Troubleshooting Email Engine service failover issues

AR System Email Engine uses the Service Failover feature to handle high availability and to distribute the Email Engine workload across multiple servers. If Service Failover is not configured correctly, one or more mailboxes might not run.

If you are unable to resolve issues with Service Failover after following these guidelines, create a BMC Support case.

Best Practice

We recommend that you refer to BEST FAQ on AR System Email Engine Issuesfor resolutions to the most common questions on Email Engine.

Issue symptoms

Email Engine is not sending or receiving emails.
Email Engine is stuck in a Suspended state.
The wrong server is running Email Engine.

Issue scope

One or more users experience the problem.
One or more mailboxes experience the problem.
One or more servers are not running Email Engine correctly.
In a Server Group environment, the symptoms could affect one or more servers.

Diagnosing and reporting an issue

Task	Action	Steps	Reference
1.	Check the AR System Service Failover Whiteboard form.	By using a browser client, query the AR System Service Failover Whiteboard form to make sure that all your enabled mailboxes are Active on one server. If all your mailboxes are active, proceed to Task 3.	NA
2.	Check the AR System Service Failover Ranking form to make sure that all your mailboxes are correctly ranked.	By using a browser client, query the AR System Service Failover Ranking form to make sure that all your mailboxes are ranked on the correct Email Engine servers. Important: All the mailboxes should be ranked. The mailbox ranking happens automatically as each Email Engine starts up for the first time.	NA
3.	Check the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form to make sure that the Service Failover operation is correctly ranked.	By using a browser client, query the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form to make sure that the Service Failover operation is correctly ranked. It must be ranked number 1 for the primary server that coordinates the mailboxes across the different Email Engine servers according to the Service Failover ranking.	NA
4.	Restart the Email Engine servers.	Restart all Email Engine servers that are ranked number 1 for at least one mailbox, which causes theEmail Engine to re-read the Service Failover information.	NA
5.	Collect the logs.	From each server that you restarted the Email Engine on, collect the Email Engine log including the .bak log file, if it exists. Windows: <ARSystem Install Dir>\AREmail\Logs\email.log UNIX: <ARSystem Install Dir>/AREmail/Logs/email.log	NA
6.	Collect Email Engine diagnostics.	Download and run the Email Engine Utility. Collect the testUtil.log file.	Email Engine Test Utility
7.	Analyze the logs.	Review the common issues to identify possible symptoms and solutions. If you cannot resolve the problem, create a BMC Support Case.	Resolutions for common issues
8.	Create a BMC Support Case.	Collect and send logs and detailed information when you create a case with BMC Support. Collect and send screenshots of the Service Failover forms. Attach a ZIP file, maximum size of 2 GB to your case. You can also upload the file on FTP.	NA

Resolutions for common issues

Symptom	Where	Action	Reference
You cannot connect to the mail server.	email.log	Use the Email Engine Test Utility to test connection settings.	Email Engine Test Utility
Mailbox is not active.	Whiteboard form	Make sure that the Service Failover operation is ranked in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form and that the mailbox is ranked in the AR System Server Failover Ranking form.	NA
Mailbox does not show up in the AR System Service Failover Ranking form.	Service Failover Ranking form	From the Email Engine installation directory, edit the emaildaemon.properties file, and make sure that the following lines are included correctly: com.bmc.arsys.emaildaemon.servers=RemedyProd1.bmc.com com.bmc.arsys.emaildaemon.RemedyProd1.bmc.com .RPC=0 Restart the Email Engine server.	NA