Open-XChange serious installation issues

[conanman]

hi, I have been running a open-xchange server on a different domain for some years now with no worries so I decide to make a 2nd server

For this new server I have been working on a open-xchange installation on CentOS 6.5 for some days and I have an issue that is a show stopper:

Originally I ran (at the start of the install)

/opt/open-xchange/sbin/oxinstaller --no-license \
--servername=oxserver --configdb-pass=********** \
--master-pass=********** --ajp-bind-port=localhost –-servermemory 512

and the prompt replied

Error: Connection refused to host: localhost; nested exception is:
        java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused

I was in a panic but I changed /etc/hosts to this (where 12.34.56.78 is the external IP)

127.0.0.1  localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
12.34.56.78  thissvr.domain.com thissvr
::1        localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

and then the oxinstaller worked. This confused me but I persevered

BUT

when I got right to the end of the install I did

/opt/open-xchange/sbin/registerserver -n oxserver -A oxadminmaster -P **********

It failed utterly: I forget the exact error (read: did not write it down) but I had a hunch so when it refused to register, so I reverted the /etc/hosts back to this (in desperation)

127.0.0.1       localhost localhost.localdomain
12.34.56.78  thissvr
::1             localhost6 ocalhost6.localdomain6

then it let me pass

I continued the dovecot the postfix install correctly got the apache working (it shows the right OX website) I also created a test user and made his maildir and changed permissions and updated the alias file etc etc

however when I got to

/opt/open-xchange/sbin/createuser -c 1 -A oxadmin -P ********** -u test.user \
  -d "Test User" -g Test -s User -p tmppass -e test.user@domain.com \
  --imaplogin tuser --imapserver 127.0.0.1:993 --smtpserver 127.0.0.1

it bombs

user in context 1 could not be created:
Error: Connection refused to host: localhost; nested exception is:
        java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused

it now fails no matter what I do to /etc/hosts

I think I may have messed up the oxinstaller because I re-ran it a few times (maybe a few times too many) it no longer reports *any* servermemory and it incorrectly (compared to my other server) shows the wrong domains name all the way along and will not accept changes

EG: oxinstaller --help

--servername            |                                               |
--imapserver            | thissvr.domain.local                        |
--smtpserver            | thissvr.domain.local                        |
--mail-login-src        | login                                         | login mail name
--mail-server-src       | user                                          | user global
--transport-server-src  | user                                          | user global
--configdb-user         | openexchange                                  |
--configdb-pass         |                                               |
--configdb-readhost     | localhost                                     |
--configdb-writehost    | localhost                                     |
--configdb-dbname       | configdb                                      |
--servermemory          |                                               |
--clt-memory            | 50                                            |
--configdb-readport     | 3306                                          |
--configdb-writeport    | 3306                                          |
--tmpdir-path           | /var/spool/open-xchange/uploads               |
--master-pass           |                                               |
--master-user           | oxadminmaster                                 |
--jkroute               | APP1                                          |
--object-link-hostname  | thissvr.domain.local                        |
--extras-link           | http://thissvr.domain.local/                |
--maxSession            | 0                                             |
--sessionDefLifeTime    | 3600000                                       |
--disableauth           |                                               |
--no-license            |                                               |
--add-license           |                                               |
--name-of-oxcluster     | thissvr.domain.local                        |
--network-listener-host | localhost                                     |
--ajp-bind-port         |                                               |

[conanman]

I figured this out and it's very hard to deduce the cause, but I did.

The Error

user in context 1 could not be created:
Error: Connection refused to host: localhost; nested exception is:
        java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused

Happened because mysql didn't have the relevant permissions. It was nothing to do with Java. The error is java simply repeating the mysql error (but in the second person, so it confuses)- so the QuickFix solution is to update the mysql permissions (log into mysql command line manually using root) like this

MYSQL> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON configdb.* TO openexchange@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '**********' WITH GRANT OPTION;

But that is not all, the permissions were mis-aligned because

/opt/open-xchange/sbin/registerdatabase

was run while /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname were incorrect (READ: not set yet). This was why it worked when I badly wrecked /etc/hosts - it ran because it had permissions pertaining to those nonsense default settings . The simple fact is that registerdatabase READS the information from these two sources (/etc/hosts and /etc/hostname - via "hostname -f") then RELIES on their feedback declarations for the hard settings used whole permissions thing to work. i.e. if you don't make damn sure /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname are right BEFORE you start the whole ox installation you're doomed: simply because the ORIGIN machine name is hard-set wrong

remedy? a) config of /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname should be explicit in the pre-requisites and maybe even good examples in the ox installer guides and b) in the mean time here is an excellent explanation of how to set /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts for your flavour of Linux and do this BEFORE you start any ox installation