How to dedicate a separate SOGo instance for ActiveSync

Installation

A second SOGo instance (sharing almost everything with the primary SOGo instance) can be deployed and dedicated for ActiveSync clients. As you many know, ActiveSync clients tend to aggressively hold on to their connections; that behavior may starve web interface clients. Setting up a second instance ensures web interface clients get their fair share of connections.

Below are the steps to create a second SOGo instance, which has exactly the same configuration as the primary one, except it listens on a different TCP port (30000 instead of 20000); Apache will forward ActiveSync requests to port 30000 while regular web interface clients will continue to be forwarded to port 20000.

RedHat 7

1. Add a new system user (sogoeas) dedicated for the second instance:

   useradd -d /var/lib/sogoeas -g sogo -c "SOGo EAS daemon" \
   -s /usr/sbin/nologin -r sogoeas

2. Create the home GNUstep directory for the sogoeas user:

   mkdir -p /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults

3. Create a /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/sogod.plist file, containing this:

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   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//GNUstep//DTD plist 0.9//EN" "http://www.gnustep.org/plist-0_9.xml"> <plist version="0.9"> <dict> <key>NSGlobalDomain</key> <dict> </dict> <key>sogod</key> <dict> <key>WOPort</key> <string>30000</string> </dict> </dict> </plist>

4. Ensure a correct ownership of /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/sogod.plist:

   chown -R sogoeas:sogo /var/lib/sogoeas

5. Create a systemd service file - /usr/lib/systemd/system/sogod-eas.service - for the second SOGo instance, containing this:

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   [Unit] Description=SOGo is a groupware server (EAS) After=network.target After=mariadb.service [Service] EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/sogo Type=forking ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sogod -WOWorkersCount 120 -WOPidFile /var/run/sogo/sogo-eas.pid -WOLogFile /var/log/sogo/sogo-eas.log PIDFile=/var/run/sogo/sogo-eas.pid User=sogoeas [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

6. Make the sogoeas user able to read/write SOGo data:

   chmod 0640 /etc/sogo/sogo.conf
   chmod 0775 /var/run/sogo/ /var/lib/sogo/
   chmod 0770 /var/log/sogo/

7. Ensure that /var/run/sogo keeps its permissions at reboot; change this line in /etc/tmpfiles.d/sogo.conf:

   d /var/run/sogo 0755 sogo sogo

   to:

   d /var/run/sogo 0775 sogo sogo

8. Modify your apache proxy configuration so that /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync points to the secondary SOGo instance; change this line in /etc/httpd/conf.d/SOGo.conf:

   ProxyPass /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
   http://127.0.0.1:20000/SOGo/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
   retry=60 connectiontimeout=5 timeout=700

   to:

   ProxyPass /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
   http://127.0.0.1:30000/SOGo/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
   retry=60 connectiontimeout=5 timeout=700

   You may also want to adjust the MaxRequestWorkers directive in Apache to accomodate the extra connections.

9. Start the secondary SOGo instance and restart Apache:

   service sogod-eas start
   service httpd restart

Debian 8 and Debian 9

1. Add a new system user (sogoeas) dedicated for the second instance:

   useradd -d /var/lib/sogoeas -g sogo -c "SOGo EAS daemon" \
   -s /usr/sbin/nologin -r sogoeas

2. Create the home GNUstep directory for the sogoeas user:

   mkdir -p /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults

3. On Debian 8, create a /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/.GNUstepDefaults file, containing this:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//GNUstep//DTD plist 0.9//EN" "http://www.gnustep.org/plist-0_9.xml">
   <plist version="0.9">
   <dict>
      <key>NSGlobalDomain</key>
      <dict>
      </dict>
      <key>sogod</key>
      <dict>
      <key>WOPort</key>
      <string>30000</string>
      </dict>
   </dict>
   </plist>

4. On Debian 9, create a /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/sogod.plist file, containing this:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//GNUstep//DTD plist 0.9//EN" "http://www.gnustep.org/plist-0_9.xml">
   <plist version="0.9">
   <dict>
      <key>WOPort</key>
      <string>30000</string>
   </dict>
   </plist>

5. Ensure a correct ownership of /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/.GNUstepDefaults or /var/lib/sogoeas/GNUstep/Defaults/sogod.plist:

   chown -R sogoeas:sogo /var/lib/sogoeas

6. Create a service file /etc/init.d/sogo-eas for the second SOGo instance, containing this:

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   #!/bin/bash ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: sogo-eas # Required-Start: $remote_fs $network # Required-Stop: $remote_fs $network # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6 # Short-Description: SOGo-EAS server ### END INIT INFO # SOGo init script for Debian GNU/Linux # # Copyright (C) 2007-2019 Inverse inc. # # This file is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify # it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by # the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) # any later version. # # This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the # GNU General Public License for more details. # # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License # along with this program; see the file COPYING. If not, write to # the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, # Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin NAME=sogo EASNAME=sogo-eas DAEMON=/usr/sbin/sogod DESC="SOGo-EAS" USER=sogo EASUSER=sogoeas PREFORK=120 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME/$EASNAME.pid LOGFILE=/var/log/$NAME/$EASNAME.log if [ -f /etc/default/$NAME ]; then . /etc/default/$NAME fi . /lib/lsb/init-functions if [ ! -x $DAEMON ]; then log_failure_msg "$DAEMON is not executable." exit 1 fi set -e . /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh DAEMON_OPTS="-WOWorkersCount $PREFORK -WOPidFile $PIDFILE -WOLogFile $LOGFILE" case "$1" in start) log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$EASNAME" # Enforce directory existence and permissions install -o $USER -g $USER -m 775 -d /var/run/$NAME install -o $USER -g $USER -m 770 -d /var/spool/$NAME install -o $USER -g $USER -m 770 -d /var/log/$NAME if ! start-stop-daemon -c $EASUSER --quiet --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS then log_progress_msg "already running" fi log_end_msg 0 ;; stop) log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$EASNAME" start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PIDFILE --retry=TERM/20/KILL/5 --oknodo log_end_msg 0 ;; restart|force-reload) log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$EASNAME" start-stop-daemon --stop --pidfile $PIDFILE --retry=TERM/20/KILL/5 --oknodo # Ensure directory's existence and permissions install -o $USER -g $USER -m 775 -d /var/run/$NAME install -o $USER -g $USER -m 770 -d /var/spool/$NAME install -o $USER -g $USER -m 770 -d /var/log/$NAME start-stop-daemon -c $EASUSER --quiet --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS log_end_msg 0 ;; status) status_of_proc -p $PIDFILE "$DAEMON" $EASNAME && exit 0 || exit $? ;; *) echo "Usage: $EASNAME {start|stop|restart|status}" >&2 exit 1 ;; esac exit 0

7. Make the service active and started at boot:

   chown root:root /etc/init.d/sogo-eas
   chmod 0755 /etc/init.d/sogo-eas
   systemctl enable sogo-eas

8. Make the sogoeas user able to read/write SOGo data:

   chmod 0640 /etc/sogo/sogo.conf
   chmod 0775 /var/run/sogo/ /var/lib/sogo/
   chmod 0770 /var/log/sogo/

9. Modify your apache proxy configuration so that /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync points to the secondary SOGo instance; change this line in /etc/httpd/conf.d/SOGo.conf:

   ProxyPass /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
      http://127.0.0.1:20000/SOGo/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
      retry=60 connectiontimeout=5 timeout=700

   to:

   ProxyPass /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
      http://127.0.0.1:30000/SOGo/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync \
      retry=60 connectiontimeout=5 timeout=700

   You may also want to adjust the MaxRequestWorkers directive in Apache to accomodate the extra connections.

10. Start the secondary SOGo instance and restart Apache:

    service sogod-eas start
    service httpd restart