OTRS does not delete emails on POP3 account

[bobrivers]

Hi,

We have an OTRS installation that is configured to create new tickets by fetching a POP3 email account. This installation is working fine for at least 18 months. We were running version 3.1.7 by 15 days with no problem.

Suddenly, it started duplicating tickets. OTRS creates new tickets from same email every time that cron runs. What seems to be happing, is that OTRS is unable to delete the email. So, on the next iteration, it finds the email again, and creates a new ticket. And, this email, holds the entire queue. The emails arrived after it, aren't read by OTRS.

I established a telnet session with my POP3, from the server where OTRS is installed, and logged with OTRS account used to fetch the emails. I was able to list the emails and delete it. So, the connectivity and permissions seems to be OK.

I did a test. From telnet, I deleted the email already fetched by OTRS, and, on the next iteration, it read the following one, but, since OTRS isn't able to delete it, this one, started to be duplicated and hold the queue. I manually deleted it, and the same situation occurred again with the following one...

In order to do further tests, we changed the POP3 password in order to guarantee that no other process is fetching the POP3 account, and, we also configured a brand new email server on a different ISP, and the same problem occur: OTRS is unable to delete the emails from POP3 account.

So, I don't know where to look, neither what to do... Any help is appreciated.

TIA,

Bob

[reneeb]

What does the OTRS log say?

[crythias]

Any indication in the System Log that there is a failure to delete? Have you tried manual fetch and same result?

[bobrivers]

Bellow a system log fragment. As you can see, no errors related to POP3. But I didn't noticed it before, that we are receiving lots of avahi-daemon errors...


Jul 30 13:30:02 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009911/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9911,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)
Jul 30 13:30:27 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:30:31 cdspoadm last message repeated 8 times
Jul 30 13:30:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::ArticleSend] Sent email to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>' from 'Help Desk <hd@nonono.com.br>'. HistoryType => SendAutoReply, Subject => [Chamado#1009911] RE: CHAMADO TESTE;
Jul 30 13:30:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAutoResponse] Sent auto response (SendAutoReply) for Ticket [1009911] (TicketID=9911, ArticleID=61103) to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>'.
Jul 30 13:31:38 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAgentNotification] Sent agent 'NewTicket' notification to 'rafael.barbara@nonono.com.br'.
Jul 30 13:33:14 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 13:35:13 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:35:14 cdspoadm last message repeated 5 times
Jul 30 13:40:02 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13111]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009912/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9912,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)
Jul 30 13:40:51 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13111]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::ArticleSend] Sent email to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>' from 'Help Desk <hd@nonono.com.br>'. HistoryType => SendAutoReply, Subject => [Chamado#1009912] RE: CHAMADO TESTE;
Jul 30 13:40:51 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13111]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAutoResponse] Sent auto response (SendAutoReply) for Ticket [1009912] (TicketID=9912, ArticleID=61105) to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>'.
Jul 30 13:41:03 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:41:08 cdspoadm last message repeated 8 times
Jul 30 13:41:39 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13111]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAgentNotification] Sent agent 'NewTicket' notification to 'rafael.barbara@nonono.com.br'.
Jul 30 13:43:15 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13111]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 13:43:24 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:49:09 cdspoadm last message repeated 9 times
Jul 30 13:50:02 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13152]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009913/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9913,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)
Jul 30 13:50:38 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:50:41 cdspoadm last message repeated 8 times
Jul 30 13:50:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13152]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::ArticleSend] Sent email to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>' from 'Help Desk <hd@nonono.com.br>'. HistoryType => SendAutoReply, Subject => [Chamado#1009913] RE: CHAMADO TESTE;
Jul 30 13:50:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13152]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAutoResponse] Sent auto response (SendAutoReply) for Ticket [1009913] (TicketID=9913, ArticleID=61107) to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>'.
Jul 30 13:51:38 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13152]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAgentNotification] Sent agent 'NewTicket' notification to 'rafael.barbara@nonono.com.br'.
Jul 30 13:53:14 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13152]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 13:58:57 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 13:59:58 cdspoadm last message repeated 20 times
Jul 30 14:00:17 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13192]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009914/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9914,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)
Jul 30 14:00:22 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 14:00:50 cdspoadm last message repeated 7 times
Jul 30 14:01:10 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13192]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::ArticleSend] Sent email to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>' from 'Help Desk <hd@nonono.com.br>'. HistoryType => SendAutoReply, Subject => [Chamado#1009914] RE: CHAMADO TESTE;
Jul 30 14:01:10 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13192]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAutoResponse] Sent auto response (SendAutoReply) for Ticket [1009914] (TicketID=9914, ArticleID=61109) to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>'.
Jul 30 14:01:49 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 14:01:53 cdspoadm last message repeated 8 times
Jul 30 14:01:58 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13192]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAgentNotification] Sent agent 'NewTicket' notification to 'rafael.barbara@nonono.com.br'.
Jul 30 14:02:46 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 14:03:17 cdspoadm last message repeated 24 times
Jul 30 14:03:34 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13192]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 14:08:47 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 14:08:52 cdspoadm last message repeated 8 times
Jul 30 14:10:02 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13240]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009915/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9915,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)
Jul 30 14:10:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13240]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::ArticleSend] Sent email to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>' from 'Help Desk <hd@nonono.com.br>'. HistoryType => SendAutoReply, Subject => [Chamado#1009915] RE: CHAMADO TESTE;
Jul 30 14:10:50 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13240]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAutoResponse] Sent auto response (SendAutoReply) for Ticket [1009915] (TicketID=9915, ArticleID=61111) to 'Thiago Nononon <nononono@hotmail.com>'.
Jul 30 14:11:38 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13240]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::Article::SendAgentNotification] Sent agent 'NewTicket' notification to 'rafael.barbara@nonono.com.br'.
Jul 30 14:13:14 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13240]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 14:16:19 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.
Jul 30 14:20:02 cdspoadm last message repeated 44 times
Jul 30 14:20:02 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13279]: [Notice][Kernel::System::Ticket::TicketCreate] New Ticket [1009916/CHAMADO TESTE] created (TicketID=9916,Queue=TI,Priority=3 normal,State=new)

[crythias]

Jul 30 13:33:14 cdspoadm OTRS-otrs.PostMasterMailbox.pl-10[13066]: [Notice][Kernel::System::MailAccount::POP3::Fetch] POP3: Fetched 1 email(s) from teste@nononono.com.br/pop.nononono.com.br.
Jul 30 13:35:13 cdspoadm avahi-daemon[3063]: Invalid query packet.

I'm not sure why avahi-daemon is running or why you particularly need it, but it is of interest that it happens every. single. pop try, as you've noticed.
you could theoretically try stopping the avahi-daemon service. Also troubleshooting with netcat or similar might be helpful.
Further, change from pop3 to a more secure (POP3S?) connection might prevent avahi from snooping/denial of service.

[bobrivers]

Hi,

We stopped and disabled avahi-deamon. Nothing changed. We also implemented POP3S. Again, same behavior. And as I said before, we changed the email server to another ISP, and the same behavior occurred.

What I'm working now, is to configure another OTRS instance, because I don't know what to do anymore....

[crythias]

You probably don't have to do that, as all you need is the Mailaccount change.

See if Kernel/System/MailAccount/POP3.pm has
$PopObject->delete($Messageno);
around line 214 (?)