ejabberd - Comments for "is starting with status: started, takes too much time to boot"

If problem still happens, some ideas to try

mfoss — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:18:31 +0000

NecmiKara wrote:

As file sizes, I have:

-rw-r--r--  1 root     root      253488 2011-01-18 15:42 last_activity.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 2650283 2010-12-05 01:19 passwd.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 7743400 2011-01-19 07:06 vcard.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 3901699 2010-12-05 01:19 vcard_search.DCD

Some of them seem too big indeed.

Compare to the server that I mendioned before:
-rw-r--r-- 1 ejabberd ejabberd 957130 Jan 28 10:27 last_activity.DCD
-rw-r--r-- 1 ejabberd ejabberd 520589 Dec 27 20:08 passwd.DCD
-rw-r--r-- 1 ejabberd ejabberd 58306790 Jan 28 12:25 vcard.DAT
-rw-r--r-- 1 ejabberd ejabberd 791815 Jan 27 00:42 vcard_search.DCD

Your only file that is larger is passwd, and not that much.
The vcard table is big in my server, but it is configured to be disk-only, so I imagine it doesn't produce delay when starting Mnesia.

NecmiKara wrote:

BTW, how can I avoid these root-owned files? (I guess they appear because I execute ejabberdctl as root)

I configure ejabberd with:

./configure --enable-user=somesystemuser
make
sudo make install
sudo ejabberdctl start

This way, the actual beam program is run by somesystemuser, not by root.

NecmiKara wrote:

Quote:

my server takes around one minute to load Mnesia.

I am a bit disappointed by erlang then.

What do you prefer for a program that you start only once every few months and keeps running for months?
A) To start fast the day you start it.
B) To run fast during all the months it's running

Remember: you can reconfigure most of ejabberd usign WebAdmin, add new modules, and even reload patched modules (as long as the changes are not substantial). No need to wait 5 minutes every morning to restart ejabberd.

NecmiKara wrote:

Quote:

To reduce the database size, you can delete accounts unused for more than 365 days (for example) using mod_admin_extra

I can't do this, I synchronize ejabberd accounts with my website's user accounts (by xmlrpc) . Should I consider external auth or clustering?

Ok, then better keep the auth as now. You have many registered accounts (see 'passwd'), but few of them really login, so your Mnesia database can be considered small.

You could try this (remember to first make a copy/backup of the Mnesia spool dir):
Go to ejabberd WebAdmin -> nodes -> Your node -> Database, and change the 'passwd' table to 'Copy in disc only', like the 'vcard' table. Then press Send. Then stop ejabberd, start it and see if the start time reduces.

NecmiKara wrote:

And what about the log files? Now I get them but I didn't get them at all when the server took long time to start even once it was started.

No idea.

Abnormal

NecmiKara — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:51:58 +0000

As file sizes, I have:

drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root        4096 2011-01-19 07:29 .
drwx--x--x 33 flo      flo         4096 2011-01-19 08:22 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root         556 2011-01-09 11:44 acl.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root        1154 2011-01-09 12:06 acl.DCL
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 caps_features.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root        1183 2011-01-09 11:44 config.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root        1925 2011-01-09 12:06 config.DCL
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root         160 2011-01-19 07:24 DECISION_TAB.LOG
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 irc_custom.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root      253488 2011-01-18 15:42 last_activity.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root       57004 2011-01-19 07:24 last_activity.DCL
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root         668 2011-01-19 07:26 LATEST.LOG
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root        2038 2011-01-09 11:44 local_config.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root       27439 2011-01-09 12:06 local_config.DCL
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 motd.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 motd_users.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 muc_registered.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 muc_room.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root        5432 2011-01-19 06:55 offline_msg.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 2650283 2010-12-05 01:19 passwd.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root      139914 2011-01-19 07:00 passwd.DCL
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd      94 2010-12-05 01:19 privacy.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd    5752 2010-10-15 01:22 private_storage.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd     130 2010-10-16 07:01 pubsub_index.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd    5752 2010-10-15 01:22 pubsub_item.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd    1239 2010-10-16 07:01 pubsub_node.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd     220 2010-10-16 07:01 pubsub_state.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 pubsub_subscription.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd   88236 2010-10-19 19:31 roster.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd    6968 2011-01-17 19:00 roster.DCL
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 roster_version.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd   27084 2010-10-16 07:08 schema.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 sr_group.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd       8 2010-10-15 01:20 sr_user.DCD
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 7743400 2011-01-19 07:06 vcard.DAT
-rwxr-x---  1 ejabberd ejabberd 3901699 2010-12-05 01:19 vcard_search.DCD
-rw-r--r--  1 root     root      194262 2011-01-19 07:00 vcard_search.DCL

Some of them seem too big indeed. BTW, how can I avoid these root-owned files? (I guess they appear because I execute ejabberdctl as root)

Quote:

my server takes around one minute to load Mnesia.

I am a bit disappointed by erlang then.

Quote:

To reduce the database size, you can delete accounts unused for more than 365 days (for example) using mod_admin_extra

I can't do this, I synchronize ejabberd accounts with my website's user accounts (by xmlrpc) . Should I consider external auth or clustering?

And what about the log files? Now I get them but I didn't get them at all when the server took long time to start even once it was started.

Quote:

Once the server is fully started, with minimal load, MUC rooms shouldn't lag. Unless you have millions of rooms, or hundreds of occupants in the room.

Indeed, I found the bug. The lag was not due to a ejabberd behaviour and is not related to this issue.

Check tables sizes.

mfoss — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:57:00 +0000

NecmiKara wrote:

Yes it worked nice, it started very fast.
What can I do to make it work with a lot of registered users? My old mnesia contained around 30000 users.

With 9000 registered accounts, 5000 vcards, 130000 roster items and 6000 offline messages, my server takes around one minute to load Mnesia.

Check (using Webadmin, or looking at mnesia spool files) if you have some Mnesia table with an abnormal size.

To reduce the database size, you can delete accounts unused for more than 365 days (for example) using mod_admin_extra .

NecmiKara wrote:

(I also noticed some important and non-deterministic lags in MUC rooms, could it be the same reason?)

Once the server is fully started, with minimal load, MUC rooms shouldn't lag. Unless you have millions of rooms, or hundreds of occupants in the room.

It runs very fast

NecmiKara — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 06:45:49 +0000

Yes it worked nice, it started very fast.
What can I do to make it work with a lot of registered users? My old mnesia contained around 30000 users.

(I also noticed some important and non-deterministic lags in MUC rooms, could it be the same reason?)

Do you have a Mnesia

mfoss — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:55:09 +0000

Do you have a Mnesia (internal) database with many registered users?

Try this:
1. Stop ejabberd, kill beam, beam.smp, epmd
2. Delete log files (if any)
3. Move the Mnesia database spool files away, so ejabberd will recreate the database empty
4. Start ejabberd
5. Does it start correctly, and fast? Or it still takes long to start (or never starts)?