noticeboard.ru.ac.za

We've been having intermittent problems with the University's mailbox server (imap.ru.ac.za/pop3.ru.ac.za) since early this morning. This will affect people trying to read their mail, both through the webmail client and via a IMAP/POP3 client such as Outlook or Thunderbird.

The cause of the problem seems to be several corrupt databases. We're currently trying to recover these, and have intentionally restricted access to the IMAP server whilst we do. We'll slowly re-enable access for a portion of campus as a time to see the effects of load on the server. It is likely to take the remainder of the morning for us to completely finish this process.

Sending outgoing mail should not be affected by this problem.

This problem now appears to be resolved.

As a result of this morning's problem, a number of people now have corrupt message flags databases on their mailbox. This will normally manifest itself as missing messages and an error when you try to purge deleted messages.

For the most part we're resolving these problems as we see them in our logs. This means that the majority of people who have this problem will notice that it fixes itself.

If the problem persists for you, however, please contact support@ru.ac.za. Please detail in your message exactly what happens when you try and purge your mailbox.

We started a full rebuild of all mailbox indices at about 5PM. This will probably run most of the night, and will hopefully fix most of the outstanding problems.