Kerio Troubleshooting

A few tips to help diagnose Kerio Mailserver problems:

Startup Problems

There are only a very few things that will completely prevent Kerio Mailserver from starting. Usually this would come from a confused or mangled configuration file, but there are other conditions that can cause Kerio to refuse to start.

By the way, the easiest way to find out what is stopping the startup is to look in Kerio's error log. On a Mac, you'll find mailserver/store/logs under /usr/local/kerio, on Linux it will be under /opt/kerio, and on Windows it's Program Files/Kerio. The error log is "error.log" and it is plain text.

However, there's one condition where that won't help you. If Kerio's "store" directory isn't where the config file says it is, Kerio won't be able to start and also won't be able to find its log directory to write the error. However, if you try starting Kerio from the command line, you will see the error.

 bash-3.2# cd /usr/local/kerio/mailserver
 bash-3.2# ./mailserver
  Kerio MailServer failed to start: Store directory 
 /usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store does not exist. Please create 
 it before you start the server.
 

I had this happen with a customer just this week. He was doing some maintenance unrelated to Kerio but when he rebooted, Kerio failed to start. The reason was that Windows changed drive letter assignments: the Kerio store had been configured on the F: drive, but got moved to H: as a result of the maintenance.

The fix for that was to edit the mailserrver/mailserver.cfg file manually and change the drive letter. The config file is just an XML text file; the "StoreDir" variable is what you'd need to fix.

 # this is from a Mac;
 <table name="Directories">
 <variable name="StoreDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store</variable> 
 <variable name="ArchiveDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store/archive</variable>   
 <variable name="BackupDir">/usr/local/kerio/mailserver/store/backup</variable>
 ..
 

Services Problems

Every public mailserver needs to accept connections on port 25 (SMTP). If another mailserver (Sendmail, Exchange) is already running when Kerio starts, obviously Kerio won't be able to start its SMTP service. You'll find this in the error log:

 [13/May/2008 06:34:36] socklib.cpp: Bind to port 25 failed: (48) Address already in use
 [13/May/2008 06:34:36] services.cpp: Cannot start service SMTP on port 25, 
 unable to bind service to all IP addresses
 

Of course that's true for any service you need. A running webserver will prevent HTTP or HTTPS from starting and leave you with the same problem: identify the process that is conflicting, stop it, and prevent it from starting up again. How you do that is operating system specific and even then there can be odd circumstances that could make it difficult to track down the offending process or application. If you can't easily identify the problem, give me a call and I will help you track it down.

Operational Problems

Other problems usually involve delivery (or non-delivery) of mail. Why can't I send mail to Mary Jones? Why can't Mary send to me? Usually the logs (mail.log, error.log, security.log and spam.log) will show the reason: you mistyped Mary's address, Mary's domain is on a blacklist..

A couple of things to keep in mind in this area: if there is no record in any log of a connection from samplesite.com, then whatever mail they tried to send to you simply never got to your server. Maybe it's their DNS, maybe there is a bad router between you and them, but whatever it is, it never got to you. There would ALWAYS be a log entry of some sort if the mail got to your server. The same is true for outgoing mail. If a user says they sent mail to maryj@samplesite,com, but you can't find any such thing in the Kerio logs, the problem is back at their machine, not within Kerio.

Of course there usually will be a log entry, and that will show you where the problem is. In the case of sending mail, look in the Message Queue (Under "Status" in your Kerio Administration Console). If the message is stuck in the queue, the other server may just not be up and running right now or there may be routing problems preventing your server from reaching it. That assumes that the original message was correctly addressed: many times I have found log entries showing that the user tried sending to "maryj@samplesite.com" when the real address was "maryj@samplesite.org" or was simply mispelled.

Debug Settings

Usually the logs tell the story completely, but sometimes you need more information. You can turn on extended debugging by selecting the Debug log and then Right-Clicking in the log area as shown here:

That will bring up a window that can turn on extra debugging for a number of functional areas. Usually you'd only do this at the request of a support technician, but there's no harm experimenting with this yourself if you are technically minded and curious.

Product Forums and Knowledge Base

Most mail problems are easily identified and quickly solved. Of course there is always the possibility that your problem is an actual Kerio bug. That hasn't happened very often, but you never know when some odd combination of circumstances may bring a bug to the surface. Kerio's Product Forums often contain late breaking news and discussions that may be helpful. For example, Microsoft patches can sometimes have unpleasant results - you'll often find out about this kind of thing in the Forums.

The Knowledge Base is also a good place to look for help. Your issue may be well known and a simple fix may be found here.

Support Options

You can open a Kerio support ticket on-line or just call them directly. If you need help and you are one of my customers, of course you can call me. Actually, I'd like to know about any problems even if you choose to go directly to Kerio support. It may be that I know the answer and can react more quickly, but even if I do not, I want to be involved and on top of the situation.

You may not ever have any real problems with Kerio Mailserver, but if you do, I hope this article helped.