[Server-devel] Attempting to re-install jabber component of XS without re-installing the entire server

[Martin Langhoff]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Daniel Bennett <dantana at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've recently returned to our pilot implementation in Jimeta, Nigeria for a
> follow up teacher training and I found the server in need of quite a bit of
> work.

XS version?

> When attempting:
> service ejabberd status
>
> I was receiving an "unknown host" error as well as:
>
> Ejabberdctl status fails with "RPC failed on node status at servername:
> nodedown"
>
> I followed the re-install instructions from
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ejabberd_Configuration#Troubleshooting

The info on that page is _so bad_ as to be dangerous. I am frankly
tempted to delete it.

> Try the following to fix ejabberd, basically reinstall it
>
>  /etc/init.d/ejabberd stop
>
>  killall epmd
>  rm -rf /var/lib/ejabberd
>  rpm -e --nodeps ejabberd
>  yum install ejabberd
>  Fix config files -- /etc/ejabberd/ejabberd.cfg
>  Make sure you can ping your fully qualified domain name
>    --- BryanWB

Several things are bogus there. Instead

1 - Make sure you can ping your fully qualified domain name. Not kidding, see

   # this must return "schoolserver.<your-chosen-name-here>"
   $ hostname -f
   schoolserver.test.xs.laptop.org

   # this must work, and ping 172.18.0.1 successfully
    ping `hostname -f`

2 - Clear out the ejabberd database, and the erlang cookie
    service ejabberd stop
    find /var/lib/ejabberd -type f | xargs --no-run-if-empty rm

3 - Check that the domain name makes sense. See the _actual_ config
file, which is /etc/ejabberd-xs.conf -- but don't edit it! If the
domain is wrong, run the domain_config script to fix it. If you want
to make other edits, you'll want to edit /etc/ejabberd-xs.conf.in and
then run domain_config

4 - Once you're happy w #3, start ejabberd
    service ejabberd start

5 - You'll need to re-do the manual ejabberd configuration of the
'admin' account and the 'Online' group.

NOTE NOTE NOTE: this is only relevant for XS 5.x and earlier. On
XS-0.6 all the above stuff can be skipped, and just running
domain_config fixes any ejabberd issue (cookie, mismatched domain)
automagically, sets up the Online group and walks your dog.

hth,



m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
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