Bad SMTP eMail Encoding with HP DataProtector

[R. Arendes]

Hi Team,

Since about half a year (I don't remember which patch exactly destroyed this) I have a problem with Notifications using "eMail SMTP".

Just to point it out: This worked perfectly fine before.

Now, as mentioned, since a specific patch (Core Patch I would guess) the SMTP mail sent are garbled.

For me it looks like there is something missing in the Header / Body, because the garbled text looks like a base64 encoding.

Here is a sample (untouched!):

--
From roland.arendes@..... Thu Aug 28 10:28:42 2008
Return-Path:
X-Original-To: roland@ueun71.pdb.xyz.com
Delivered-To: roland@ueun71.pdb.xyz.com
Received: from pdbnt03.europe.ad.xyz.com (pdbnt03.pdb.xyz.com )
by ueun71.pdb.xyz.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 573693EA1F6
for ; Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:28:42 +0200 (CEST)
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:28:42 +0000
From: Data Protector Notification
To: roland@ueun71.pdb.xyz.com
Subject: Single Session Report (IDB Backup)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-transfer-encoding: base64
Message-Id: <20080828082842.573693EA1F6@ueun71.pdb.xyz.com>
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--

I checked the global options for detailed settings regarding smtp notifications, but the only settings I found refer to the SMTP sender address and the SMTP server.

I need these reports to work again.

Can someone help me, or at least reproduce?

I'm using HP DataProtector 6.0 (DPWIN_00373) running on a Windows Server 2003 SP2 Cell Manager.

Thanks for your time.

[R. Arendes]

I quick checked, and it is obviously a base64 encoded mail. It is however wrong described in the header as my Outlook 2003 is unable to read it (or it did not try out of a different reason).

--
roland@pdbxe100:~$ base64 -d Single Session Report

Cell Manager: pdbnt03.europe.ad.xyz.com
Creation Date: 8/28/2008 10:28:42 AM

Session Information

Specification: IDB Backup
Session ID: 2008/08/28-2
Type: Backup
Session Owner: EUROPE\ADMIN_PDBRAREN@pdbwe095.europe.ad.xyz.com
Status: Completed
Mode: full
Start Time: 8/28/2008 9:53:28 AM
Queuing: 0:00
Duration: 0:35
GB Written: 4.93
# Media: 1
# Errors: 0
# Warnings: 0
Success: 100%

No objects failed.

No error messages.

Input file incomplete.
--

base64 -d tells me, that the "input file is incomplete". Perhaps thats the reason why Outlook or some other mailer don't even try to decode this.

Where can I open a ticket, describing this bug?

[R. Arendes]

No ideas, anyone? I can't believe I'm the only one with this problem.

[R. Arendes]

After updating to Patchlevel of 4. Sep I'm still having the problems with SMTP mails. Some of them work, the most of them do not (and get badly encrypted).

I'm still wondering if I am the only one having these problems. No one reading my posts here?

[mietlicki mickael]

i've a similar problem with laserjet
and i only found that is a escape after "mail from:"
smtp server doesn't recognise and error 501
sorry for my english

[Stephen Fyffe]

Investigating Issue. Will post reply within the next week.

Stephen

[Stephen Fyffe · Accepted solution]

Hello Everyone,

Sorry this has taken so long. SSP's will be available end of this week for this issue. Will be resolved with new omnirc variable:

OB2_SMTP_CONTENT_TRANSFER_ENCODE has been added, when set to "1" it encodes
messages in ASCII format, when set to "0" or default behavior is to encode the messages in base64.


Stephen

[R. Arendes]

Nice, thanks.
Will this patch be available to the public, or even integrated into the next update package?

If not, what are the requirements to get this SSP?

Thanks.
Roland

[Droulers Simon]

Hello,

I have exactly the same problem.
I'm using the last update of DP 6 :
DP Cell Console DPWIN_00406
DP Cell Server DPWIN_00407

How I can fix this problem ?

As Roland says, what are the requirements to get this SSP?

Thanks

[R. Arendes]

Any news in this issue? I'm still looking at those UUE messages and need to manually paste them into B64DEC ( http://4mhz.de/b64dec.html ) to read them.

When will this SSP released to public?

[Droulers Simon]

As Roland, I still have the problem.
I have bypassed this problem with this solution:
- Generate a HTML report on the disk With DataProtector
- Then send the report by mail with a Windows Scheduled task

But I'm waiting for a true solution provided by HP.

[R. Arendes]

As a long time HP Customer and DataProtector User I have to say that I'm really disappointed customers are treated.

Ignoring bug reports is one thing, but responding to the bug report and saying, that the problem is fixed but don't do anything else - thats ridiculous, really.

Its now more than half a year that Stephen fixed the problem and published the SSP to - who actually - ? The ones that get hit by the bug are left in the rain.
It didn't make it into the update packages, which are released 1 to 2 monthly. And there were several of it.

Maybe I'm overreacting now, but this all fits perfectly into the picture from HP, that built up over the last years.

[Andreas Aster]

Hi Roland,

did you ever resolve this problem? I have the patch provided by HP for this problem. I could send you the patch, please provide me your mail address.

Regards,
Andreas

[R. Arendes]

Hi Andi,

thanks for your offer, I greatly appreciate that. In this forum I'm unable to send personal messages or edit already posted public messages, so I guess I have to live with it:

Thanks again.