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Postfix or Dovecot stops after subscription IP address is changed: Failed to start Postfix Mail Transport Agent

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George Alibegashvili
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Plesk for Linux Plesk Onyx for Linux kb: bug ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

  • Plesk Onyx for Linux
  • Plesk for Linux

Symptoms

When the IP address for a subscription with a large number of domains is changed, Postfix or Dovecot service stops:

# systemctl status postfix.service
● postfix.service - Postfix Mail Transport Agent
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/postfix.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Tue 2018-12-04 16:47:01 CET; 6s ago
Process: 95048 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/postfix stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 94905 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/postfix start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 94902 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/postfix/chroot-update (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 94900 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/postfix/aliasesdb (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 94977 (code=killed, signal=TERM)
plesktest-plesk001 systemd[1]: postfix.service failed.
plesktest-plesk001 systemd[1]: start request repeated too quickly for postfix.service
plesktest-plesk001 systemd[1]: Failed to start Postfix Mail Transport Agent.

# systemctl status dovecot.service
...
failed to start dovecot imap/pop3 mail server
...

Cause

This is a Plesk bug with ID #PPPM-9733, which is planned to be fixed in one of the future product updates.

Resolution

As a workaround, perform the following steps:

  1. Connect to the server via SSH;

  2. Create the following directory:

    For Postfix:

    # mkdir /etc/systemd/system/postfix.service.d/

    For Dovecot:

    # mkdir /etc/systemd/system/dovecot.service.d/

  3. Create the configuration file in the directory from step 1:

    # touch 10-start_limit_interval.conf

  4. Edit the configuration file 10-start_limit_interval.conf adding the following strings:

    CONFIG_TEXT: [Service]
    StartLimitInterval=0

  5. Reload unit files and restart Postfix/Dovecot:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
    # systemctl restart postfix.service
    # systemctl restart dovecot.service

Comments

4 comments

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  • Avatar
    Stéphan Schamp

    Any news on a fix?

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  • Avatar
    Alisa Kasyanova

    @Stéphan Schamp
    No news regarding ETA so far. Please make sure to follow this article to receive a notification on the fix as soon as it is released.

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  • Avatar
    GK

    I agree the problem is in Plesk and should be fixed (this problem is here for ages).

    2nd the workaround does not work, because the override files does not include a section (and this ignored by systemd). Correct content of file should be:

    [Service]
    StartLimitInterval=0

     

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  • Avatar
    George Alibegashvili

    Hello @GK, Thank you for your feedback, article changed accordingly.

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