Aria Operations notification emails are no longer received

Products

• VMware Aria Suite

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Alert notification emails are no longer being Aria Operations 8.12.
• Attempting to test a Standard Email Plugin configured with Credential type set to No Credential fails, with an error stating:

Test was not successful: Unable to configure plugin.

• After testing the Standard Email Plugin, the /storage/vcops/log/analytics-UUID.log may show an error similar to:

2023-04-25T21:08:48,702+0000 ERROR [ServerConnection on port 10000 Thread 690]  com.vmware.vcops.plugins.filter.StandardAlertFilterPlugin.configure - Failed to configure EMAIL plugin: null
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Only Basic Service Credential type is supported for Email Plugin
        at com.vmware.vcops.plugins.filter.StandardAlertFilterPlugin.fromTransmissionConfig(StandardAlertFilterPlugin.java:127) ~[?:?]


2023-04-25T21:10:18,644+0000 WARN  [ServerConnection on port 10000 Thread 690]  com.vmware.vcops.platform.notification.email.EmailConfig.fromTransmissionConfig - Unsupported service credential type for Email
2023-04-25T21:10:18,644+0000 ERROR [ServerConnection on port 10000 Thread 690]  com.vmware.vcops.platform.notification.email.EmailConfig.<init> - Service Credential must be provided when 'Requires Authentication' is checked.
2023-04-25T21:10:18,644+0000 ERROR [ServerConnection on port 10000 Thread 690]  com.vmware.vcops.plugins.filter.StandardAlertFilterPlugin.configure - Failed to configure EMAIL plugin: null
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Service Credential must be provided when 'Requires Authentication' is checked.
        at com.vmware.vcops.platform.notification.email.EmailConfig.<init>(EmailConfig.java:79) ~[alive_platform.jar:?]
        at com.vmware.vcops.platform.notification.email.EmailConfig.fromTransmissionConfig(EmailConfig.java:168) ~[alive_platform.jar:?]

Environment

Aria Operations 8.12.x

Resolution

This issue is resolved in Aria Operations 8.12 Hot Fix 1, please follow the steps in the Solution section of the Hot Fix 1 article.


Workaround:
To workaround this issue if applying the hotfix is not an option, create temporary credentials to bypass the credentials requirement.

1. Log into VMware Aria Operations as an administrative user.
2. Navigate to the Configure > Alerts > Outbound Settings page.
3. Click the vertical ellipsis next to the Standard Email Plugin Instance Name, then click Edit.
4. Ensure Requires Authentication is unchecked and set Credential type to Basic Authentication.
5. Click Add next to the Credential box.
6. Create temporary credentials by inputting workaround in the Name, User name, and Password fields, then click Save.

Note: These temporary credentials will not be used to attempt authentication to the SMTP host.

7. Click Test to confirm that the connection is successful, then click OK in the Validate Connection window.

8. Slick Save.