exim4 - Sick and Tired of Trouble

[pfmartin]

exim4 - No longer sick and tired

I have been having a series of problems ever since exim4 was introduced. These problems are the same problems that many other people have identified already, and yet I am still have things pop up on me every now and then. It's frustrating. I can't sleep because my pager is constantly going off!

Phew, I feel better after venting.

Now, to the point: I am very grateful that the company backing cpanel wants to constantly keep pushing the feature envelope. I think that's a good thing. BUT... There needs to be a more refined release process. THe current method is not working well. THe cycle is getting to be predictable.

SOmething new is introducted. It is released. Many people complain. Cpanel staff (or better, Nick) have to scurrey to fix it. This is time lost from possibly attending to other things... Like responding to tickets that have been open for weeks (yes, I have one!). Then as the chatter dies down and no more complaints come in, the feature that was introduced is deemed 'stable'.

exim4 is NOT stable. At least not on my box. I have never had so many problems with emails (for 3 years now we've used cpanel) as we do now.

Anyhow, my ranting is really aiming to try to catch the attention of the powers that be.

And also to say exim4 is still giving me trouble.

Now I have a NEW issue. Autoresponders are responding to everything twice.

Any idea of what this may be?

 

[EcpHosting]

Yes, we hear your pain and absolutley agree. We think Exim4 is indeed not stable and with its many problems. We have tickets everywhere from folks not getting emails, emails being sent twice from autoresponders and forwards, to even folks not being able to use SMTP.

This is really just absurd. When trying to go back to exim3 yesterday on one of our boxes, was no problem (to test how it would work). It worked and everything is working great on that test box.

Today, when trying to downgrade on another box, we get the lovely warning

cPanel 7 requires exim4, please run /scripts/exim4 instead

Seems like they blocked us from going back down.

Not only do we upgrade to a non-stable release prematurely, but we cant even pick and chose which exim we wish to have. Absurd.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[tAzMaNiAc]

pfmartin says
=============
SOmething new is introducted. It is released. Many people complain. Cpanel staff (or better, Nick) have to scurrey to fix it. This is time lost from possibly attending to other things... Like responding to tickets that have been open for weeks (yes, I have one!). Then as the chatter dies down and no more complaints come in, the feature that was introduced is deemed 'stable'
=============

The same thing happens with new release of any Linux. It just isn't AS transparent as it is here.

The same thing goes with any release of Windows. Can you imagine the headache Microsoft gets 24/7?

Anyway, I am sorry you are having problems. Did you do a support ticket, and try other ways of contacting i.e. phone, AIM, whatever?

I've gotten most of my problems solved by sending an appropriate ticket and/or e-mail......


Brenden

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[kcdworks]

Besides the one php mail() problem, I've had not a problem one out of Exim 4 ... I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[EcpHosting]

Hey Taz... yes, i saw that you had some good reports with CPanel support... we just may give it a whirl. It's just the problems are many and none of them are big enough to make a big deal about (just many small nit-pick problems).

I will try to calloborate some and send to CPanel.. I've just had poor expierience in the past.. I would go through all the fuss of sending a ticket in, and then a few days later would go by and they would ask for login info, and after another day, they would reply with confirming that there is a problem (and not resolving it). A couple days later, after that particular incident, i found an old thread in the forums that resolved my problem. Go figure.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[techark]

I agree exim4 is not stable for release and it REALLY pisses me off that I can't go back to exim 3 now.

PHP mail() is broken I can't send invoices or welcome mail to new clients. SUpport tickets keep coming in sometimes customers get mail other times it is rejected sometimes they can send other times they can't.

It is ridicules that we have to go through this.

The new panel directadmin is looking better and better everyday.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[pirania1]

Originally posted by techark
I agree exim4 is not stable for release and it REALLY pisses me off that I can't go back to exim 3 now.

I am sorry to tell you that, but as of now there is NO STABLE version of cpanel released.
So please stop crying like crybaby. You decided to try edge - take consequences of it.
Only stable releases should be used in production enviroment.
PLEASE do not complain on cpanel being unstable or beta quality when they did not released STABLE VERSION.
*sigh*

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[techark]

No there is a release version of it and that is what we are at not edge.

And good news for you is, Nick just said in another thread that 7.1 will become the stable release in a couple of days and no more exim3 so come back when your servers go to crap and let us know how much fun you are having.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[Website Rob]

To clear up any confusion:

Mon Jul 7 22:53:44 EDT 2003
6.x Build#44
---------------------------------------------------------------

cp7 STABLE RC1
---------------------------------------------------------------

Mon Jul 7 22:56:19 EDT 2003
6.x Build#45
---------------------------------------------------------------

cp7 STABLE RC2
---------------------------------------------------------------

Tue Jul 8 11:40:43 EDT 2003
6.x Build#46

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[techark]

I just don't understand why Nick has disabled the ablity to go back to exim 3 if we want to.

Everything else in 7.0 looks good but there are still a number of problems with exim4.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[pirania1]

Originally posted by Website Rob
To clear up any confusion:

cp7 STABLE RC1

We all know what is Release Candidate?
It's not yet stable. I feel sorry for you that you have problems.
I would do the same thing, since I need new mailman like as of yesterday. Exim4 has MUCH better performance.
But I did loaded cpanel 7 only on test box. And will never load anything that has no stable release on my business box.
I don't want troubles that you have.
And please do not blame Nick for something, that was after all your decision about the risk to take.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[techark]

I am blaming Nick for taking the option away to go back to exim3.

The option was there one day and gone the next I have 23 servers running great with version 7 and exim3 the next day I decided to downgrade one remaining box to exim 3 and no longer can because Nick decided to eliminate that posiblity.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[rpmws]

You know guys I am really sorry you guys have so much trouble on EDGE builds .I believe you when you say problems are coming up on you out of upgrades that happen. But to be honest with you every box I have had for 18 months now has been running edge 7.2 and now 3 RH7.3 boxes with EDGE auto update and with teh exception of SMTP breaking one night for about 4 hours I can not remember hardly any problems with EDGE.
===============================
box 1:
491 domains
751 dns zones
63 mySQL databases
1391 inbox.pop files on server
241 GB total monthly traffic
uptime average 32 days .60 .50 .44 loads

box 2:
352 domains
398 dns zones
18 mySQL databases
511 inbox.pop files
110 GB month transfer
uptime 56 days .70 loads

box 3 (new box ..couple big sites)
62 domains
71 dns zones
9 mySQL databases
44 inbox.pop files
312 GB month transfer
uptime 23 days 1.12 loads

==========================

My average day consists of 15 support requests which 1-2 per day are cpanel related (like email or busted sub domain)

That's it.. everyone I know on stable version have problems. I have always run EDGE builds and autoupdate and very few days do I wake up with global problems/ I sell about 2-4 accounts a day and answer 10-15 support emails all by myself. It's been easy on me. I can't figure out why everyone has so many problems. I can tell you this. I don't give WHM to anyone but me ..not even resellers. Maybe that's it ??and these boxes and sites I have been hosting for 5 year (3 on cpanel) these are not empty boxes with 2 sites on them. I have real users that pump traffic and they DO call and email when stuff is broken.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[kris1351]

Out of the new edge releases Exim is the ONLY issue we have had. It breaks at night time for some reason and we can't track down what is tearing it up.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[compunet2]

Can't you just downgrade cpanel to STABLE v6, which supports Exim 3?

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[carlgm]

Exim3 is no longer supported, that's a simple thing to say. If you have issues with it your on your own. There will be no upgrades of any sort with exim3.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[cPanelNick]

Originally posted by compunet2
Can't you just downgrade cpanel to STABLE v6, which supports Exim 3?

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

This is why -STABLE has not been released as some people have expressed problems with exim4. We do believe they are all resolved with the -170 build. Please submit a ticket if you have not already if you are having any problems with exim.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[tAzMaNiAc]

Originally posted by techark
I am blaming Nick for taking the option away to go back to exim3.

The option was there one day and gone the next I have 23 servers running great with version 7 and exim3 the next day I decided to downgrade one remaining box to exim 3 and no longer can because Nick decided to eliminate that posiblity.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

Exim 3 is not even supported by Exim themselves so why expect support from Nick? Things MOVE ON nowadays...

Where were you when Sendmail was at 6? You keeping it still? I didn't think so. Exim4 is a lot better and more SECURE than exim3. Why keep a rag when you could have a blanket.

You decided to take the leap. Words are right there saying on the screen that RELEASE and EDGE builds did not run on platforms with NO PROBLEMS. So if you took the Edge or Release leap, and have problems.. Well, what did you expect!

Brenden

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[Webworks1]

Yes we who upgraded took a "chance". I took a chance knowing that I could revert to v3 if needed. I cant think of any reason one should be telling an admin that has used a fix on 23 servers successfully that he cant use it again on the 24th. Not supporting v3 is one thing but taking the option to revert away is for the lack of a better word wrong. (imho)

Isnt the focus of all this to keep systems up and functioning.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

 

[pingo]

I upgraded to the release version and yes, I decided this myself, but I don't want to experience the problems experienced with primarily mail on my servers since that upgrade, so I went back to the stable version again. But wait! it'll continue using exim4? Arrgh! So the stale isn't stable anymore. Hope the issues with exim4 will soon be solved. There have been an increase lately, in the number of mail related tickets coming to our help desk, since I upgraded to the release version. So well, I got my experience, we have sufficient problems to deal with every day so back to the stable version with manuall updates.

John

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number: