Email server down: send a chat message

Having a warning system that could detect errors will lower the downtime and will reduce reaction time that precedes the repair. In this tutorial we will guide you through the procedure of setting up a system which will send a chat message in case of an Email server failure. You will learn how to detect emai l server failure, and how to configure the system to send a chat message in such an event. We provide you a step-by-step tutorial which is easy to follow and quick to do. The process should not take more than 15 minutes to finish.

Email server down: send a chat message (Video tutorial)

The following video presents the setup process of an alarm systems that sends chat messages in case of an email server error. The video starts with adding a source that detects the server outage. At the end of the video, you will have a working alarm system. You will see how to configure the source, how to setup a new chat user and how to connect them using a route. You will also see how the error message appears. The video is very detailed and easy to understand. It is only a little bit longer than 2 minutes, so you will have no trouble following it.

Click Install in the install alarm source list

Click on the Sources button located on the toolbar of the Ozeki 10 SMS Gateway app, next to the Rules button (Figure 1). This will open the Install alarm source list, where you can find the IT infrastructure monitoring section. Locate the Email server offline item, that is the first option in the section. Click the blue link next to the item title, to access the Email Server offline configuration form.

Fill out the Email server groupbox

Now you need to fill out the Host and the Port textbox in the Email server groupbox (Figure 2). The Email server groupbox provides the necessary information about the server that you wish to monitor. This will ensure that the alarm system have access to the email server and could send chat message alert in case of an outage or server failure.

Enable logging in the advanced tab

Locate the Advanced tab on the configuration form and click it (Figure 3). This way you can find the Log level groupbox, where you can customize the log settings of the alarm source. Logs are essential parts of troubleshooting a connection and will make identifying problems easier and faster. To have a log with the most information possible, tick all the boxes located in the Log level groupbox. To finish the setup of the Email server offline alarm system, click the Ok button located at the bottom of the form.

Click the connection switch button

Click the Connection switch button located on the control table. This will turn on your alarm system and will start monitoring the email server, that you provided the information for, earlier. As you can see on Figure 4, you will get notifications about the start of the alarm system in the Events tab.

Click the channels icon and install a chat account

Look for the Channels button located on the Toolbar of the Ozeki 10 SMS Gateway app (Figure 5). Click it to open the Install notification channel list. Here, you can choose which communication channel you wish to use. We are going to use chat, so click the blue Install link located next to the Chat account title. This way, you can start the setup process of a new chat account used for server error notifications.

Fill in the login credentials

On the General page of the Chat account installation panel, you can find the Account groupbox (Figure 6). Here you will need to provide a suitable username and password. Mmake sure that the username is in the format of: user@domain. In order to have a secure chat account, choose a password that is hard to guess, but can be remembered easily.

Provide an address in the recipient tab page

You can provide the address of the receiver of your error messages in the Recipient tab page (Figure 7). Locate the To connection groupbox. There you will find the To connection textbox. Type in the chat address of the recipient. This way the notification channel will send a chat message to the provided address in case of a server outage. Click the Ok button located under the groupbox to finalize the setup of the Chat account.

Switch the connection switch button

Locate the Connection switch in the control table, under the Connection title (Figure 9). Switch on the connection to have the chat account online. If it is online, it will forward the alarm message to the provided chat address. On the Events tab next to the control table, you can see all the events on the chat account you just created.

Setup a mail trigger routing rule

Find the Routes icon located on the toolbar. Click it to open the details page of the routes (Figure 9). On the routes page, find the blue Create new Route button. Click it to open the Route details panel, where you will be able to find the Settings groupbox. Provide the Email server offline alarm system’s address to the From textbox and type the newly created chat account address to the To input field. This way, the alarm system could forward the error messages to the chat account, which will send it to the desired recipient address. Click the Ok button if you finished the setup process of the routing rule.

Check the log

On Figure 10, you could see that in case of a server error, the alarm system will notice the outage and send a notification. It will use the route to forward it to the chat account. The chat account will automatically send an informing message about the error to the provided chat address. Click the pop-up window of the message located on the bottom right corner on the screen. It will open the chat window where you will see all the previous messages from the alert system.

Inspect the chat alert

In the chat window, you will be able to see the details of the outage. When it happened and which server is unreachable. Note that the message you send to this chat account will not be seen by any other user. This account is completely automated. Review the message and start the recovery process of the Email server.