Post Office and Domain with the same name reports status of dead or unused when running on Linux

A Post Office and Domain with same name have recently been migrated from a NetWare to a Linux server.
The GroupWise system was created in a much earlier version and has been upgraded over the years to GroupWise 8 prior to migrating to Linux.
Executing the 'rcgrpwise status' command on the server console returns 'dead' and 'unused' even though executing 'ps -ef | grep groupwise' shows the processes are running.
Executing the 'rcgrpwise stop' command on the sever console returns 'failed' or 'skipped' and does not stop the running processes.
The file '/etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.conf' lists the Post Office section before the Domain section.

Change the order of the Post Office and Domain sections in the '/etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.conf' file so that the Domain section is listed before the Post Office section.

Sample contents of a working /etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.conf file

[gwha]
ssl       = no
key       =
cert      =
password  =

[Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwmta
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.mta
delay     = 2
wait      = 10

[Mailsite.Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.poa
delay     = 2
wait      = 10


Once the 'gwha.conf' file is edited, stop the running agents using 'kill {pid#}' and then start and stop the agents normally using 'rcgrpwise'. Examples of how to do this are in the Additional Information section below.

This situation will only occur if the Domain and Post Office were created with identical names using an older version of GroupWise, upgraded and migrated to a Linux server. It is not known how old the GroupWise system would originally have been to be created this way. This situation can not be created today using current ConsoleOne GroupWise management snapins. Attempts to create a Post Office with the same name as the Domain will result in an error of DB06 - Name conflicts with parent object.

When migrating or setting up agents on the Linux server, the gwha.conf file may be created with the Post Office section listed first. If this happens the reported errors and problems managing the agents on the Linux server will occur.

The following may provide some additional examples and trouble shooting reference information for this situation. The server in this example is named oes2-gw as seen in the prompts. The Domain and Post Office are both named 'Mailsite' in this example. The Post Office section in the 'gwha.conf' file will have a heading of 'PostOffice-name.Domain-name' or [Mailsite.Mailsite] in this example. The Domain section will have a heading of 'Domain-name' or [Mailsite] in this example.

=================== example of server with problem state ==============================

oes2-gw:~ # cat /etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.conf

[gwha]
ssl       = no
key       =
cert      =
password  =

[Mailsite.Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.poa
delay     = 2
wait      = 10

[Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwmta
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.mta
delay     = 2
wait      = 10

oes2-gw:~ #
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise status
Checking status [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                    unused
Checking status [Mailsite]                                             unused
oes2-gw:~ #
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise start
Starting [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                           done
Starting [Mailsite]                                                    done
oes2-gw:~ #
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise status
Checking status [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                    dead
Checking status [Mailsite]                                             unused
oes2-gw:~ #
oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     18835     1  1 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @mailsite.poa
root     18933     1  1 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwmta @mailsite.mta
root     19029  5770  0 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group
oes2-gw:~ #
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise stop
Shutting down [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                      failed

Shutting down [Mailsite]                                               failed

oes2-gw:~ # ll /var/run/novell/groupwise/
total 4
-rw------- 1 root root 5 Sep 14 09:08 mailsite.mailsite.pid


In the example pid file above with the post office name, the gwmta has actually overwritten the contents with it's own pid. This is why both agents are reporting failed when attempting to stop or dead and unused when reporting on status.

=================== example stopping running processes when in problem state =============

oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     18835     1  0 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @mailsite.poa
root     18933     1  0 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwmta @mailsite.mta
root     20084  5770  0 09:11 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group
oes2-gw:~ # kill 18835 18933
oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     18835     1  0 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @mailsite.poa
root     20127  5770  0 09:11 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group
oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     18835     1  0 09:08 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @mailsite.poa
root     20134  5770  0 09:11 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group
oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     20144  5770  0 09:12 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group

The agents will stop after issuing the kill command, usually within a few seconds. Some time is needed to process an orderly shutdown. If there are busy threads it may take a bit longer to complete the shutdown process.

=================== example of server with a reordered gwha.conf file =======================

oes2-gw:~ # cat /etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.conf

[gwha]
ssl       = no
key       =
cert      =
password  =

[Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwmta
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.mta
delay     = 2
wait      = 10

[Mailsite.Mailsite]
server    = /opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa
command   = /etc/init.d/grpwise
startup   = mailsite.poa
delay     = 2
wait      = 10

oes2-gw:~ # ps -ef | grep group
root     20144  5770  0 09:12 pts/1    00:00:00 grep group
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise status
Checking status [Mailsite]                                             unused
Checking status [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                    unused
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise start
Starting [Mailsite]                                                    done
Starting [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                           done
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise status
Checking status [Mailsite]                                             running
Checking status [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                    running
oes2-gw:~ # rcgrpwise stop
Shutting down [Mailsite]                                               done

Shutting down [Mailsite.Mailsite]                                      done

oes2-gw:~ #