Scheduled reports are not being sent via e-mail in Performance Manager Portal.

Products

• Network Observability

Issue/Introduction

We have several reports that are scheduled and to send via e-mail. We see the reports are run but they are not being received via e-mail.

Environment

Version: Any
Component: Scheduled Reports

Cause

In this environment, the Portal is not configured for https. 

The following error is seen in the DMService.log file:

ERROR | EmailJobTaskThreadPool-Thread-27 | 2024-11-22 10:02:04,832 | com.ca.im.portal.dm.scheduling.email.EmailJobTask                
      | Error sending e-mail: Mail server connection failed. Failed messages: jakarta.mail.MessagingException: Could not convert socket to TLS;
  nested exception is:
    java.io.IOException: Can't verify identity of server: <Hostname of the e-mail server>

A tcpdump was run on the Portal system to the ip address of the mail server. In the packet trace, we see the following:

Frame 6: 83 bytes on wire (664 bits), 83 bytes captured (664 bits)
Linux cooked capture v1
Internet Protocol Version 4, Src: <Portal IP>, Dst: <Mail IP>
Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 49528, Dst Port: 25, Seq: 1, Ack: 94, Len: 15
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
    Command Line: EHLO rp001110\r\n
        Command: EHLO
        Request parameter: rp001110

The EHLO command is used in the same way as the HELO command, but it also requests that the server identify the SMTP service extensions it supports. 
 
The EHLO command allows the email client to identify itself, and for the server to advertise its capabilities. The server's response provides information to the client about the server's capabilities.

Packet 7 contains the response from the mail server as follows:

Frame 7: 240 bytes on wire (1920 bits), 240 bytes captured (1920 bits)
Linux cooked capture v1
Internet Protocol Version 4, Src: <Mail IP>, Dst: <Portal IP>
Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 25, Dst Port: 49528, Seq: 94, Ack: 16, Len: 172
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
    Response: 250-<Mail Hostname> Hello [<Mail IP>]\r\n
        Response code: Requested mail action okay, completed (250)
        Response parameter: <Mail Hostname> Hello [<Mail IP>]
        Response parameter: SIZE 52428800
        Response parameter: PIPELINING
        Response parameter: DSN
        Response parameter: ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
        Response parameter: STARTTLS
        Response parameter: 8BITMIME
        Response parameter: BINARYMIME
        Response parameter: CHUNKING

Notice the response indicates "STARTTLS" support.

Since we see "STARTTLS" in the response, Portal then requested a certificate for mail host.

Resolution

There are two solutions to this issue:

1. Import the cert from the mail server into Portal. Reference knowledge document "Scheduled E-mails Are Not Received - NetOps Portal".
2. Add the following two inserts into the Portal database:

insert into netqosportal.general values('Email.Enable.STARTTLS', 'false');

insert into em.general values('Email.Enable.STARTTLS', 'false');

NOTE: This will send unsecure mail.