Re: [SM-USERS] SquirrelMail suddenly painfully slow and often "page not found" errors - something wrong on server?

[Tomas K. <to...@us...>]

>> > SquirrelMail 1.4.6
>> > PHP 4.4.4
>> > UWIMAPD (IMAP4rev1 2004.357-cpanel)
>> > Apache 1.3.37
>> > CentOS 4.4
>> > Our webserver runs as nobody.
>> > IMAP Server Address: 127.0.0.1
>> >
>> > Many plugins, including: Auto Complete; Folder Synch; Select Range;
>> etc.
>> > I ran configtest, and it reports: "Congratulations, your SquirrelMail
>> > setup looks fine to me!"
>> >
>> > My SquirrelMail has become so painfully slow that it is often
>> > unusable, and often it fails and displays "page not found" error pages
>> > in the folder list frame, the message list frame, or both frames.
>> >
>> > SquirrelMail was fine before about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I have made
>> > no changes to SquirrelMail in that time. I rent space on a shared web
>> > server, and I'm sure there have been changes to the server config in
>> > that time. However, the server loads are normal and the support guys
>> > can't find anything to explain the SM slowness.
>> >
>> > The problem is not with any individual mail account. This problem
>> > exists no matter which mail account I use.
>> >
>> > Please give me some idea of what the problem could be, or what to
>> > check, or what server config/admin I should ask the web host tech
>> > support to check. Thanks for any help.
>>
>> 1. man top. Check apache processes.
>
> What is "man top"? And are there specific apache processes that I
> should ask  the web host's tech support to check, or direct them to
> check for certain things?

http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?top

>> 2. Make sure that cpanel updates haven't turned off server side sorting
>> in
>> SquirrelMail
>
> I still have the following settings in my own config:
> Use server-side sorting Yes
> Use server-side thread sorting  Yes

If you don't need thread sorting, turn it off

>> 3. Make sure that dns and indent services work on web server. uw checks
>> client's reverse dns address and indent by default.
>
> Is there any way I can test this, or do I need to contact the web
> host's tech support?

you could time fsockopen() calls (configtest.php.diff) and compare them
with some other test server. I get 0.5 msec with random spikes to
10-15msec on localhost.

Support people can check mail logs. I think uw logs indent failures.

SquirrelMail 1.5.1 info plugin can be used to time other imap commands.

>> 4. Check session directory usage
>
> Will the web host's tech support know what that means when I make that
> request? Should I ask them to check for anything in particular?

check session file sizes. If session files are big, it might mean trouble.

>> 5. If you use imapproxy, check proxy debugging options.
>
> Can I check if they use imapproxy, or must I ask them?
>
> One further piece of information that might help someone to solve this
> puzzle: when I use the shared SquirrelMail installation that comes as
> part of cPanel, it seems somewhat faster than my own installation and
> doesn't get the "page not found" errors. That shared installation is
> also 1.4.6, but is just the basic install with no extra plugins. My
> own installation has many plugins, and my config options are somewhat
> different.

Show list of enabled plugins. Turn off all plugins and enable them one by
one.

-- 
Tomas