ILO 5: Mail general failure

[longhd]

I have an internal mail server in the same network range as the ilo address. I have set up alertmail with smtp port 587 as instructed by HPE iLO 5 User Guide. But when I test sending mail, I still get the error:
alertmail general failure
Initial Update 08/21/2024 15:34:46 Event Class 0x23 Event Code 0x442 Recommended Action Confirm that all Mail configurations are correct (valid DNS/FQDN, SMTP server, etc)
I have updated the firmware to the latest version. My ilo version is ilo 5 version 3.07 Aug 09 2024. I have configured sending mail with idrac and it was successful but when I apply it on ilo, it fails. Please help me.
I have referred to this setup guide link: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=a00105236en_us&page=GUID-D7147C7F-2016-0901-06D0-000000001259.html

[PR7]

Greetings!
- Please test the communication between iLO and SMTP server

- Test the Alert Mail with different SMTP server ( gmail )
- Check if domain name is specified in ILO >Dedicated Network port 
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00105236en_us&docLocale=en_US&page=GUID-75B7D414-5A75-43F6-9A90-5AD9E7CF5465.html

[longhd]

Hi PR7, I tried everything you suggested but it still failed.

[PR7]

I would recommend raising a support ticket with HPE to further diagnose the issue here.
HPE Support Case Manager

[longhd]

@PR7 Hi PR7, Is this problem due to different timezone between ilo server hpe and mail server?

[PR7]

Greetings!
No, this is not related to timezone.
As recommended earlier raise a support ticket with HPE to further diagnose the issue.
HPE Support Case Manager

[BunnyPon]

I've not tried this yet but I can. If your mail server is on the same network, you should not need to use SMTP AUTH. Which would make life easier. I would suggest looking your logs for errors, the HPE ones are... 

This test done from a DL20 Gen10 with noisy fans.

Management -> mail

• Enable ILO Alert Mail - ON
• Recipient Email address -  **personal info erased**
• enable smtp for two factor authentication - OFF
• sender domain or email address - pancake@example.net
• SMTP Port - 25
• SMTP Server - postfix.example.org
• ENamble SMTP Secure Connection (SSL/TLS) - OFF
• Enable SMTP AUthentication - OFF
• SMTP Username - 

This works and its way better than ILO4

Subject: HPE iLO AlertMail-000: (INFO) AlertMail Test Message
From: iLO  <pancake@example.net>
To: **removed**
X-OS: HPE=20iLO

Next, try turning on authentication.

• SMTP Port - 587
• Enable SMTP Secure connection - ON
• Enable SMTP Authentication - ON
• SMTP Username - bunny (and give it the password too)

Bang.

postfix/submission/smtpd[75254]: connect from dl20-ilo.example.org[10.0.0.9]
postfix/submission/smtpd[75254]: Anonymous TLS connection established from dl20-ilo.in.example.org[10.0.0.9]: TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits)  key-exchange ECDHE (secp384r1) server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) server-digest SHA256
postfix/submission/smtpd[75254]: warning: dl20-ilo.in.example.org[10.0.0.9]: SASL login authentication failed: Invalid authentication mechanism, sasl_username=(unavailable)

That is really unhappy about something. (dovecot PLAIN or LOGIN) 

It turns out, however, that if you 

• Enable SMTP for Two Factor Authentication - ON

Then it will work!

Received: from dl20-ilo.example.org (dl20-ilo.example.org [10.0.0.9])
        (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits)
        key-exchange ECDHE (secp384r1) server-signature RSA-PSS (2048 bits) server-digest SHA256)
        (No client certificate requested)
        by postfix.example.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 325C15A868
        for <bunny@example.net>; Sun, 22 Sep 2024 02:55:58 +0900 (JST)
....
Subject: HPE iLO AlertMail-013: (INFO) AlertMail Test Message
From: iLO  <pancake@exaple.net>
To: **removed**
X-OS: HPE=20iLO

EVENT (21-Sep-2024 17:55): AlertMail Test Message

The receipt of this message confirms that AlertMail is configured correctly

iLO URL: https://dl20-ilo.example.org
iLO IP: https://10.0.0.9
iLO Name:      dl20-ilo
iLO firmware:  3.07 Aug 09 2024

So it looks like the "Enabke SMTP for Two Factor Authentication" Whatever that is supposed to be, works. The documentation is not at all clear on this: 

Enabling SMTP for Two Factor Authentication 

It may have unforseen side effects like sending mail with a pass code every time you try to login, I do not know.

Hopefully that will help though.

[Moderator edit: Erased the personal info]