SMTP Server

SMTP Service

Widespread service disruption due to UPS failure

November 21, 2009 | IRIS Staff

Last evening about 21:26 there was a power failure in the main EECS server room in Soda Hall. The UPS held up some systems until about 22:00 at which time staff shut the room down completely. Many EECS services were disrupted as a result. The problem was found to be in the UPS which fried the high voltage output terminal block. The terminal block was bypassed and the UPS has been removed from service until further notice. Most EECS computing services have been restored as of 03:15 this morning with the exception of the IRIS web server, which was restored around 10:15am Sunday.

Thanks to the staff who came in early Sunday morning to deal with this issue.

Resolved as of 2009-11-22 03:15:00

New SSL Certificate for gateway.EECS

November 16, 2009 | Mark Kraitchman

The current 1024 bit SSL certificate for gateway.EECS.Berkeley.ED will expire soon.

The current Entrust SSL certificate is being replaced by a 2048 bit Entrust SSL certificate that utilizes the Entrust 2048 bit L1B chain root certificate.

Our testing suggests that thunderbird, pine, Outlook, Microsoft Windows Mail (replacement for Outlook Express) and Apple Mail should be able to use the 2048 bit SSL certificate on gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU for outgoing smtp service using STARTTLS without any problems.

If you have problems sending email using gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU with the new SSL certifciate please contact the IRIS help desk (help@eecs, 395 Cory M-F 9:30am-5pm, 642-7777).

https://iris.eecs.berkeley.edu/15-faq/15-software/#Email has documentation on configuring various mail user agents.

Note, if your mail user agent can not handle 2048 bit SSL certificates, the outgoing smtp server on calmail.Berkeley.EDU still uses a 1024 bit SSL certificate.

Resolved as of 2009-11-16 07:14:00

mailspool.CS.Berkeley.EDU was not accepting incoming email

February 5, 2009 | Mark Kraitchman

mailspool.CS.Berkeley.EDU was not accepting incoming email from Thursday February 5, 2009 02:56 to 05:30.

This resulted in delay of delivery of email. No email was lost. No warning messages should have been sent back to senders.

It appears the process table on mailspool.CS.Berkeley.EDU became full. It appears this may have been a ddos attack.

mailspool.CS.Berkeley.EDU was rebooted to resume normal service.

Resolved as of 2009-02-05 05:30:00

delayed email via gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU

January 22, 2009 | Mark Kraitchman

Delivery of email via gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU to @EECS.Berkeley.EDU, @CS.Berkeley.EDU and @ERSO.Berkeley.EDU email addresses was delayed starting at Thursday January 22, 2009 19:22.

gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU was unable to deliver email to one of the EECS SMTP servers that expands forwarding for users and mailing lists due to a temporary problem on that SMTP server. gateway.EECS.Berkeley.EDU should have then tried the other EECS SMTP server that expands forwarding, but it did not.

Normal service resumed Friday January 23, 2009 06:14. No email was lost. Warning messages concerning the delivery delay were sent to EECS and ERSO senders after four hours.

Staff is studying the situation and considering options to make the situation more robust in order to prevent future similar unplanned outages/delays.

Resolved as of 2009-01-23 06:14:00

SMTP Server gateway.eecs.berkeley.edu

May 9, 2008 | IRIS Staff

The infrastructure Technical Staff have been notified that a department-wide problem is occurring with sending email due to smtp server failure. At the moment, the reason for the failure is unknown. Updates will be posted and resolutions forthcoming.
[Read more…] about SMTP Server gateway.eecs.berkeley.edu

Innocuous Returned Mail 2/25 1:03 PM – 1:12 PM

February 25, 2008 | Mark Kraitchman

Due to human error, two of the departmental Mail eXchangers had a temporary problem between 1:03 p.m. and 1:12 p.m. PDT on Monday February 25, 2008.

In addition to the normal delivery to @ERSO.Berkeley.EDU, @CS.Berkeley.EDU, and @EECS.Berkeley.EDU e-mail addresses during that time, bounces were sent to the envelope sender typically with a “Subject: Returned Mail” and text about either “mailtest.cs.berkeley.edu: host not found” or “mailtest.EECS.Berkeley.EDU>… User unknown”

No email was lost. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Resolved as of 2008-02-25 13:12:00