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Slow Downloading From Journal Mailbox When EWSProvider Safe Mode is Triggered

Author: Timothy Parker Updated

Overview

You may experience slow downloading from the journal mailbox when EWSProvider Safe Mode is triggered due to exceeding file thresholds in the Core\Pickup or Core\Queue folders.

This article shares general information about identifying this issue, its workaround, and recommended troubleshooting questions.

 

Identifying the Issue

EWSProvider triggers Safe Mode when the DSScheduler detects that the file thresholds of the Core\Pickup or Core\Queue folders are exceeded. In environments with high mail flow where the EWS batch size is large (for example, EWSNumbItems is set to 100), this issue can cause an unnecessary delay in downloading emails from the journal mailbox.

Here is a debug logging example:

2015-02-11,11:34:20,414,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","DSScheduler","Check resources availability" 
2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","warning","DSScheduler","Warning: AllowFolderProcessing - max queue size exceeded, skipping processing" 
2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","warning","DSScheduler","Warning: processing shall be stopped" 
2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","warning","EWSProvider","warning: Outer failed with [MArc.Exceptions.DSException: QueueFull ; at MArc.DS.DSScheduler.GetNewStream() ; at MArc.DS.DSScheduler.GetNewStream(Int32 size) ; at MArc.DS.EWSProvider.Process(IStreamProvider streamProvider)]. Enabling safe mode and rollbacking." 
2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Statistics Updated." 2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Safe Mode detected, processing individual items" 
2015-02-11,11:34:20,430,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Processing...Items" 2015-02-11,11:34:40,788,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Processing...SyncItems False" 
2015-02-11,11:34:40,788,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Found Items: 1" 2015-02-11,11:35:01,832,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","GetItems..OK" 
2015-02-11,11:35:01,848,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Running in safe mode. Iteration [0]." ... 
2015-02-11,12:20:55,513,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Safe Mode detected, processing individual items" 
2015-02-11,12:20:55,513,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Processing...Items" 
2015-02-11,12:21:17,993,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Processing...SyncItems False" 
2015-02-11,12:21:17,993,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Found Items: 1" 
2015-02-11,12:21:18,102,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","GetItems..OK" 
2015-02-11,12:21:18,117,1,"#00000600","#00000023","info ","EWSProvider","Running in safe mode exceeded batch size, resuming normal operation. Iteration [0], Resetted Batch Size [100]."

The above log entries indicate the precise reason why EWSProvider went into the Safe Mode. In this case, this mode runs until it reaches the batch's end (100 in this example) and continues downloading the emails extremely slowly for around 45 minutes.

 

Workaround

Follow these steps to increase the file-threshold for the Core\Pickup and Core\Queue folders to a higher number (for example, 10000): 

  1. Open the Windows Services console by following these steps.
    • Method 1:
      1. Click on the Search icon (search_icon.png) in your Windows Task Bar. 
      2. Type cmd and press Enter.
      3. Type services.msc in the Command Prompt pop-up window and press Enter.
    • Method 2:
      1. Right-click on My Computer.
      2. Click Manage as an administrator.
      3. Click Services and Applications at the bottom of the left pane.
      4. Click Services on the middle pane.

  2. Stop all GFI Archiver services.
  3. Navigate to ..\Program Files\GFI\Archiver\Core\Data.
  4. Make a backup of the product.config file.
  5. Open the product.config file in your preferred text editor.
  6. Within the confines of <appsettings> add the following key on an individual line: <add key="MaxQueueSize" value="10000" />
  7. Save the edited file.
  8. Restart all GFI Archiver services.

 

Recommended Troubleshooting Questions

Note: The following questions generally investigate the environment and are not the only items that can cause a slowdown in processing. The central question to troubleshoot this issue must always be: What is outside the norm in the current GFI Archiver environment?

The core of this issue is related to the speed of processing emails through the queue folders that have many variables. Refer to the following questions to investigate the most common environment variables that can trigger the Safe Mode:  

  • Is the company in question very large, and the default limit is not high enough for general email processing?
  • Is real-time scanning enabled on the A/V? If so, has the GFI Archiver folder been excluded?
  • Are there slowdowns when writing information to the GFI Archiver databases? Check SQL.
  • Is there sufficient disk space available on the GFI Archiver installation drive (where the Core\Pickup and Core\Queue folders are located)?
  • Is Folder Structure Retrieval (FSR) enabled? If so, verify if the Safe Mode is being enabled due to corrupt emails or emails with special characters.

    Note: Enabling FSR can cause a further delay as Safe Mode identifies the corrupt emails. For more details about how the Safe Mode detects and bypasses corrupt emails or emails with special characters, refer to this article: UMPolling Causes Emails in the Same Folder to be Processed Over and Over Again