Why does the techmail utility show POP failures for my non-Oracle hosted mailbox?
Oracle B2C Service all versions using non-Oracle hosted mailboxes to create incidents via email.
Issue:
The techmail utility is showing the following messages, causing the runs to fail:
LIST (MailBox List state),
UIDL (Get Message UID state),
DELE (Delete Message state) and/or
RETR (Get Message state)
Resolution:
While the techmail utility allows messages to be retrieved from non-Oracle hosted mailboxes, Support has no visibility into the external mail server nor the required access to troubleshoot errors. Therefore, it can be very difficult to determine the root cause of such errors. Support is entirely reliant on the response from the external mail server and issues may be intermittent or persistent in nature.
When the utility identifies one of these failures, a notification will be sent to the console indicating the mailbox in question:
ex. Mailbox <mailbox name>: POP3 RETR command failed
Utility Stats information can also be found under the Hosting Services section on the Customer Portal pages: Answer ID 1067: Utility exit code messages in the Utility Stats page
If the utility continues to fail, it will be automatically pulled from the schedule and admins will be notified via a hosting notification service request: Answer ID 2697: Suspended utility runs
To attempt to resolve an issue as quickly as possible, review the emails in your mailbox and make sure none of them appear corrupted or malformed. If you are unsure which mailboxes and emails are impacted, you can Ask Technical Support to provide the specific mailbox(es) impacted as well as the size of the email(s) associated with the failure. Problematic emails can then be removed from the mailbox to determine if the remaining messages can be processed. Depending on the mailbox traffic, this exercise may need to be repeated. Ultimately, the root cause will need to be addressed by your mail provider to determine why underlying services are not responding appropriately to POP commands. Oracle Support can provide an explanation of the server response if necessary. Please note however, these are often generic and vague.
As an alternative, we recommend using Oracle hosted mailboxes. If you must use a non-Oracle hosted mailbox, at least have messages forwarded to an Oracle hosted mailbox. This allows a copy of the message to reside on Oracle servers and provides Support many more troubleshoot capabilities and insights into the interface with techmail. To add an Oracle hosted service mailbox please review Answer ID 6354: Configuration of Oracle-hosted Service and Outreach mailboxes.
