CF2021 CFMAIL Error after update 21

Matt, I think there's a different solution to this new problem you raise (this seeming need to "clear the felix cache" more often than just after a cf update). And I don't think the solution is for you to "monitor anything", thankfully: we just need to fix the root cause problem. 🙂 And I have an educated guess of what it is. This will take a couple of minutes to read, Please bear with me, as I offer some diagnostics which will help you (and other readers) even if my proposed solution might prove not to work for you.

A key to me is that you said the problem started after a CF restart. My bet is that we'll find that for you EACH CF RESTART is causing package updates (which then leads to that need of clearing the felix-cache). SHOULD CF be updating packages on each CF restart? No. Is there a reason it's happening? Yes, there will be. How can you find and resolve it? Let me give it a shot.

1) First, we'll want to look at the coldfusion-out.log (in the logs folder for the cf instance in question, which is cfusion by default, but if you have more than one instance look for a sibling folder with that name). As you may know, that file tracks many lines of info about each CF restart. 

It ALSO tracks still MORE detail whenever CF updates happen. Specifically, in the first startup AFTER such an update the next restart should show lines indicating "uninstalling the package", naming the ones to be updated, and then for each package also it names then the specific jars for the package being uninstalledat that time. (To be clear, we don't then see any line in the log saying "updating" or "installing".) That should ONLY happen when there have been package updates--whether per a CF update or by manually updating some particular package in the admin or via cfpm.

But before looking at the log, it's important to note also that on EVERY restart, we DO see lines for each package you have installed, indicating that it was started, as in "package xxxxx was started".

I suspect that in your case, you may find that this "uninstalling" of packages is happening on each restart, when it should not. And I have found that when this happens, there's a reason and a solution. More on that in a moment. Let's confirm if things are as I suspect. 

2) So let's now look at that coldfusion-out.log of yours. Go to the bottom and search up for the phrase "coldfusion started". That's shown on each restart, and it's preceded by dozens of lines about CF starting up. Within those, for EACH of your restarts, you will again see many  saying each of your packages was "started".

But do you also see with that last restart lines saying also '"uninstalling the package"? Then if you look at each preceding restart (look for that "coldfusion started"), do you see again "uninstalling the package" lines? You SHOULD see them there for the date you did the cf update (which is tracked in the name and date of the log in the hf-updates folder for that update). And you WOULD see them there if anyone were to update some particular package via the admin or cfpm.

But if you find these "uninstalling the package" lines on EVERY cf restart, that's indeed the problem to resolve.

3) Assuming you confirm that issue, let's next check a couple more things:

a) look at your CF admin (or the CF Admin for the instance in quesiton, if you have more than one). Go to the "package manager" page, and see its available "settings"  tab offered at the top of that page. In there, what is the value for the "packages url"? And for the "default packages url"?

b) Next, if YOU are the one who does the CF updates, do you do them from within the CF Admin or via the command line?

c) And if you do it from the command line, do you also perform the "manual offline steps" (in the update technote) of downloading and extracting the zip offered there? Where do you extract it to?

Often, what is happening is that someone (in a past update) changed that packagesurl (whether in the CF admin or by editing the neo_updates.xml file, as suggested in the technote).  But if you do a later update and should point to a NEW extracted zip, instead CF thinks it should go back to the OLD one...and you end up with it thinking it needs to update packages, when it shouldn't.  And that happens on each restart. 

Could I have just started with point 3? Sure. But then we'd need to await your answer, and THEN I'd have discussed points 1 and 2. I offer all this to help folks in this situation to know better WHERE to look, in order to diagnose the problem rather than just "pop a pill". Often people are told to do that, or are not given complete info.

(Indeed, I would argue that the technote offers incomplete info--because if one does that manual offline update for one update but later gets CF to be able to talk to the internet, they will do a later update that way...but the CF update mechanism will download the new files and put them into the cf bundles folder...but this pointer to the extracted zip from the earlier update will keep the update mechanism from USING those newly updated bundles files...leading to your error.)

Well, it's one common cause. Again, I didn't want to start with that. I wanted to have you assess the coldfusion-out.log to confirm first if WHAT I suspect is happening shows to be happening (packages being updated on each restart). That's the what and how of your problem. The rest is the why, and at least one suggested reason and its resolution.

If it's not the right what or why, we'll have to dig in a different direction to get you out of this hole you're in. 🙂 We've got shovels at the ready. 

Let us know how the above goes for you.