* Possible causes of using space on the mail server are: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * This article has been updated Thu Jul 10 16:00:18 EDT 2003 the original steps are below the following updated information: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The Selfcare system (http://selfcare.myacc.net) does not look at the Personal Web disk usage. It only looks at the Email disk usage. The only way you can know your Web space disk usage is if your FTP client program can tell you, or if you contact our support to check your Web space disk usage for you. Recently (see updated date above), our Disk Quota system has an email notification system that we just activated. So several of our users are getting an email message about disk quota that they are not familiar with. We did our best to not have it be a "Techy" type of email, but the inherent "Techy" comes with any discussion about computer hard disk storage. Talking about how much space you have total, and how much you have used, and how much you have free, always ends up being a discussion about "Where is this disk space?", "Why is this disk space? or What is this disk space used for?", "and Why do I care?", "and What should I do about it?". Believe it or not you usually have to deal with the same issues on your home or office computer. If you fill up your hard disk(s) then you are suddenly out of disk space. Well it is the same thing here on our server. And each user account has limits. (There is more on this below). The current server has the following locations, which you will see in Quota emails that you may receive, where you could be over quota. In general SDB1 is Disk (Partition) which handles user Mailboxes. In general SDB2 is Disk (Partition) which handles user Personal Web Space usage. The only time there could be a variance from that is IF a user were to use Webmail and store saved messages in folders from within Webmail. Those folders and stored messages would also occupy space on /dev/sdb2 (SDB2). So think of WEB SITE and WEBMAIL as both occupying your space on your HOME directory (SDB2). SDB1 only contains your incoming email that you haven't downloaded/deleted yet. We apologize for this stuff ... the ideas wasn't to get into a training thing on Unix/Linux disk partitions and such, but in order to answer your questions it seems the only way to do this. User incoming mail all goes to one disk partition. User HOME directories (where web and Webmail files are kept) is on another. Exactly like this: SDB1 = MAIL SDB2 = HOME That is why we made those email bulletins include something like "homedir (web) (/dev/sdb2)". Unfortunately SelfCare doesn't tell us that much. Selfcare only tells about Email disk storage usage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * This article has been updated Thu Jul 10 16:00:18 EDT 2003, this is the end of that update. The original article starts now. Please read it also if you have time. We hope this all helpful to you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.) Email left on the server - check for an email setting to "Leave mail/messages on the server". Typically this is an Advanced Tab in the settings for an email account. 2.) Using our Webmail service and storing messages in FOLDERS on there. Webmail uses IMAP protocol which stores everything on the server. Which is not a good idea. But then again Webmail is a convenience web browser based service really intended for those who travel ... but cannot use "Outlook", "Outlook Express", (or similar email program) to read/write email. You can see your actual Disk Quota usage by logging on to: selfcare.myacc.net. Call our support at 954-344-7100 if you need help in doing that. Only 2 things use space on the server (the same two things listed above, but let me explain better. It is often confused, the exact relationship between Outlook/Outlook Express and the Email Storage on the Mail Server itself. It is not a hard link. What I mean is that INBOX in Outlook does not = INBOX on the mail server. Email is a "Session" based service. Outlook LOGS ON to the POP3 (Protocol) SERVER on pop3.myacc.net with your "username" and "password" and then requests a list of messages. Outlook keeps track of what it already has and only actually downloads NEW messages. Optionally Outlook deletes all of the messages it has downloaded. (assuming "Leave on Server" is not enabled). Then it SIGNS OFF the server and returns you to your life already in progress ;-) This is the way it should be. The INBOX you see is just what you downloaded off the server, and it is on your Local Hard Disk Drive. Not on the Server. If you have a setting to Periodically "Check Mail" this same Session will be repeated every 10 or 15 minutes (or whatever you configure [should be 10 minutes of greater]). Try this. Unplug your cable modem ... and try to read messages in your INBOX in Outlook. You can still read them. Why? You can't talk to the server with no modem right? Because that INBOX is on your local machine in Outlook. It was designed this way because people often Dialed-Up to the Internet with a modem ... downloaded all their email and then disconnected. They could read and reply to emails ... and they would be Queued up for later transmission when they were connected again by modem. Mail comes in continously all day and night for users with accounts on the Mail Server. When email comes in for a user it is looked up in the Authentication System and is determined to be for LOCAL delivery. Like a local Post Office. Basically it is stuffed into your P.O. BOX on the Mail Server for you to pick up later at your convenience. Your P.O. BOX is a concept I am using to explain this system. In reality it is a file called "The Mail Spool". They use the word Spool because it works like a spool of thread or a spool of wire. New mail is just simply added to the end of a file named your username. You basically pull it off of the top (or the middle of the spool) and we keep adding to the end (our outside of the spool). That PO BOX or File lives in a folder or directory called: /var/spool/mail (not surprisingly) So you have the 2 things (again) that can take up space on the server: 1.) /var/spool/mail/ (where username is 1st part of your email address). Aka "The Spool" or "P.O. Box". It is also sometimes called the INBOX ... but that tends to get confused with Outlook's INBOX. Again they are not the same. 2.) Webmail Folders - where a user has saved messages in Folder via the Webmail system. ... If the SMTP "Mail Server" gets notified by the "Disk Quota" system that you have reached your quota, while it is receiving inbound email ... it will reject that email and the error should get returned back to the Senders Outlook (or whatever program). The email might BOUNCE (or be returned) with a Postmaster message that it is Undeliverable because the mailbox is Over Quota. --- Alan Spicer (aspicer@myacc.net) Systems and Network Administration