Creating and Configuring SMTP Email Server

Scenario: You want to configure the SMTP Email server.

 

Reference: For background information, see the reference section.

 

Workflow diagram:

 

 

Prerequisites:

  • System Manager is in Engineering mode.
  • System Browser is in Management View.

 

Steps:

1 – Create and Start a SMTP Email Driver
  1. Depending on where to add the driver, select one of the following:
  • Project > Management System > Servers > Main Server > Drivers
  • Project > Management System > FEPs > [FEP Station] > Drivers
  1. In the Object Configurator tab, click New and select New SMTP Email Driver.
  1. In the New object dialog box, enter a unique name and description.
  1. Click OK.
  • The SMTP Email Driver node displays in System Browser below the Drivers node and is selected.
  1. In the Operation tab, navigate to the Driver Status property and click Start.
  • The SMTP Email driver is created and started.

 

2 – Configuring a SMTP Email Driver
  1. In System Browser, select SMTP Email Driver and click the Driver Editor tab.
  1. (Optional) In the Driver Settings expander, modify the description.
  1. In the Configuration Properties expander, proceed as follows:
  • In the Device Request Timeout field, enter 60000 (value in milliseconds).
  • In the Check Status Rate field, enter 30000 (value in milliseconds).
  1. In the Notification Integration expander, do the following:
  • Set the Batch Size field value as 10 (default is 100). Batch size specifies the size in which the request is processed by the driver. The batch size displays the number of devices to which Notification interacts in one instant. For example, if there are 100 devices on which a message has to be displayed and a batch size of 10 is entered, Notification will send the message to batches of 10 devices each.
    NOTE: Generally, the batch size for the SMTP email driver must not exceed 100 email addresses, even if the integrated SMTP server could potentially handle higher numbers. On the other hand, some SMTP servers might require batch sizes of ten or less. The batch size specifies how many recipient email addresses is added to each message sent. For example, if a message needs to be sent out to 100 email addresses and the batch size is set to 20, five emails with 20 recipients each will be sent out. Large batch sizes, which result in a large number of email recipients in sent emails, can increase the probability that sent messages are classified as Spam (junk email) and will be filtered out.
  • In the Expected delivery time field, enter a value (default is 10 seconds.).
    NOTE: Notification does not guarantee the message delivery will be completed within the time entered here. This value is solely used to compute delivery statistics indicating whether message delivery to the SMTP server was on-time or late.
    On-time or late displays based on the time taken for Notification to deliver the message to the SMTP server and not the time taken to deliver the message to the actual recipient.
  • Enter a value into the Input messages polling interval field. This is the time the driver needs to check for acknowledgments from recipients (default is 5 seconds).
  • In the Acknowledgement reply Action field, configure the action in different languages that recipient users need to take to acknowledge messages.
  • In the Acknowledgement reply signature field, configure the instructions needed to reply to a message. By default the text configured in this field is, When acknowledging this message, please make sure to include the following ID anywhere in the Subject field of the reply message: [MNS- ID of the message
  1. Click Save .
  • The parameters are configured for the SMTP Email driver.

 

3 – Create a SMTP Email Field Network
  1. Select Project > Field Networks.
  • The Object Configurator tab displays in the Primary pane.
  1. Click New and select New SMTP Email Field Network.
  1. In the New object dialog box, enter a name and description.
  1. Click OK.
  • The field network appears under the Field Networks node and is selected by default.
  • The SMTP Email driver is automatically associated to the field network. In the Network Editor tab, under the Network Settings expander, you can see that the values are preselected, and the driver is already assigned.

 

4 – Create a SMTP Email Server
  1. Select the SMTP Email field network.
  1. Select the Network Editor tab.
  1. Click Create .
  1. In the New object dialog box, do the following:
  • Select SMTP Email Server as the Child type.
  • Enter a Name.
  • Enter Description.
  • Click OK.
  1. In the Device Editor tab that displays, enter a description in the Device Settings expander.
  1. In the Configuration Properties expander, configure the parameters for SMTP Email Server as stated below (For more information refer to the SMTP Email Server section in Notification Supported HW/SW Device Configurations Guide):
  • Enter the IP address in the SMTP Server Host Name field.
  • From the Device Mode drop-down list, select Operational so that the driver processes the messaging command and the device configuration change command, and performs status checks for the device. You can also select the following:
    - Disabled: In this mode, the driver does not process the messaging command, or the device configuration change command, and can perform status checks for the device. The device remains in a disconnected state.
    - Administrative: In this mode, the driver processes the device configuration change command and performs status checks for the device. The device will be in a Disconnected/Connected state based on the connection state.
  • Enter the port number to use for the SMTP Server in the SMTP Server Port field. Typically, this is 25 for most SMTP Servers.
  • Select the desired security option from the Security Type drop-down list, you can select the following:
    - None: No secure connection provided.
    - SSL: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides secure connection.
    - TLS: Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides secure connection.
  • Enter the SMTP Server’s user name in the Login Id field. Not used if the selected Security Type is None.
  • Enter the SMTP Server’s password for the corresponding user account in the Password field. Not used if the selected Security Type is None.
  • Enter the email address in the Email Address of Sender field, which displays as Sender ID in the email notifications that are delivered.
  • Enter the email address in the Reply to Email Address field, which will be used to receive emails when recipients choose to reply to email notifications.
  1. In the Test Email Connection expander, you can send a test email.
  • Enter the email address, email subject and message in their respective fields.
  • Click Send to send the test email message.
  • The sending result displays in the expander after the message is sent.
  1. Click Save .
  • The SMTP Email Server is created.
  • The user device type is automatically configured. In the Recipient Editor tab, under the User Device Types expander, you can see that the SMTP Email Driver is set as the handling driver and modality is set as Email.

 

5 – (Optional) Create an Incoming Email Server
  1. Select the SMTP Email field network.
  1. Select the Network Editor tab.
  1. Click Create .
  1. In the New object dialog box, do the following:
  • Select Incoming Email Server as the Child type.
  • Enter a Name.
  • Enter Description.
  • Click OK.
  1. In the Device Editor tab that displays, enter a description in the Device Settings expander.
  1. In the Configuration Properties expander, configure the parameters for Incoming Email Server as stated below:
  • Enter the host name or the IP address of the Incoming Email Server in the Incoming Server Host Name field.
  • From the Device Mode drop-down list, select Operational so that the driver processes the messaging command and the device configuration change command, and performs status checks for the device. You can also select the following:
    - Disabled: In this mode, the driver does not process the messaging command, or the device configuration change command, and can perform status checks for the device. The device remains in a disconnected state.
    - Administrative: In this mode, the driver processes the device configuration change command and performs status checks for the device. The device will be in a Disconnected/Connected state based on the connection state.
  • Enter the port number to use for the Incoming Email Server in the Server Port field.
  • Select the Server Protocol for the incoming email from the Incoming Mail Server Protocol drop-down list. For example, POP3 or IMAP.
  • Select the deletion behavior for the acknowledgements from the Acknowledgement Deletion Behavior drop-down list:
    Delete only acknowledgement emails - The driver deletes only messages that are recognized as MNS acknowledgement messages from the email account after processing them. Use this option if the configured email account is also used for other purposes. Choosing this option might require periodic, manual purging of non-MNS messages in the email account.
    NOTE: The ‘Out of Office’ replies are not considered as a valid acknowledgement and hence will be deleted on selecting this option.
    Delete all incoming emails - The driver deletes all messages whether they are recognized as MNS acknowledgement messages (deletion after processing) or non-MNS messages. Choosing this option allows the system to run unattended because non-MNS messages will not collect in the email account.
  • Select the desired security option from the Security Type drop-down list, you can select the following:
    - None: No secure connection provided.
    - SSL: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides secure connection.
    - TLS: Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides secure connection.
  • Enter the SMTP Server’s user name in the Login Id field.
  • Enter the SMTP Server’s password for the corresponding user account in the Password field.
  1. Click Save .
  • The Incoming Email Server is created.

 

6 – Configure Recipient User Devices
  • You have added one or more users as Recipient Users
  1. In the Recipient User Devices dialog box, from the Type drop-down list, select Personal Email or Work Email as a recipient device for the corresponding recipient user.
  1. In the Address field, enter their email ID.
  • The Preferred delivery method field is automatically populated with Email.
  1. Select Project > Field Networks > SMTP Field Network > Incoming Email Server.
  1. Select Configuration Properties.
  1. In the Login Id field of the incoming email server, enter the Login id of the email address configured in Reply To Email Address field of the SMTP email server.
    NOTE: For domain specific email addresses, Login Id must be in the format DomainName\UserID.
  1. Enter the password of the corresponding email account in the Password field of the Incoming Email Server.
  1. Create an incident template with acknowledgement settings configured and assign these users as recipients to the corresponding message template.
  1. Initiate Incidents
  1. Once the message template is launched, recipients of the message template should receive an email containing the content as described in the corresponding message template with an unique message ID and a link to reply to the corresponding message. If the recipient replies to the message, the acknowledgement status for the corresponding message will be displayed on the user interface under Browse > Message Status.