Sending Mail Notifications¶
ownCloud does not contain a full email program but contains some parameters to allow to send e.g. password reset email to the users. This function relies on the PHPMailer library. To take advantage of this function it needs to be configured properly.
Requirements¶
Different requirements need to be matched, depending on the environment which you are using and the way how you want to send email. You can choose between SMTP, PHP mail, Sendmail and qmail.
Parameters¶
All parameters need to be set in config/config.php
SMTP¶
If you want to send email using a local or remote SMTP server it is necessary to enter the name or ip address of the server, optionally followed by a colon separated port number, e.g. :425. If this value is not given the default port 25/tcp will be used unless you will change that by modifying the mail_smtpport parameter. Multiple server can be entered separated by semicolon:
<?php
"mail_smtpmode" => "smtp",
"mail_smtphost" => "smtp-1.server.dom;smtp-2.server.dom:425",
"mail_smtpport" => 25,
or
<?php
"mail_smtpmode" => "smtp",
"mail_smtphost" => "smtp.server.dom",
"mail_smtpport" => 425,
If a malware or SPAM scanner is running on the SMTP server it might be necessary that you increase the SMTP timeout to e.g. 30s:
<?php
"mail_smtptimeout" => 30,
If the SMTP server accepts insecure connections, the default setting can be used:
<?php
"mail_smtpsecure" => '',
If the SMTP server only accepts secure connections you can choose between the following two variants:
SSL¶
A secure connection will be initiated using the outdated SMTPS protocol which uses the port 465/tcp:
<?php
"mail_smtphost" => "smtp.server.dom:465",
"mail_smtpsecure" => 'ssl',
TLS¶
A secure connection will be initiated using the STARTTLS protocol which uses the default port 25/tcp:
<?php
"mail_smtphost" => "smtp.server.dom",
"mail_smtpsecure" => 'tls',
And finally it is necessary to configure if the SMTP server requires authentication, if not, the default values can be taken as it.
<?php
"mail_smtpauth" => false,
"mail_smtpname" => "",
"mail_smtppassword" => "",
If SMTP authentication is required you have to set the required username and password and can optionally choose between the authentication types LOGIN (default) or PLAIN.
<?php
"mail_smtpauth" => true,
"mail_smtpauthtype" => "LOGIN",
"mail_smtpname" => "username",
"mail_smtppassword" => "password",
PHP mail¶
If you want to use PHP mail it is necessary to have an installed and working email system on your server. Which program in detail is used to send email is defined by the configuration settings in the php.ini file. (On *nix systems this will most likely be Sendmail.) ownCloud should be able to send email out of the box.
<?php
"mail_smtpmode" => "php",
"mail_smtphost" => "127.0.0.1",
"mail_smtpport" => 25,
"mail_smtptimeout" => 10,
"mail_smtpsecure" => "",
"mail_smtpauth" => false,
"mail_smtpauthtype" => "LOGIN",
"mail_smtpname" => "",
"mail_smtppassword" => "",
Sendmail¶
If you want to use the well known Sendmail program to send email, it is necessary to have an installed and working email system on your *nix server. The sendmail binary (/usr/sbin/sendmail) is usually part of that system. ownCloud should be able to send email out of the box.
<?php
"mail_smtpmode" => "sendmail",
"mail_smtphost" => "127.0.0.1",
"mail_smtpport" => 25,
"mail_smtptimeout" => 10,
"mail_smtpsecure" => "",
"mail_smtpauth" => false,
"mail_smtpauthtype" => "LOGIN",
"mail_smtpname" => "",
"mail_smtppassword" => "",
qmail¶
If you want to use the qmail program to send email, it is necessary to have an installed and working qmail email system on your server. The sendmail binary (/var/qmail/bin/sendmail) will then be used to send email. ownCloud should be able to send email out of the box.
<?php
"mail_smtpmode" => "qmail",
"mail_smtphost" => "127.0.0.1",
"mail_smtpport" => 25,
"mail_smtptimeout" => 10,
"mail_smtpsecure" => "",
"mail_smtpauth" => false,
"mail_smtpauthtype" => "LOGIN",
"mail_smtpname" => "",
"mail_smtppassword" => "",
Send a Test Email¶
The only way to test your email configuration is, to force a login failure, because a function to send a test email has not be implemented yet.
First make sure that you are using a full qualified domain and not an ip address in the ownCloud URL, like:
http://my-owncloud-server.domain.dom/owncloud/
The password reset function fetches the domain name from that URL to build the email sender address, e.g.:
john@domain.dom
Next you need to enter your login and an invalid password. As soon as you press the login button the login mask reappears and a I’ve forgotten my password link will be shown above the login field. Click on that link, re-enter your login and press the Reset password button - that’s all.
Trouble shooting¶
My web domain is different from my mail domain?¶
The default domain name used for the sender address is the hostname where your ownCloud installation is served. If you have a different mail domain name you can override this behavior by setting the following configuration parameter:
<?php
"mail_domain" => "example.com",
Now every mail send by ownCloud e.g. password reset email, will have the domain part of the sender address look like:
no-reply@example.com
How can I find out if a SMTP server is reachable?¶
Use the ping command to check the server availability:
ping smtp.server.dom
PING smtp.server.dom (ip-address) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=1 ttl=64 time=3.64 ms
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=2 ttl=64 time=0.055 ms
64 bytes from your-server.local.lan (192.168.1.10): icmp_req=3 ttl=64 time=0.062 ms
How can I find out if the SMTP server is listening on a specific tcp port?¶
A SMTP server is usually listening on port 25/tcp (smtp) and/or in rare circumstances is also listening on the outdated port 465/tcp (smtps). You can use the telnet command to check if a port is available:
telnet smtp.domain.dom 25
Trying 192.168.1.10...
Connected to smtp.domain.dom.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.domain.dom ESMTP Exim 4.80.1 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:28:14 +0100
How can I find out if a SMTP server supports the outdated SMTPS protocol?¶
A good indication that a SMTP server supports the SMTPS protocol is that it is listening on port 465/tcp. How this can be checked has been described previously.
How can I find out if a SMTP server supports the TLS protocol?¶
A SMTP server usually announces the availability of STARTTLS right after a connection has been established. This can easily been checked with the telnet command. You need to enter the marked lines to get the information displayed:
telnet smtp.domain.dom 25
Trying 192.168.1.10...
Connected to smtp.domain.dom.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.domain.dom ESMTP Exim 4.80.1 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:39:55 +0100
EHLO your-server.local.lan # <<< enter this command
250-smtp.domain.dom Hello your-server.local.lan [ip-address]
250-SIZE 52428800
250-8BITMIME
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5
250-STARTTLS # <<< STARTTLS is supported!
250 HELP
QUIT # <<< enter this command
221 smtp.domain.dom closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
How can I find out which authentication types/methods a SMTP server supports?¶
A SMTP server usually announces the available authentication types/methods right after a connection has been established. This can easily been checked with the telnet command. You need to enter the marked lines to get the information displayed:
telnet smtp.domain.dom 25
Trying 192.168.1.10...
Connected to smtp.domain.dom.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 smtp.domain.dom ESMTP Exim 4.80.1 Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:39:55 +0100
EHLO your-server.local.lan # <<< enter this command
250-smtp.domain.dom Hello your-server.local.lan [ip-address]
250-SIZE 52428800
250-8BITMIME
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5 # <<< available Authentication types
250-STARTTLS
250 HELP
QUIT # <<< enter this command
221 smtp.domain.dom closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
Enable Debug Mode¶
If you are still not able to send email it might be useful to activate further debug messages by setting the following parameter. Right after you have pressed the Reset password button, as described before, a lot of SMTP -> get_lines(): ... messages will be written on the screen.
<?php
"mail_smtpdebug" => true;