dovecot update broke email
Email just took a long ride off a short pier. Root cause appears to be dovecot.
2025-10-01 06:17:21 1v3wht-00000002RlA-1Gox == me@myemailaddress R=virtual_user T=dovecot_virtual_delivery defer (-1): Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dovecot/lmtp for dovecot_virtual_delivery transport: Connection refused
2025-10-01 06:19:40 SMTP connection from [127.0.0.1]:42560 (TCP/IP connection count = 1)
2025-10-01 06:19:40 dovecot_plain authenticator failed for (localhost.localdomain) [127.0.0.1]:42560: 435 Unable to authenticate at present: unable to connect to UNIX socket (/var/run/dovecot/auth-client): Connection refused
2025-10-01 06:19:40 SMTP connection from (localhost.localdomain) [127.0.0.1]:42560 D=0s closed by QUIT[root@server log]# systemctl status dovecot
à dovecot.service - Dovecot Imap Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-10-01 06:05:48 PDT; 1s ago
Duration: 4ms
Process: 574467 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dovecot -F -c /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf (code=exited, status=89)
Main PID: 574467 (code=exited, status=89)Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Started Dovecot Imap Server.
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca dovecot[574467]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/fts.conf line 2: Unknown section name: plugin
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.[root@server log]# systemctl status dovecot
à dovecot.service - Dovecot Imap Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2025-10-01 06:13:19 PDT; 3s ago
Duration: 5ms
Process: 579812 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dovecot -F -c /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf (code=exited, status=89)
Main PID: 579812 (code=exited, status=89)Oct 01 06:13:19 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Started Dovecot Imap Server.
Oct 01 06:13:19 server.canadiancreative.ca dovecot[579812]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/sni.conf line 18: Multiple names no longer supported in>
Oct 01 06:13:19 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Oct 01 06:13:19 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Tried running a reset from the command line, got the following:
[root@server log]# /scripts/restartsrv_dovecot
warn [restartsrv_dovecot] The 'dovecot' service's PID file '/var/run/dovecot/master.pid' did not appear after 10 seconds.Waiting for âdovecotâ
warn [restartsrv_dovecot] The 'dovecot' service's PID file '/var/run/dovecot/master.pid' did not appear after 10 seconds.â¦info [restartsrv_dovecot] Terminating remaining dovecot processes
warn [restartsrv_dovecot] The 'dovecot' service's PID file '/var/run/dovecot/master.pid' did not appear after 10 seconds.â¦info [restartsrv_dovecot] The service 'dovecot' failed to restart at least three times. The system will now rebuild the SNI conf files.
warn [restartsrv_dovecot] The 'dovecot' service's PID file '/var/run/dovecot/master.pid' did not appear after 10 seconds.â¦failed.
Cpanel::Exception::Services::StartError
Service Status
undefined status from Cpanel::ServiceManager::Services::DovecotService Error
(XID 7wzfwp) The âdovecotâStartup Log
Oct 01 06:29:22 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Started Dovecot Imap Server.
Oct 01 06:29:22 server.canadiancreative.ca dovecot[593652]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/sni.conf line 18: Multiple names no longer supported in local_name value
Oct 01 06:29:22 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Oct 01 06:29:22 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.Log Messages
Oct 1 13:29:22 server dovecot[593652]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/sni.conf line 18: Multiple names no longer supported in local_name valuedovecot has failed. Contact your system administrator if the service does not automagically recover.
I image the list will just continue as I go along... cPanel version 132.0.0
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Hey there! We did just release version 132 to Edge last night, so you're one of the lucky 167 users to get this update!
This is a known issue that we're tracking here, and there is a workaround on that page:
Can you try that and let me know if that doesn't take care of things?
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Sorry for the delay in responding. Yep, that fox got dovecot to work again, but receiving this from cron every 10 minutes now.
Use of uninitialized value $current_username in concatenation (.) or string at /var/cpanel/perl/Cpanel/Dovecot/Solr/Utils.pm line 82.
Use of uninitialized value $current_password in concatenation (.) or string at /var/cpanel/perl/Cpanel/Dovecot/Solr/Utils.pm line 82.
The error from fts also still prevents dovecot from starting... I copied the original file to a backup, and then cleared the contents of the file in order to get things at least started. But a few of my email accounts can not log in now... they receive a temporary authentication error.
Here is the error that dovecot threw back when fts.conf actually had content:
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Started Dovecot Imap Server.
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca dovecot[574467]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/fts.conf line 2: Unknown section name: plugin
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Oct 01 06:05:48 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.This was the contents of "/etc/dovecot/fts.conf"
plugin {
fts = solr
fts_solr = url=http://a0kVZQz24lfQgtRI:8rAIYSSni6wGe5oO@127.0.0.1:8984/solr/dovecot/
}At least its not affecting my other users... the problem seems to be localized to me (because why not...?), so anything I can do to help track down bugs and beat the crap out of them with a heavy bare metal server, I'm game. If there's anything else you might need to see, or need me to try...
Follow-up:
Try to check status of cpanel-dovecot-solr from command line, and receive:[root@server log]# systemctl status cpanel-dovecot-solr
â cpanel-dovecot-solr.service - Solr for cPanel Dovecot
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/cpanel-dovecot-solr.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: deactivating (stop) since Wed 2025-10-01 17:55:23 PDT; 2s ago
Process: 1134604 ExecStartPre=/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/scripts/cpanel_dovecot_solr_firewall start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 1134618 ExecStart=/home/cpanelsolr/bin/solr start -noprompt --host ${SOLR_HOSTNAME} --port ${SOLR_PORT} -m ${SOLR_MEMORY} -a ${SOLR_JVM_OPTS} (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 1134783 ExecStartPost=/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/scripts/cpanel_dovecot_solr_firewall stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1134671 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS); Control PID: 1136006 (solr)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 407212)
Memory: 2.1M
CGroup: /system.slice/cpanel-dovecot-solr.service
ââ1136006 /usr/bin/bash /home/cpanelsolr/bin/solr stop
ââ1136078 /usr/bin/bash /home/cpanelsolr/bin/solr stop
ââ1136085 sleep 2
ââ1136105 sleep 0.5Oct 01 17:53:23 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Starting Solr for cPanel Dovecot...
Oct 01 17:53:24 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1134618]: Solr will start in SolrCloud mode by default in version 10, and you will have to provide --user-managed if you want to stay on the user-managed (aka. standalone) mode.
Oct 01 17:53:26 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1134618]: [110B blob data]
Oct 01 17:53:26 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1134676]: Started Solr server on port 8984 (pid=1134671). Happy searching!
Oct 01 17:53:26 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1134618]: [14B blob data]
Oct 01 17:53:26 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Started Solr for cPanel Dovecot.
Oct 01 17:55:23 server.canadiancreative.ca systemd[1]: Stopping Solr for cPanel Dovecot...
Oct 01 17:55:23 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1136006]: Sending stop command to Solr running on port 8984 ... waiting up to 180 seconds to allow Jetty process 1134671 to stop gracefully.
Oct 01 17:55:23 server.canadiancreative.ca solr[1136053]: Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -DSTOP.KEY=cdBKlavCgSNgCcCX68s6IKyQuw7nQDP5Got to that after switching screens and seeing all of the service failure messages... should have looked in that folder first. I've disabled it in the services manager for the time being, because coming home to 700+ error messages about that... like, I get it... 500 was enough.
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This was actually a separate dovecot issue under case CPANEL-49526, which will be resolved in a future release.
Are you meaning to run the Edge tier on this machine?
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Yes, actually... it's only barely "production", so encountering bugs is to be expected. Actually been running Edge on at least one box for over 10 years.
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I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into with an Edge build :)
At this point it looks like the issues are resolved but just haven't made their way to a public build yet.
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Oh yeah, not my first time around. ;)
Actually saw that they pushed out 130.0.1 as I was leaving this morning, will run an update when I'm home and see if I can discover new ways to break my sites. Battling with a single wordpress and lsapi, trying to figure out if it was the update, EA4, or Cloudlinux that started the conflict. Of course, WP is so clear in their errors (we encountered an error, check your email). But that's unrelated to the thread, and seems to be localized to a single site, so probably something I did without sleeping first.0 -
I am still getting this error as of this date and v. 132.0.2
Waiting for “dovecot” to start ………Waiting for authProg,authdaemond,imapd,pop3,imap-login,pop3-login,dovecot/lmtp,dovecot,dovecot-auth,dovecot-wrap to shutdown ... not running. ………failed.
Cpanel::Exception::Services::StartError Service Status
undefined status from Cpanel::ServiceManager::Services::Dovecot
Service Error
(XID 769k5n) The “dovecot” service failed to start.
Startup Log
Oct 24 09:18:57 wcp.xxxxx.com systemd[1]: Started dovecot.service - Dovecot Imap Server.
Oct 24 09:18:57 wcp.xxxxx.com dovecot[14607]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/fts.conf line 2: Unknown section name: plugin
Oct 24 09:18:57 wcp.xxxxx.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=89/n/a
Oct 24 09:18:57 wcp.xxxxx.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Log Messages
Oct 24 09:18:57 wcp dovecot[14607]: doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/fts.conf line 2: Unknown section name: plugin
dovecot has failed. Contact your system administrator if the service does not automagically recover.0 -
More information:
(XID 4f9s2g) The “dovecot” service is down.
The subprocess “/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_imap” reported error number 255 when it ended.Startup Log
[*] Rebuilding Dovecot SNI configuration file...
[+] Successfully built Dovecot SNI configuration: /etc/dovecot/sni.conf0 -
Hi @tradenet,
Based on the error you provided, it appears you're encountering the issue described below:
Dovecot Solr fts conf does not get set up on 9.8.0-4 update
I suggest trying the workaround above to see if it allows the services to start normally.
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Thanks, tried the workaround above. But no luck. I'll try the fts config.
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No luck with either of the workarounds.
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Hi,
I recommend opening a ticket so the issue can be investigated thoroughly with direct access to the server. This appears to be a separate issue from what was originally reported in the thread, and having server access would help to identify the root cause.
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I just had this issue and tried to fix the problem with the above fixes. Issues did not fix. I removed SOLR plugin and the systems came back online automagically.
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