Supported Platforms in the Installation Overview section of the Installation Guide.

Messaging Server Supported Platforms

• Solaris 2.6 with recommended patches
• HP-UX 11.00 with recommended patches
• DEC Digital UNIX 4.0d
• IBM AIX 4.3.1

Hardware Requirements

• 250 MB+ free disk space for the installation
• Adequate space for your user mailboxes
• RAID storage for fast access (optional)
• Additional storage if you are upgrading from Messaging Server 3.x. You will need to increase the size of your existing message store by at least 15% to accommodate enhanced indexing

Software Requirements

Solaris 2.6 with recommended patches
See: http://sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/pubpatches/patches.html

HP HP-UX:

HP-UX 11.00 with the following required operating system patches.

• PHNE_16645 (Cumulative ARPA Transport patch)
• PHNE_16434 (100 Base-T patch)
  • if using NFS, PHNE_16017 (NFS Kernel General Release/Performance Patch)
• PHKL_14750 (pthread_cond_timedwait(3T) patch)
• PHKL_16220 (LVM and Performance Cumulative Patch)
• PHKL_16639 (VM fix for low pageout rate thrashing)
• PHKL_16794 (munmap() very large file process hang fix)
• PHKL_NETSCAPE7 - to be replaced with an official number soon

Note: PHKL_NETSCAPE7 is not an official patch from HP yet. It replaces previous patches PHKL_16236 and PHKL_16876. Contact your Netscape representative to obtain the official HP patch designation.

Compaq Digital UNIX:

Digital UNIX 4.0d with recommended patches
See: http://www.service.digital.com or ftp://ftp.service.digital.com/public/Digital_UNIX/v4.0d

IBM AIX:

AIX 4.3.1 with recommended patches
See: http://service.software.ibm.com/cgi-bin/support/rs6000.support/downloads

Corrections to the Uninstalling Messaging Server Components

In step 2 of the subsection Running the Uninstall Utility section of the Installation Guide, all references to the msg-stop utility should be changed to stop-msg.

In the current documentation, Running the Uninstall Utility Step 2 is as follows:

2. Halt the server instance.

   To halt the server instance, run the msg-stop utility. This utility is stored in the <server-root>/<server-instance> directory.

   root# cd <server-root>/<server-instance>
   root# ./msg-stop

It should read:

2. Halt the server instance.

   To halt the server instance, run the stop-msg utility. This utility is stored in the <server-root>/<server-instance> directory.

   root# cd <server-root>/<server-instance>
   root# ./stop-msg

Corrections to the Documentation

Please note the following corrections to the Messaging Server 4.0 documentation:

• MoveUser examples

  In the Administrator's Guide documentation for the MoveUser command-line utility, the example for moving one user from host1 to host2 based on account information in Directory Server is inaccurate. (325370)

  The example should be changed to the following:

  
  MoveUser -l "ldap://airius.com:389/o=Airius.com???(mailhost=host1.domain.com)"\
  -D "cn=Directory Manager" -w password -s host1 -x admin \
  -p password -d host2 -a admin -v password

  Also the example for moving a user's mailboxes from host1 to host2 when the user ID is specified in the command line should be changed to the following: (329880)

  
  MoveUser -u
    uid -s host1 -x admin -p password
    -d host2 -a admin -v password -o /var/mail/spool/mailbox
    -m /usr/netscape/suitespot4/msg-airius/store/partition/primary

• MoveUser and ProxyAuth User

  The following paragraph should be added to the end of the description of MoveUser: (325370)

  "ProxyAuth User is the user given the privilege to run MoveUser. In Netscape Messaging Server 3.x, the user ID of the ProxyAuth User is specified in the file /etc/netscape.mail.conf. In Messaging Server 4.01, any of the assigned Message Store Administrators can be the ProxyAuth User and can execute the MoveUser utility. The list of Message Store Administrators can be viewed and edited in Netscape Console."

• configutil language parameter

  When using the configutil utility to retrieve attributes (such as store.quotaexceededmsg) that are user strings and thus may exist in more than one language, you can specify a language parameter in addition to the attribute option itself. For example, you use the command

  configutil -o store.quotaexceededmsg

  to retrieve the notification string that users see when they have exceeded their message quota. If the administrator has defined any language-specific strings, the above command will not retrieve them. To see the English string or the Japanese string, for example, use the following commands, respectively:

  configutil -o "store.quotaexceededmsg;lang-en"
  configutil -o "store.quotaexceededmsg;lang-jp"

  If these language-specific strings exist, they are the strings that are seen by users whose language preference matches the language parameter. If no language-specific strings exist, all users see the default string.

• counterutil list of objects

  On some platforms, it is not possible to use the counterutil command-line utility to list the set of counter objects in a given server's counter registry. The following list includes all counter objects recognized by the utility: (330433)

  alarm
  diskusage
  serverresponse
  popstat
  imapstat
  smtpstat
  cgimsg

• Mailstone LDIF script locations

  The file description in the Mailstone Utility document states that the script tools for generating LDAP entries for the test user base are installed in the following locations: (311122)

  mailstone/admin/create_accounts_ldif
  mailstone/admin/create_broadcast_ldif

  whereas the scripts to use with Messaging 4.01 are actually in these locations:

  mailstone/admin/3.0/create_accounts_ldif
  mailstone/admin/3.0/create_broadcast_ldif

  Note also that the directory mailstone/admin/2.X contains untested scripts, originally developed for earlier versions of Mailstone and Messaging Server, that should not be used.

• POP not supported over SSL

  In the Security chapter of the Administrator's Guide under Configuring SSL Encryption and Authentication, both the text and the diagram state that the Netscape Messaging Server supports POP over the SSL layer. This is not the case. MS 4.0x only supports SMTP and IMAP over SSL. (340469)

How to Report Problems

Where to Go for More Information

For Messaging Server 4.0 administrator documentation, see the online help that accompanies the product. The administrator's guide and related documents are also posted at the location http://home.netscape.com/eng/server/messaging/.

Installation instructions and release notes for all Netscape servers are posted at the location http://home.netscape.com/eng/server.

If you can't find the information you need, please contact technical support.