Dovecot Auth Socket Missing

Recognize the symptom

Check socket path, chroot namespace, service ownership and Dovecot startup errors.

Capture timestamps, queue IDs, client/server addresses, and complete log lines before changing configuration.

Immediate triage

postfix status
postfix check
postqueue -p
journalctl -u postfix --since "30 minutes ago"

Investigation path

1. Confirm scope and first occurrence.
2. Identify the relevant Postfix service.
3. Query effective configuration with postconf.
4. Reproduce with a controlled test.
5. Compare against the last known-good state.

Recovery and verification

Make the smallest reversible correction, reload Postfix, repeat the controlled test, and monitor queue age and error rates.

Prevention

Add monitoring, configuration version control, documented ownership, and a tested rollback procedure.