2 minor issues (1 since v1.9.1 or so)

Debian 12.10

When backing up the server, it seems to help to stop Exim and Dovecot. I’ve been using Hestia to do this: I click on the “gear” for Server Settings, check the box for each server, then Apply to selected: Stop. Ever since around v1.9.1, Hestia comes back with 1 red X and one green check. It looks to me like both servers get stopped, so it is only the green indicator that is goofy.

I had added a new web (sub)domain without enabling Web Statistics. I cannot find a checkbox to do that now, but I did find v-add-web-domain-stats but it tells me Error: invalid user format :: validusername

It works fine on my test server. When the services are up and running, check the status:

systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
systemctl status dovecot --no-pager -l

Now stop both services from Web UI and check again the services:

systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
systemctl status dovecot --no-pager -l

Also check the Hestia’s log.

tail -n 20 /var/log/hestia/{error.log,system.log}

It’s not a check box but a dropdown menu.

Show the output of this command:

v-list-sys-config json | jq -r '.[]|.STATS_SYSTEM'

I forgot to ask.

What’s the exact command that you’re using? I’m insterested in the username you’re using.

tried admin, just to check; returns the same errmsg as woze

v-add-web-domain-stats ​admin sub.domain.tld awstats

DUH/OOPS :disappointed:, thank you very much. :smiley:

Works great, I think: Saved ok, including authentication, but the screen tells me “If the aliases changes, Let’s Encrypt will obtain a new SSL certificate.” but doesn’t tell me where to go to find any stats. (/stats and /awstats don’t work), so I got distracted before giving up for now.

I’ll have to get back to you on the rest of your much-appreciated reply…

It’s /vstats/ (the last slash is important).

https://example.com/vstats/

:smiley:

Thank you again very much. (I love examples…)

1 Like
root@s41:~# systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
● exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-03-29 06:15:55 EDT; 1 week 0 days ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 2330067 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/exim4 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3553437 ExecReload=/etc/init.d/exim4 reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 2228)
     Memory: 31.4M
        CPU: 3min 36.546s
     CGroup: /system.slice/exim4.service
             ├─2330315 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m
             └─3700473 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m

Apr 02 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent...
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com exim4[3201214]: Reloading exim4 configuration files: exim4.
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 04 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent...
Apr 04 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com exim4[3378572]: Reloading exim4 configuration files: exim4.
Apr 04 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent...
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com exim4[3553437]: Reloading exim4 configuration files: exim4.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
root@s41:~# systemctl status dovecot --no-pager -l
● dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2025-03-29 06:15:55 EDT; 1 week 0 days ago
       Docs: man:dovecot(1)
             https://doc.dovecot.org/
    Process: 3553335 ExecReload=/usr/bin/doveadm reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 2330010 (dovecot)
     Status: "v2.3.19.1 (9b53102964) running"
      Tasks: 6 (limit: 2228)
     Memory: 16.2M
        CPU: 16min 27.971s
     CGroup: /system.slice/dovecot.service
             ├─2330010 /usr/sbin/dovecot -F
             ├─2330013 dovecot/anvil
             ├─3553392 dovecot/log
             ├─3553801 dovecot/config
             ├─3553802 dovecot/stats
             └─3553804 dovecot/auth

Apr 01 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 01 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 02 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 02 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 04 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 04 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.

root@s41:~# systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
○ exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2025-04-06 03:28:45 EDT; 20s ago
   Duration: 1w 21h 12min 49.228s
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
    Process: 2330067 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/exim4 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3553437 ExecReload=/etc/init.d/exim4 reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3700769 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/exim4 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 2228)
     Memory: 30.8M
        CPU: 3min 36.572s
     CGroup: /system.slice/exim4.service
             └─3700473 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m

Apr 04 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent...
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com exim4[3553437]: Reloading exim4 configuration files: exim4.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Stopping exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent...
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com exim4[3700769]: Stopping MTA: exim4_listener.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: exim4.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: exim4.service: Unit process 3700473 (exim4) remains running after unit stopped.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Stopped exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: exim4.service: Consumed 3min 36.572s CPU time.
root@s41:~# systemctl status dovecot --no-pager -l
○ dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dovecot.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2025-04-06 03:28:45 EDT; 26s ago
   Duration: 1w 21h 12min 48.191s
       Docs: man:dovecot(1)
             https://doc.dovecot.org/
    Process: 2330010 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dovecot -F (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3553335 ExecReload=/usr/bin/doveadm reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 3700714 ExecStop=/usr/bin/doveadm stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 2330010 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Status: "Dovecot stopped"
        CPU: 16min 28.057s

Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 03 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 04 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 04 06:14:03 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloading dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 05 06:14:04 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Reloaded dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 06 03:28:43 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Stopping dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server...
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Deactivated successfully.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: Stopped dovecot.service - Dovecot IMAP/POP3 email server.
Apr 06 03:28:45 s41.mydomain.com systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Consumed 16min 28.057s CPU time.

Since this is a public forum, I hope you don’t mind tooo much that I’m anonymizing the entries:

==> /var/log/hestia/error.log <==
2025-04-04 03:43:20 v-list-dns-domain  'woze' 'webmail.sub.domain.tld' 'plain' [Error 3]
2025-04-04 03:43:20 v-list-dns-domain  'woze' 'webmail.sub.domain.tld' 'plain' [Error 3]
2025-04-04 03:43:20 v-add-dns-domain  'woze' 'webmail.sub.domain.tld' 'nn.nnn.nnn.nn' 'ns1.domain.tld' 'ns2.domain.tld' '' '' '' '' '' '' 'no' 'no' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:32:25 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​' [Error 1]
2025-04-05 03:33:01 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​woze' 'sub.domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:41:09 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​woze' 'sub.domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:47:23 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​woze' 'sub.domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:52:43 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​woze' 'domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:52:53 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​woze' 'sub.domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]
2025-04-05 03:53:29 v-add-web-domain-stats  '​admin' 'sub.domain.tld' 'awstats' [Error 2]

==> /var/log/hestia/system.log <==
2025-04-06 02:15:04 v-update-mail-domains-disk  'username1'
2025-04-06 02:15:04 v-update-databases-disk  'username1'
2025-04-06 02:15:04 v-update-user-disk  'domain1.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:04 v-update-web-domains-disk  'domain1.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-mail-domains-disk  'domain1.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-databases-disk  'domain1.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-user-disk  'username2'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-web-domains-disk  'username2'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-mail-domains-disk  'username2'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-databases-disk  'username2'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-user-disk  'domain2.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-web-domains-disk  'domain2.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-mail-domains-disk  'domain2.com'
2025-04-06 02:15:05 v-update-databases-disk  'domain2.com'
2025-04-06 03:25:55 v-add-firewall-chain  'MAIL'
2025-04-06 03:25:55 v-add-firewall-ban  '211.186.220.42' 'MAIL'
2025-04-06 03:28:45 v-stop-service  'dovecot'
2025-04-06 03:28:45 v-stop-service  'exim4'
2025-04-06 03:29:28 v-start-service  'dovecot'
2025-04-06 03:29:28 v-start-service  'exim4'
# v-list-sys-config json | jq -r '.[]|.STATS_SYSTEM'
awstats

but that’s after I used the oh-look-at-that drop-box to enable it…

FWIW, since the previous time I started a thread here, I scrapped the Debian 11 system that had become a little questionable, and started over from scratch last year with Deb12. The system seems a-ok (but what do I know?). The goofy green indicator is the only anomaly I’ve noticed, and it began occurring several Hestia revisions ago.

Exim4 service is stopped but the main process is not.

exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2025-04-06 03:28:45 EDT; 20s ago
[...]
CGroup: /system.slice/exim4.service
             └─3700473 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m

Hestia is still detecting this Exim4 process and it marks the service as running.

I don’t know the reason Exim4 is not stopping, you could check the exim4 logs.

Try to stop it again:

systemctl stop exim4

If it’s still running, kill the process (check that 3700473 is the pid for the current exim4 process) :

kill 3700473

or

kill -9 3700473

Thank you once again. fwiw, ~weirdness w/apparent success:

root@s41:~# systemctl stop exim4

root@s41:~# systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
○ exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2025-04-06 17:50:02 EDT; 4s ago
Duration: 14h 20min 34.678s
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 3701272 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/exim4 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3727848 ExecReload=/etc/init.d/exim4 reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3803216 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/exim4 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 2228)
Memory: 27.3M
CPU: 24.853s
CGroup: /system.slice/exim4.service
└─3802822 /usr/sbin/exim4 -bd -q30m

root@s41:~# kill 3802822
-bash: kill: (3802822) - No such process

root@s41:~# ps -e | grep exim4

root@s41:~# systemctl status exim4 --no-pager -l
○ exim4.service - LSB: exim Mail Transport Agent
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/exim4; generated)
Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2025-04-06 17:50:02 EDT; 1min 0s ago
Duration: 14h 20min 34.678s
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 3701272 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/exim4 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3727848 ExecReload=/etc/init.d/exim4 reload (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3803216 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/exim4 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 24.868s

(zero uptime for iptables always seems to be the norm[?])

1 Like

Yes, it is.

not sure how much diff it might make, but it seems like my mail server is under near-constant bombardment (~100 bogus queries per second) from the same IPaddr show up in /var/log/exim4/rejectlog, then again from a different IPaddr seconds later (with no overlap), usually blacklisted by spamcop/spamhaus but still logged, and ignored by fail2ban) by 1 or more bot armies.

permaban (thank you!) helps some, but it’s ~impossible to keep up…

Welcome to the grand adventure of hosting your own mail server :wink:

Are you using any block list? I recommend to add at least the block list script provided by Hestia (/usr/local/hestia/install/common/firewall/ipset/blacklist.sh) as the source of an ipset. Once done, add a firewall rule to DROP all traffic from that ipset.

I used Hestia webUI /list/firewall/ipset to “Add IP list”, named it “blacklist”, selected it from top of pull-down menu, Saved… .

Not being sure how to do that (I love eamples…), I found past primo instructions for permaban, but thought it would be a good idea to check back w/you before trying to follow instruction. My guess:

# v-add-firewall-rule DROP ipset:blacklist 0 TCP "BLACKLIST"

yes?

Yes, that’s correct.

You can also add it via the Web UI:

So, I did the CLI, seemed fine, but to complete my learning experience I decided to see the Web UI, BUT IT WILL NOT LOAD IN MY BROWSER! NO HESTIACP PAGES WILL! The connection (attempt) times out.

Since my connnections come from a shared cloud exit point (Tor), that’s not totally inexplicable. But it might make this solution unusable for me.

WORSE, I find myself unable to fix it:

root@s41:~# v-add-firewall-rule DROP ipset:blacklist 0 TCP “BLACKLIST”

root@s41:~# v-list-firewall-rule ​2
Error: invalid rule id format :: ​2

root@s41:~# v-list-firewall-rule ​BLACKLIST
Error: invalid rule id format :: ​BLACKLIST

root@s41:~# v-list-firewall-rule ​blacklist
Error: invalid rule id format :: ​blacklist

root@s41:~# v-delete-firewall-rule BLACKLIST
Error: invalid rule id format :: BLACKLIST

root@s41:~# v-delete-firewall-rule blacklist
Error: invalid rule id format :: blacklist

root@s41:~# v-delete-firewall-rule ipset:blacklist
Error: invalid rule id format :: ipset:blacklist

:worried:

Show the output of v-list-firewall

RULE  ACTION  PROTO  PORT            IP               SPND  DATE
----  ------  -----  ----            --               ----  ----
1     ACCEPT  ICMP   0               0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-09-16
2     ACCEPT  TCP    8888            0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-05-25
3     ACCEPT  TCP    143,993         0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-05-25
4     ACCEPT  TCP    110,995         0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-05-25
5     ACCEPT  TCP    25,465,587      0.0.0.0/0        no    2018-11-07
6     ACCEPT  TCP    53              0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-05-25
7     ACCEPT  UDP    53              0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-05-25
8     DROP    TCP    21,12000-12100  0.0.0.0/0        no    2024-12-20
9     ACCEPT  TCP    80,443          0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-09-24
10    ACCEPT  TCP    7777            0.0.0.0/0        no    2014-09-16
11    DROP    TCP    0               ipset:permaban   no    2024-10-30
12    DROP    TCP    0               ipset:blacklist  no    2025-04-06

v-delete-firewall-rule 12