E-Mail dependency hangs 24x7

I tried today receiving large PDF attachments and had no issues with them. I will try other file types later today.

Just in case, couple additional notes:
Please do not use attachments with the name message.txt – this file name is reserved for the email message body.

The email routines in 24x7, use standard Java Mail package and its functions for parsing multi-part messages, expecting that messages are MIME compatible, in other words, using most commonly used MIME encoding. Please verify you are using not sending messages in UUENCODE or some other format. Non-MIME encoding can wreck the email processing and potentially cause anomalies with attachments.

I think the hang is due to the format of the message.

I sent 5 messages from Apple Mail with a line of text followed by small .zip attachment--all OK:

Code:

Message-Id: <95BDAE80-2EDA-4B38-A2CF-03CAE2FA6016@******>
From: Tom Robinson <tom@***>
To: Tom Robinson <tomrob@***>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=Apple-Mail-13-641054645
X-Smtp-Server: ***@***
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2)
Subject: trigger
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:32:01 +1300

--Apple-Mail-13-641054645
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=US-ASCII;
format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

five

--Apple-Mail-13-641054645
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="Computer Widow5.zip"
Content-Type: application/zip;
x-unix-mode=0644;
name="Computer Widow5.zip"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
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--Apple-Mail-13-641054645
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=US-ASCII;
format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

--Apple-Mail-13-641054645--

I sent 5 messages with a line of text followed by a .dat (the .zip renamed to .dat)--all fine:

Code:

Message-Id: <8321D7AB-6B96-4494-B5FC-5FC8AEC09528@***>
From: Tom Robinson <tom@***>
To: Tom Robinson <tomrob@***>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=Apple-Mail-22-641605610
X-Smtp-Server: ***@***
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2)
Subject: trigger
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:41:12 +1300

--Apple-Mail-22-641605610
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=US-ASCII;
format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

ten

--Apple-Mail-22-641605610
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="Computer Widow10.dat"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
x-unix-mode=0644;
name="Computer Widow10.dat"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
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--Apple-Mail-22-641605610
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=US-ASCII;
format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

--Apple-Mail-22-641605610--

I sent a .dat file (the same one renamed) with no text in the body--24x7 hung on the first test:

Code:

Message-Id: <1952D2E2-BDBA-4AD7-8578-68712E56E41B@***>
From: Tom Robinson <tom@***>
To: Tom Robinson <tomrob@***>
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary=Apple-Mail-23-641797655
X-Smtp-Server: ***@***
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2)
Subject: trigger
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:44:24 +1300

--Apple-Mail-23-641797655
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename="Computer Widow11.dat"
Content-Type: application/octet-stream;
x-unix-mode=0644;
name="Computer Widow11.dat"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
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--Apple-Mail-23-641797655
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=US-ASCII;
format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

--Apple-Mail-23-641797655--

Are you able to replicate this? I can e-mail your test user if you'd like.

It sounds like the hang only happens on certain message formats (or non-MIME as you said), in which case I can ensure the messages are always in a valid format. Sound plausible?

Aha... first of all I don't see in the beginning "This is a multi-part message in MIME format"

Second, for all attachments it shows

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

while this should be something like

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Hope it makes sense.

Thanks. I'm getting a co-worker to put together an e-mail in the same format that we'll actually use for production, rather than the uncontrolled tests I've been doing.

While it's not ideal having bugs in 24x7 (even if it's from Java), if the production-like test works it should be good enough for us.

Will let you know.

I'd say that this is not a bug. It is 24x7 requirement that the email needs to be in common MIME format adopted across the Internet. All "trigger" emails are being opened for reading as MIME messages, the format is stated explicitly. Other formats are not supported at this time.

For more details, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME

I hear you, but

1. there's nothing in the Users Guide about the required underlying e-mail formats.

2. from my reading the e-mails I was testing with do meet the MIME standard:
- they have a MIME version ('Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2) ')
- they have a content type ('Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=Apple-Mail-22-641605610 ')
- the content transfer encodings are suitable ones for normal SMTP servers (7bit, base64; quoted-printable is another valid one as you say)
- the string This is a multi-part message in MIME format. you say is missing, is from [...]the first boundary is an area that is ignored by MIME compliant clients. This area is generally used to put a message to users of old non-MIME clients.

What makes you say it's not common MIME format?

	Quote:
	Virtually all human-written Internet e-mail and a fairly large proportion of automated e-mail is transmitted via SMTP in MIME format. Internet e-mail is so closely associated with the SMTP and MIME standards that it is sometimes called SMTP/MIME e-mail

Quote:

MIME defines a collection of e-mail headers for specifying additional attributes of a message including content type, and defines a set of transfer encodings which can be used to represent 8-bit binary data using characters from the 7-bit ASCII character set. MIME also specifies rules for encoding non-ASCII characters in e-mail message headers, such as "Subject:", allowing these header fields to contain non-English characters.

Obviously MIME compliant headers are not present in these messages.

For more info please check "MIME-Version" and "[edit] Content-Transfer-Encoding" sections on the referenced Wikipedia page, which are basically excepts from relevant RFC documents.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what the actual internal format is. The important part here is what the mail processing libraries used by 24x7 expect to find in the email message formatting is not what is being sent, and that email format discrepancy is causing the current problem. Since you now know the root cause, you can start looking for a solution to workaround that problem.

I wanted to notify you that version 4.1.255 was released last night. That version includes support for the use of wildcards and regular expressions in job email triggers.