Topic: internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. - solved

[dustyp]

After installing a new 9.2 server and restoring from a backup from my old system, one of my users (with a huge mailbox) gets the following message from his Thunderbird client whenever mails are moved to a subfolder....
[SERVERBUG] internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information.
Note that restoration of the backup didn't appear to have restored any option, so I've had to manually set everything up again. Therefore the mails have been copied from the backup drive via ftp.
I am assuming that the sub-directories do not exist within the database. Is there any way to create them automatically?
Furthermore, which server log is it referring to. I've trawled through the obvious suspects but can't find any error message.

[holck]

What does /var/log/dovecut/current say?

[Stefano]

After installing a new 9.2 server and restoring from a backup from my old system

Note that restoration of the backup didn't appear to have restored any option, so I've had to manually set everything up again. Therefore the mails have been copied from the backup drive via ftp.

so, at the end, you did not restore from backup
probably you did $whatever you did in the wrong way

I am assuming that the sub-directories do not exist within the database. Is there any way to create them automatically?

what database are you talking about?
I guess you're using IMAP, so the best way to make TB aware of any change is to unsuscribe from any folder/subfolder and then suscribe again

Furthermore, which server log is it referring to. I've trawled through the obvious suspects but can't find any error message.

you've been answered already

[Stefano]

P.S. please edit the subject, because this is likely not a BUG..

[dustyp]

P.S. please edit the subject, because this is likely not a BUG..

Done.   I was only quoting the error message.

[dustyp]

so, at the end, you did not restore from backup
probably you did $whatever you did in the wrong way

I followed the on-screen messages when it asked if I wanted to restore from backup from the bottom of the console options.
What is wrong about that? Stefano.

[Stefano]

ok.. let's recap: you tried to restore a backup (how did you create it?) on a new server, but it gave you such message?

if so, you'd tell us and investigate before doing anything else, because (as you're experiencing) it might break something.

Please remember, when asking for help, that no one here sees your monitor, knows your server, what you did and how you did it.. so, please, be verbose when you explain your problem.

finally, if something went wrong during backup restore, it should be investigated and so you'd open a bug in bugzilla, giving all the details to help us to understant the issue.

TIA

[dustyp]

Following two complete reboots of the server (complete powercycle), all now appears to be working as originally intented.

[Stefano]

Following two complete reboots of the server (complete powercycle), all now appears to be working as originally intented.

this is not relevant.. if you don't follow the right procedure, a simple reboot won't solve your issue..

can you please tell us exaclty what you did and how?
be aware that backup and restore features must be rock solid and really "user friendly", so, if something didn't work for you we must know why.

[dustyp]

this is not relevant.. if you don't follow the right procedure, a simple reboot won't solve your issue..

can you please tell us exaclty what you did and how?
be aware that backup and restore features must be rock solid and really "user friendly", so, if something didn't work for you we must know why.

Before stopping the old (SME 9.1 32 bit server with all updates installed) I backed up to a USB stick using  the "Perform backup to removable media " option from the console screen (logged in as admin). The backup device was a 8Gb device formatted to FAT32  which appeared to complete correctly although I wasn't present to watch. Due tio the size of the web pages in an ibay, it would not fit on a 4Gb FAT device.
After changing the motherboard to one with a 64bit processor and a larger 1TB hard drive, I installed SME 9.1 64bit, leaving it to run as I had dinner and therefore missed the "Do you want to restore from backup" option.
After configuring the installation to my password and network, I performed to obligatory restart. After logging in as admin, the "perform restore" option was available at the bottom of the menu. I followed all the default options which went as expected while I  was called to do the washing up. When I returned to the console, I was asked to restart the computer.
NOTE so far, everything as expected with no error messages while I was watching the screen.
When the server was up again, I accessed the server manager to allow me access via PUTTY and html and while there, noticed that NO users or groups had been restored, so via a web browser (simpler in my view) added the five users and groups with no 'user already exists' errors followed by setting the password strength and signal-event post-upgrade;signal-event reboot
from a Putty session. When the server had restarted, I set the passwords to known values and attempted to access emails from a Thunderbird session. None were found. Emails were copied over via FTP and following the usual 'post-upgrade/reboot' commands, emails were available although moving or deleteing any emails caused the [SERVERBUG] errors that I originally wanted help with at the beginning of this thread.
After I had installed the SME Manager and Vacations contribs, I went through the usual post-upgrade/reset procedures followed by installing every update and Reconfiguring/Restarting the server.
Since then, Everything has been as I want it, with the problems solved.
The only non standard thing about the original server was that over the ten years since it was originally installed, (It has been moved to new hardware several times and upgraded to SME 6/7/8/9 with several contribs added) It had had "TinyWebGallery" installed which worked perfectly as a replacement for "Gallery" which I intend to submit as a contrib once it has been written up.

[Stefano]

ok.. everything seems to be done in the right way..
just a question.. did your data really fit into a 8GB usb key? it seems really a small amount..

[dustyp]

ok.. everything seems to be done in the right way..
just a question.. did your data really fit into a 8GB usb key? it seems really a small amount..

Yup, It's only me and the family, and the web page has not yet been fully populated.

[Daniel B.]

Due to the size of the web pages in an ibay, it would not fit on a 4Gb FAT device.

That's the original problem. If you had more than 4GB of data, it can't be backed up on a fat32 storage, no matter the total size, as fat32 limits each file to 4GB. So the archive has most likely been truncated

[dustyp]

That's the original problem. If you had more than 4GB of data, it can't be backed up on a fat32 storage, no matter the total size, as fat32 limits each file to 4GB. So the archive has most likely been truncated

So.... If I format the USB stick to Ext4, it should work in future?

[Daniel B.]

Yes, it should