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KB00062301 Recovering from Mailtraq Startup Problems following a system crash

** Note: This information refers to Mailtraq version 1 only **

Mailtraq stores all it's critical configuration settings in a single file in the configuration directory of the database called "system". Every time a setting in Mailtraq is updated (even a timestamp for an event taking place) the system file becomes out of date and needs to be re-written to disk. As a result, Mailtraq does a lot of "disk-writes" for this file.

On the one hand, if Mailtraq is unexpectedly shut down for some reason, the system file is almost certainly valid and up-to-date. However, this does cause a problem for machine power-outs and other sudden operating system failures. Should any of these happen whilst Mailtraq is performing this write, the file can easily become corrupted. Corruption is not obvious, as Mailtraq cannot always determine that the file is faulty. However, it will almost certainly prevent Mailtraq from loading. Either you will see an error message, or Mailtraq will simply fail to startup.

Mailtraq addresses this problem by creating numerous backups of the file in the same directory. Every time the structure of the file changes (for example, during an upgrade) a backup is made for that version. Further, every time the system file is successfully loaded, it is written back to disk as "system.ok". Where possible, Mailtraq will correct the problem itself. However, this is not always possible and under these circumstances it is necessary to manually repair the configuration. Should the system file become corrupt, here are the steps you should take to repair it :-

  1. First (if it is running) shut down Mailtraq
  2. Create the directory database\cfgbackup
  3. Copy the contents of every file and subdirectory in database\configuration to database\backup
  4. Enter the database\configuration directory and copy "system.ok" over "system"
  5. Restart Mailtraq
  6. If that fails, return to the database\configuration directory and find the latest available "system.xxxx" (where xxxx is a build number) and copy this over "system"
  7. Restart Mailtraq
If this does not solve the problem then contact your reseller or consultant for further technical support.

Keywords: kb troubleshooting
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