I am having problems with dovecot on a debian 9 system running webmin/virtualmin.
After an update, it seems that the renewal of a domain SSL certificate caused at least one client domain to use the wrong domain ssl certificate for email...the all my problems started.
systemctl status dovecot.service returns...
May 08 13:42:31 server1.domain.com.au doveadm[6252]: Fatal: Dovecot is not running (read from /var/run/dovecot/master.pid)
May 08 13:42:31 server1.domain.com.au systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=75
May 08 13:42:31 server1.domain.com.au systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Unit entered failed state.
May 08 13:42:31 server1.domain.com.au systemd[1]: dovecot.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
I have tried to restart but i get errors.
So i did the following ps aux | grep dovecot
dovenull 2313 0.0 0.1 21760 5832 ? S 14:13 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
secreta+ 2315 0.0 0.0 23876 3868 ? S 14:13 0:00 dovecot/imap
dovenull 4936 0.0 0.1 21760 5636 ? S 14:51 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
dovenull 4938 0.0 0.1 21760 5712 ? S 14:51 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
members+ 4952 0.0 0.1 23880 4476 ? S 14:51 0:00 dovecot/imap
adamjed+ 4953 0.0 0.1 23868 4572 ? S 14:51 0:00 dovecot/imap
dovenull 5877 0.0 0.1 21748 5968 ? S 14:53 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
contact+ 6029 0.0 0.0 23536 3920 ? S 14:53 0:00 dovecot/imap
root 6253 0.0 0.0 18132 2548 ? Ss 13:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/dovecot
dovecot 6254 0.0 0.0 9492 944 ? S 13:42 0:00 dovecot/anvil
root 6255 0.0 0.0 9624 2324 ? S 13:42 0:00 dovecot/log
root 6257 0.0 0.3 29768 12660 ? S 13:42 0:00 dovecot/config
liaison+ 8815 0.0 0.1 23916 4380 ? S 13:44 0:00 dovecot/imap
preside+ 10156 0.0 0.0 23896 3884 ? S 14:21 0:00 dovecot/imap
dovenull 13538 0.0 0.1 21748 5636 ? S 14:55 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
ajecrea+ 13549 0.0 0.1 23892 4468 ? S 14:55 0:00 dovecot/imap
preside+ 14016 0.0 0.1 24488 4960 ? S 14:25 0:00 dovecot/imap
dovecot 15172 0.0 0.0 20520 2788 ? S 14:57 0:00 dovecot/auth
root 19500 0.0 0.0 4276 716 ? S 15:00 0:00 sh -c (ps aux | grep dovecot) 2>&1
root 19501 0.0 0.0 4276 88 ? S 15:00 0:00 sh -c (ps aux | grep dovecot) 2>&1
root 19503 0.0 0.0 11104 928 ? S 15:00 0:00 grep dovecot
dovenull 20675 0.0 0.1 21748 5624 ? S 14:32 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
contact+ 20686 0.0 0.1 23948 4516 ? S 14:32 0:00 dovecot/imap
dovenull 23780 0.0 0.1 21748 5636 ? S 14:34 0:00 dovecot/imap-login
contact+ 23782 0.0 0.1 24592 5160 ? S 14:34 0:00 dovecot/imap
After forcing dovecot to completely shutdown i then run systemctl restart dovecot
systemctl status dovecot returns the following after a successful dovecot restart
# ps aux | grep dovecot
root 31916 0.0 0.0 18000 2520 ? Ss 15:39 0:00 /usr/sbin/dovecot
dovecot 31917 0.0 0.0 9492 988 ? S 15:39 0:00 dovecot/anvil
root 31918 0.0 0.0 9624 2284 ? S 15:39 0:00 dovecot/log
root 31921 0.0 0.1 25176 7136 ? S 15:39 0:00 dovecot/config
dovecot 32001 0.0 0.0 20520 2524 ? S 15:39 0:00 dovecot/auth
root 32002 0.0 0.0 33204 3768 ? S 15:39 0:00 dovecot/auth -w
root 32166 0.0 0.0 4276 748 ? S 15:40 0:00 sh -c (ps aux | grep dovecot) 2>&1
root 32167 0.0 0.0 4276 88 ? S 15:40 0:00 sh -c (ps aux | grep dovecot) 2>&1
root 32169 0.0 0.0 11104 920 ? S 15:40 0:00 grep dovecot
However, after users try to reconnect their email client apps with my mail server, dovecot eventually stops working again (did this after about 30 mins last time).
I am now at a mental blank and need help.