J-

Those pages you linked were way over my head I dabble, mostly by trial and error

Quick question for you, tho This snippet:

At 7:45 PM -0500 11/2/08, Justin J wrote:

If you want to play with all of this, looking into the Config pm file for the DBI paramaters passed:

$DBI_PARAMS ||= {

InactiveDestroy      => 1,

pg_server_prepare => 0, mysql_auto_reconnect => 1, };

Is found in the Config pm file within the DADA folder However, I am using an external config file and that snippet does not appear in it Does that matter?

Further, I've found in the Config pm file the reference to the DB being mysql and all the settings These same settings also appear in the external config file Does that create excess traffic in connecting to the DB?

Note, too, that I had the same stalling problems with 2 10 16, sometimes it would quit sending for a couple of minutes, but it would not kick out with a server 500 error It would eventually start sending again

Westhost tells me that even at full speed with bounces coming back to the return path address, bounces, that I am lightly loading the mail server

Wish I could test it again today, but I cannot hit my list again so soon

Sorry for the inconvenience

John

At 7:45 PM -0500 11/2/08, Justin J wrote: >

>

The below solution was suggested to me from Westhost Tech Support

Dear John,

I've been looking into the issue further and I am seeing that what is happening is that Dada Mail is not properly closing MySQL connections Your MySQL server allows a maximum of 100 concurrent connections [ ] Dada Mail for some reason is never closing its database connections The lingering idle connections eventually cause the server to reach the maximum number of connections, which in turn causes the 500 error when Dada Mail tries to refresh the page and make a new connection

I've changed the MySQL server to automatically kill idle connections after 2 minutes This should prevent the 500 error from occurring

I'm interested in the prognosis, but I don't know about the solution

What this - auto-killing the MySQL connections, might do is also kill your mailings after 2 minutes I'm pretty sure I've made my absolute best shot at making sure that once a mailing is off the ground, you won't need to query the MySQL server, so this advice may infact, work really well - I don't know, for example, THIS is why we still have the temporary copy of the mailing list in that bizarre arcane format

If it works, great, but why do we have 100 - one hundred concurrent connections going on?

One possibility is that Dada Mail is making WAY too many MySQL connections when it runs I try to attempt to share the database handle with the entire program, so only one connection is used per instance of a running Dada Mail Either this isn't working correctly, or, we have some sort of garbage collection problem, where these handles are never dereferenced Here's more of an explanation:

http://perldoc perl org/perlobj html#Two-Phased-Garbage-Collection

The other problem may be something to do with this issue:

http://www issociate de/board/post/250580/forking_and_InactiveDestroy html

http://www perlmonks org/?node_id=265024

There's an issue with the Perl DBI and forking a process that has a database handle - which Dada Mail has, when it starts out a mass mailing There's a solution to the problem - but it's not something Dada Mail does, it does a workaround:

http://search cpan org/~timb/DBI-1 607/DBI pm#InactiveDestroy_(boolean)

The part you want to pay attention is:

"This attribute is specifically designed for use in Unix applications that "fork" child processes Either the parent or the child process, but not both, should set InactiveDestroy true on all their shared handles "

Dada Mail doesn't do this - it only calls this, "once" I don't quite now how, yet, how to do the magic that's needed

If all this is geeky-sounding - it is And starts to fall off my own knowledge, honestly, on how this all works

If you want to play with all of this, looking into the Config pm file for the DBI paramaters passed:

$DBI_PARAMS ||= {

InactiveDestroy      => 1,

pg_server_prepare => 0, mysql_auto_reconnect => 1,

};

Cheers,

-- Justin J

Dada Mail - Write Once: Distribute Everywhere Software url: http://dadamailproject com

Demo: http://demo dadamailproject com

Seen Dada Mail 3? http://dadamailproject com/features/3_0/

On Nov 2, 2008, at 4:52 PM, John Collins wrote:

>

The below solution was suggested to me from Westhost Tech Support

Dear John,

I've been looking into the issue further and I am seeing that what is happening is that Dada Mail is not properly closing MySQL connections Your MySQL server allows a maximum of 100 concurrent connections A typical MySQL connection lasts for a few milliseconds -- a connection is established, the program runs a query to get some information from the database, then the connection is closed Dada Mail for some reason is never closing its database connections The lingering idle connections eventually cause the server to reach the maximum number of connections, which in turn causes the 500 error when Dada Mail tries to refresh the page and make a new connection

I've changed the MySQL server to automatically kill idle connections after 2 minutes This should prevent the 500 error from occurring You may wish to contact Dada Mail and see if they have any information about why the Dada Mail program is not properly closing connections to the MySQL server Thank you for choosing WestHost Best regards, Technical Support Representative WestHost Inc

At 2:12 PM -0800 11/2/08, John Collins wrote:

It just quit again To be more specific, when it kicks out of the Monitor screen after having stalled the error reads thus:

Program Error (Server Error 500)

can't connect to db: at /DADA/App/Guts pm line 625

Same as prior message below=================

Mine is doing the same thing as described by Carl K , below It finally quits, sending with a 500 server error on mail cgi and I have to restart the vps to get it going again (I'm on a semi-dedicated hosting account with Westhost) This has only started happening with my upgrade to 3 0, including a mysql backend

I spoke to Westhost support and they tell me that there are no problems with sendmail or the server It is not backed up, no messages are queued The bandwidth is not choked It only appears that Dadamail stops sending or times out

I went back to 2 10 16 and flat file databases and it made it all the way through But I watched the progress page carefully as it was sending and sometimes none would be sent for as much as two minutes It would try to reload--or restart as it is called--but no messages were sent Then, inexplicably it would start again
2 x would not kick out with the aforementioned server error as 3 0 does

Perhaps (?) there is a shorter timeout period with 3 that would cause the app to quit

I have a large list: 19000+, so I don't want to waste time sending with large delays between batches In 3 0, I slowed it down by trying to send in batches of 30 with five sec in between and also tried not batch sending In 2 x I always sent in batches of 4000 with a minute in between without it quitting

Here's a piece of the error log:

[Sun Nov 2 13:24:14 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:16 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:16 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:18 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:18 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:19 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:24 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:25 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:25 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:25 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:27 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:27 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:24:27 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:25:12 2008] mail cgi: Reloading message at /DADA/Mail/MailOut pm line 1399 [Sun Nov 2 13:25:13 2008] mail cgi: Attempt to reload a message which does not have a stalled process - check before attempting! at /var/www/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi line 1183

At 4:55 PM -0400 10/24/08, Justin J wrote: >

The screens all refer to "restarting", but the entries in the
errors txt file refer to "reloading" From your definitions, I
would say it is reloading because the emails do eventually send
sequentially

Ah That discrepancy is incredibly confusing I'll pop open a bug and get that fixed up

It appears to send one email, then I get a message saying "Mailing automatically restarting in 49 seconds " and that counts down to 0 and then the next email is sent This keeps repeating for each email Occasionally I get a completely blank screen that just says "restarting mailing "

Hmm Unless you're using a Windows platform (and even then), this
shouldn't happen - it means either something is mucking up with the fork()ing process or the sleep()ing process This happens on really really cheap accounts Are you on a dedicated server, or something more like shared host? If it's a shared host, which one?

The other scenario when this happens is when you check the option:

  [ ] Restart Mailings After Each Batch

In the list control panel, under, Manage List -> Sending Options

Don't ever ever use this option, unless you really need to It
basically does exactly what you're experiencing, which is less than what you really want

Sometimes after counting down to 0, the message doesn't send and it needs to count down to 0 again This can cycle like this quite a few times before the next email is actually sent

OK;

I am attaching a document with all the screenshots I see while
trying to send a 3-recipient list, and the errors txt log

If you're interested in doing some further debugging, I can give you directions on how to REALLY get some interesting debugging
information For something like 3 subscribers, it may actually be easy enough to slog through Interested?

-- Justin J \

On Oct 24, 2008, at 2:23 PM, Carl G Kuczun wrote:

Hi Justin,

The screens all refer to "restarting", but the entries in the
errors txt file refer to "reloading" From your definitions, I
would say it is reloading because the emails do eventually send
sequentially

It appears to send one email, then I get a message saying "Mailing automatically restarting in 49 seconds " and that counts down to 0 and then the next email is sent This keeps repeating for each email Occasionally I get a completely blank screen that just says "restarting mailing "

Sometimes after counting down to 0, the message doesn't send and it needs to count down to 0 again This can cycle like this quite a few times before the next email is actually sent

The emails are being sent and received

I am attaching a document with all the screenshots I see while
trying to send a 3-recipient list, and the errors txt log

Carl K

----- Original Message ----- From: "Justin J" To: "Dada Mail Developers Subscriber" ckuczun@PROTECTED Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 4:51 PM Subject: Re: List Restarting >

On Oct 23, 2008, at 2:34 PM, Carl G Kuczun wrote: >

I have been trying for the last week to figure out why my lists keep restarting but have run out of ideas The errors txt file contains the following lines:

What do you mean by, "restaring" - do you mean, restarting from the absolute very beginning, or, restarting from where it seems to have stopped? If it's the latter, user the word, "reload" :)

If it is the former, perhaps you want to know why the mailout is actually stopping: usually it's just because you've hit some sort of limit on how long a process can run on your hosting account Are you having the problem where the mailing just seems to try to restart, forever and never actually restarts

--

John Collins Meetings and Mixers PO Box 80461 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688-0461 949-689-7070 info@meetingsandmixers com http://www meetingsandmixers com See our new Business Directories at: http://www meetingsandmixers com/directories/index php Post: mailto:dadadev@dadamailproject com

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