Creating Custom SMTP Notification Providers

IT-Conductor offers the tenants two options for delivering e-mail notifications:

• The default option is to use the IT-Conductor e-mail service, which uses a public network to deliver SMTP emails. No configuration is required.

• The second option allows tenants to configure their own e-mail providers that communicate directly with their mail services on-premises or in the cloud, avoiding public SMTP transmissions.

How to Configure Private SMTP Provider

1. Before you begin, determine what kind of e-mail services your company utilizes and what type of connections are supported. The following are widely used options:

a. On-premises Exchange Server

• Direct connection to the server - This will require an Exchange account dedicated to IT-Conductor. You will need to supply the user and a password to IT-Conductor configuration. In this case, the notification e-mails will be sent from IT-Conductor assigned exchange account.

• Relay SMTP Server - The relay server can be installed on the IT-Conductor Gateway machine and configured to forward e-mails to the exchange server or any other type of corporate messaging platform. Please work with your exchange administrators to set it up as it may require explicit authorizations in Exchange to allow the e-mails to be forwarded. This option usually does not require a user/password in IT-Conductor configuration; only host/port. Additionally, the e-mail sender can be chosen as needed and the notification initiated by users will be marked as sent by them.

b. Cloud-based E-mail Services

• Microsoft Office 360 Exchange Services - Office 360 supports Connectors, which allow authenticating the senders by source IP address or Host Name. A dedicated Connector can be configured for exclusive use by IT-Conductor. The connections will be initiated from one of the on-premise IT-Conductor Gateways.

• Google Workspace SMTP Relay - Google offers functionality similar to Office 360 connectors where a dedicated relay can be defined for IT-Conductor and authenticated either by IP/Address or User/Password combination. Similarly, the connection to the relay will be initiated from one of the IT-Conductor Gateways.

2. Configure SMTP Server in IT-Conductor

a. Navigate to Dashboards → Administrator.

Figure 1: IT-Conductor Dashboards Menu

b. Click SMTP Servers to open the SMTP Servers tile in full-screen view.

Figure 2: SMTP Servers

c. Click the to add a new SMTP Server configuration and fill in the following mandatory attributes. Click again once done.

• Role - refers to the intended purpose of the SMTP server. The default value is set to "Production".

• Gateway - refers to the network gateway through which outgoing emails are routed.

• Transport protocol - refers to the communication protocol for handling e-mails. The default value is set to "SMTP Not Secure".

• SMTP server host - refers to the server's hostname or IP address.

• SMTP port - refers to the communication channel or port number through which the server sends outgoing e-mails. The default value is set to port "25" for unencrypted communication and port "587" for secure communication.

Figure 3: Create SMTP Server

d. If "Requires Authentication" is selected, the account must be created by clicking the icon on the newly created server. If not, proceed to step 3.

Figure 4: SMTP Exchange Accounts Authentication Page

e. Click to create a new SMTP account and fill in the values. Click the again to save. Make sure you select the person as the same user as you are currently logged in on the "Person" field.

Figure 5: Create SMTP Account

3. Configure Notification Provider.

a. Navigate to Management > Notification > Notification Providers.

Figure 6: Notification Providers

b. Click to create a new provider. Make sure you select the previously created SMTP Server in the Notification Server field. Click again to save.

• Name - refers to the identifier for the newly created notification provider.

• Notification server - refers to the name of the SMTP server created in the previous step.

• Notification format: The preferred format or structure for the notifications generated by the server. The default is set to "Long".

Figure 7: Create Notification Provider

4. Update Tenant settings.

a. Navigate to Management → Tenant Properties.

Figure 8: Tenant Properties

Note: You will need to be designated as Tenant Administrator to be able to change the Tenant settings.

b. Pick the newly configured provider in the "Notification Provider" field and save the tenant properties. The new setting will become active in about an hour. You can request a refresh from the support team by creating a ticket. When the configuration is active, all e-mails will be routed through that service.