Email portlet 9.0.4 shows error message in application.log

Question

Hi,
I deployed the email portlet 9.0.4 on 10g portal. It works for some time but since an unknown point in time it shows the following in the portlet area: "Failed to get the ImapClient instance, either you are not authenticated to use the service or session is lost. Logout from portal and login again. ".
And in the application.log I found the following:
04/01/05 15:51:39 email: [instance=25024_EMAIL_PORTLET_71546261, id=94025627009,3] ERROR: oracle.portal.integration.email.imap.ImapException: Failed to get the ImapClient instance, either you are not authenticated to use the service or session is lost. Logout from portal and login again.
oracle.portal.integration.email.imap.ImapException: Failed to get the ImapClient instance, either you are not authenticated to use the service or session is lost. Logout from portal and login again.
at oracle.portal.integration.email.impl.ImapClient.getInstance(Unknown Source)
at htdocs.message__header._jspService(_message__header.java:65)
at com.orionserver[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].http.OrionHttpJspPage.service(OrionHttpJspPage.java:56)
at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspPageTable.service(JspPageTable.java:347)
at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspServlet.internalService(JspServlet.java:509)
at oracle.jsp.runtimev2.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:413)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.invoke(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:765)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.forwardInternal(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:317)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.forward(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:251)
at oracle.portal.provider.v2.render.http.AbstractResourceRenderer.renderBody(Unknown Source)
at oracle.portal.provider.v2.render.RenderManager.render(Unknown Source)
at oracle.portal.provider.v2.DefaultPortletInstance.render(Unknown Source)
at oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.soapV1.ProviderAdapter.showPortlet(Unknown Source)
at oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.soapV1.ProviderAdapter.handleHttp(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor3.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
at oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.SOAPServlet.doHTTPCall(Unknown Source)
at oracle.webdb.provider.v2.adapter.SOAPServlet.service(Unknown Source)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.invoke(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:765)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.ServletRequestDispatcher.forwardInternal(ServletRequestDispatcher.java:317)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.HttpRequestHandler.processRequest(HttpRequestHandler.java:790)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.AJPRequestHandler.run(AJPRequestHandler.java:208)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].server.http.AJPRequestHandler.run(AJPRequestHandler.java:125)
at com.evermind[Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE 10g (9.0.4.0.0)].util.ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor$MyWorker.run(ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor.java:192)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
04/01/05 15:51:46 email: [instance=(null), id=(null)] ERROR: Request has exceeded its warning timeout Time[elapsed=1780171ms. Warning timeout=20000ms.] Request[id=(null) providerId=71546261 portletId=(null) portletName=(null) portletInstance=(null) user=PORTAL] Thread[ name=AJPRequestHandler-ApplicationServerThread-30 priority=5 alive=true interrupted=false groupName=main]
04/01/05 15:51:48 email: [instance=(null), id=(null)] ERROR: Request has exceeded its warning timeout Time[elapsed=180699ms. Warning timeout=20000ms.] Request[id=(null) providerId=71546261 portletId=(null) portletName=(null) portletInstance=(null) user=PORTAL] Thread[ name=AJPRequestHandler-ApplicationServerThread-35 priority=5 alive=true interrupted=false groupName=main]
04/01/05 15:51:50 email: [instance=(null), id=(null)] ERROR: Request has exceeded its warning timeout Time[elapsed=420954ms. Warning timeout=20000ms.] Request[id=(null) providerId=71546261 portletId=(null) portletName=(null) portletInstance=(null) user=PORTAL] Thread[ name=AJPRequestHandler-ApplicationServerThread-41 priority=5 alive=true interrupted=false groupName=main]
04/01/05 15:51:52 email: [instance=(null), id=(null)] ERROR: Request has exceeded its warning timeout Time[elapsed=100902ms. Warning timeout=20000ms.] Request[id=(null) providerId=71546261 portletId=(null) portletName=(null) portletInstance=(null) user=PORTAL] Thread[ name=AJPRequestHandler-ApplicationServerThread-48 priority=5 alive=true interrupted=false groupName=main]
The message "ERROR: Request has exceeded its warning timeout" repeats continually and frequently. The problem stops occuring after I restart the OC4J, but it occurs again after some time. Anybody encounter the same and has solution to it?
Thanks.

Answer 1

I found that Email portlet create a new SMTP connection to the SMTP server every time initSession is called(constructor of class Smtp). These increasing number of SMTP connection finally hit the limit of the SMTP server, leading to incomplete execution of initSession, which cause the problem.
(call path: MailProviderInstance.initSession() -> MailAuthenticationModule.authenticate() -> Smtp())
One thing to notice is that, when I test it no mail is to be sent. There should not be any open SMTP connection. Thus I wonder if it is a mistake in the program code that makes these unnecesssary SMTP connections.
If so, would there be a new release of email portlet available?