Hi,

I need to configure a (RAID) monitoring script to be able to use the standard Linux mailing facilities to be able to notify me via sending mail to my e-mail provider.
This concerns Debian, but I'm sure this probably is very standardized. I have no need to receive mail on that server, it just has to be able to inform me if something goes wrong.

What is the easiest way to achieve this? I still have nightmares from configuring sendmail 10 years ago and never want to do that again.

Theres a program called Logwatch which is a system log analyzer and reporter.. Its pre-configured to report RAID, and it has a
--mailto option .E.g. Its that easy.

in my experience, not.


i sympathize.
i think you will need to figure out what backend the program in question uses, then test if that works manually.

i can tell you a recent anecdote:
i tried the same thing for 'smartd' and ended up rewriting one of the example notification scripts, because my mailing program (ssmtp) needed to be fed input in a different way than the "standard"(?) 'mail' program.

in any case:
1. make sure the mailer works
2. make sure your daemon/software/whatever knows how to use it.

Your email provider may not accept mail from random senders. You may need to use your ISP email server as a relay.

Whenever I have to send mail from within a script from a machine without mail-server I use bsd-mailx (also known as heirloom-mailx). It enables you to use an SMTP-server on a different machine.
Here is a simple example how to use it using Google's GMail service: https://www.systutorials.com/1411/se...g-gmails-smtp/
It is really simple and the linked tutorial should give you enough knowledge to use any SMTP-server you have access to.

1 members found this post helpful.

i just had to climb into my machine again to adjust ssmtp's settings.
the gist is, the email has to come from a valid email address - whatever that is.
something like "root@localhost" is NOT valid.
i simply changed the settings to make ALL mail appear to be sent from the same address, the one i have with the provider i'm using as the smtp relay.

not sure i'm getting the terminology right;
assuming i have an account with xyz.com, and my address is ondoho@xyz.com.
i tell ssmtp to use smtp.xyz.com.
i set the sender to always be ondoho@xyz.com.

not all providers require this, but many do.

I was refering to that most tools will use the "mail" command to send messages and that the system can then be setup to handle that. So far, it looks like this, I configured postfix to relay and the mail command, as well as mdadm (for RAID monitoring) uses that too.

I have solved it and it works now, using these instructions:

https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/...-a-mail-relay/

Thanks for your help!

Take a look at msmtp as n MTA for sending mail. It's very simple to set up. You can configure it to send mail via your ISP's mail system.

You might find this tutorial useful. It's focused on the Mutt mail client, but it addresses sending and receiving mail as part of the larger picture. http://www.calmar.ws/mutt/

yes, i suspected there was a better way when i got stuck with smartd's alert emails.
at some point i'd been told that ssmtp is much lighter & easier to set up than postfix, but judging from the tutorial you linked it seems to be about the same.

does postfix run as a daemon, or on demand?