Mike Reed
asked on
Dell PowerEdge servers: Anyone fully TESTED email alerts using iDRAC?
I had this question after viewing iDRAC6 on PE T610: test SMTP alerts by unplugging one of the power supplies did NOT send an email.
iDRAC/DRAC looks to be a useful way to get email alerts on hardware issues, even if the OS is down. I have a Dell PE T610 with iDRAC 6 Express, and managed to successfully send test emails with the iDRAC GUI. All that means is that my email settings (smtp, dns domain etc) are correct. Next I caused an actual hardware event to occur by unplugging one of the 2 power supplies. I can see several alerts listed in the DRAC's System Log, but nothing gets emailed to me. I checked the SMTP receive log on my SBS 2008 server and see no sign of any attempted email at the time I unplugged ps. I do see SMTP data for the test emails I sent within DRAC earlier.
So, has anybody ever tested email alerting/notifications (preferably using iDRAC 6 Express)? Is pulling the plug out from a ps a valid test (one that DRAC should send an email alert on)?
TIA,
Mike
iDRAC/DRAC looks to be a useful way to get email alerts on hardware issues, even if the OS is down. I have a Dell PE T610 with iDRAC 6 Express, and managed to successfully send test emails with the iDRAC GUI. All that means is that my email settings (smtp, dns domain etc) are correct. Next I caused an actual hardware event to occur by unplugging one of the 2 power supplies. I can see several alerts listed in the DRAC's System Log, but nothing gets emailed to me. I checked the SMTP receive log on my SBS 2008 server and see no sign of any attempted email at the time I unplugged ps. I do see SMTP data for the test emails I sent within DRAC earlier.
So, has anybody ever tested email alerting/notifications (preferably using iDRAC 6 Express)? Is pulling the plug out from a ps a valid test (one that DRAC should send an email alert on)?
TIA,
Mike
iDRAC/DRAC? I have tested DRAC v3 and it just posted SMTP session content, so I had to use SNMP traps instead. i.e test was successful as its result was complete failure to implement SMTP protocol.
ASKER
Yes, iDRAC 6 (Integrated DRAC) on a PE T610. I think the Integrated version is built in the motherboard as opposed to having a DRAC card. Less expensive... Maybe the less expensive version doesn't even work?
Did you ever get the "test" button to work within the DRAC GUI, where it sends an email based on your settings? I got that to work - but no email gets sent when I try to simulate a hardware failure by unplugging one of the 2 power supplies. Critical events are recorded in the System Log when I unplug a PS, but nothing gets emailed.
Did you ever get the "test" button to work within the DRAC GUI, where it sends an email based on your settings? I got that to work - but no email gets sent when I try to simulate a hardware failure by unplugging one of the 2 power supplies. Critical events are recorded in the System Log when I unplug a PS, but nothing gets emailed.
You need to examine MAIL LOG.
ASKER
Already checked the SMTP log - nothing gets recorded (not even an error) when I simulate a hardware failure by pulling out plug for one of the two supplies. Again, it does generate events in the System Log for power supply redundancy failure, but nothing gets emailed. I know SMTP is set up correctly, as the test function works every time I test it within the iDRAC GUI (and those test events do show up as expected in SMTP logs).
Does your mailserver log failed connections i.e incomplete mail protocol etc?
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ASKER
Thanks Tom!! Indeed, I did not have the silly checkbox labeled "State" checked on the System->Alerts->Email Alert Settings screen for E-Mail Alert 1 (the only one I had filled in). I had no idea that "State" meant whether it was enabled/disabled. If I were programming the GUI, that column would be called "Enabled", and display a Y or N (maybe a checkbox). The wacky part is that it allows you to perform a test of the settings by clicking on Test E-mail->[Send] button, regardless of whether you have it checked or not. To be fair to Dell programmers, it was described in the help section :) I still think "State" is a poor/inadequate label...
ASKER
Thanks for catching that I was missing that simple checkbox Tom!
Your very welcome.
ASKER