Can't evaluate Mantis without users receiving email - please help troubleshoot

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Can't evaluate Mantis without users receiving email - please help troubleshoot

Submitted by poushag on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 12:24pm.

JumpBox for Mantis Discussion

I created accounts for my user group in Mantis and sent each user a password reset email. The problem is that they have not received the email messages and it's been over an hour. In order to troubleshoot, can anyone tell me:
Where does the Mantis postfix server direct its outgoing mail?
There was no setting for me to configure this on the unregistered JumpBox (but I think there should be).
If it is actually going through an external relay, then how am I to set up the Mantis JumpBox with our proxy server settings so that email can get outside? This is another thing that I think even the unregistered JumpBoxes should allow the user to do.

Thanks,
Andrew

Mantis email

Submitted by godber on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 3:14pm.

Hi,
Sounds like you understand the situation here, so heres the scoop.

"Where does the Mantis postfix server direct its outgoing mail?"

It does direct delivery by default which is problematic if you are on a cable or DSL connection. Many SMTP servers will block those.

"There was no setting for me to configure this on the unregistered JumpBox (but I think there should be)."

In our next version platform, we allow setting a relay host through the JumpBox admin interface.

For this revision you have to manually edit the postfix main.cf file and add your relay host as shown here:
http://www.jumpbox.com/node/198#comment-243

This will reslove most mail delivery problems and all of this depends on how the mail recipients SMTP server is configured. There could be other hangups but typically this straightens it out.

Austin

Thanks for answering that one

Submitted by poushag on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 9:12am.

The Mantis JumpBox is on our corporate intranet which apparently does not allow direct delivery. I understand how to set a relayhost in postfix. We are still in the evaluation phase with respect to Mantis and JumpBox so it's much more difficult to get authorization to buy something that I cannot show my team leader and justify by the fact that it works. An issue tracker can't even be evaluated without it being able to send email. It appears I can't get an SSH session going so I can configure postfix unless I buy some kind of license. Seems like a Catch-22 to me. Do you JumpBox folks have some kind of temporary license code you could send me at the email address I used to register this forum account? Or is the next version platform you mentioned available in beta? Please email me something that will allow me to sit down with my team leader tomorrow and show him a working Mantis JumpBox. The whole reason I liked the idea of the JumpBox and decided to try it out was that it could help us get this trial started fast.

Thanks,
Andrew

I fully understand

Submitted by godber on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 10:55am.

I apologize for the inconvenience but there is no way for us to issue a temporary license at this point. We have no means by which we could revoke it or cause it to expire (our licenses have lifetimes but that only effects which JumpBox versions you can register and never effects how long you can use it.) so I would simply be giving a registration away.

I understand how this scenario impacts some users ability to fully evaluate the JumpBox but in reality, this specific issue is an environmental issue that only a subset of our users will experience. It is still possible for at least some people to evaluate or even use a mantis JumpBox without registration.

Unfortunately, there is no beta available, but this issue is common enough that we will probably try to backport this functionality so it is available in this product line. However, it will probably be a week or two before we can get to it.

Austin

I appreciate your consideration and sincerity in this matter

Submitted by poushag on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:11pm.

and I look forward to the time when you have postfix configuration functions backported. In the meantime, I will try to navigate the gauntlet to get the Mantis JumpBox registered.

In addition, I would like to suggest that you also allow for smtp authentication from the Jumpbox admin interface. (Most relays are no longer open so allowing only the relayhost setting to be changed without also permitting authentication will make it practically useless.) Better yet, do something similar to webmin and allow the whole main.cf file to be customizable. Whatever changes you make in this regard I hope will be ported to all of your apps that run postfix, especially the Alfresco JumpBox (since that is my next candidate for a trial run here).