6.8 Understanding Change Guardian Email Alerts

Change Guardian can send email notifications for events to specified administrators and operators. To enable email alerts:

  • Install an email server on each event destination computer in your Change Guardian environment.

  • Use the Policy Editor to:

    • Add each email server to Change Guardian.

    • Create one or more notification groups for each email server.

  • Use the Change Guardian web console to assign email alerts to specified events. For more information, see Assigning Email Alerts to Events.

6.8.1 Adding Email Servers to Change Guardian

After you ensure each event destination computer in your Change Guardian environment hosts an email server, you can add each email server to Change Guardian.

Prerequisite: Complete the following steps before you add an email server to Change Guardian:

  1. (Conditional) To add email server to Change Guardian is in FIPS mode:

    1. Export the certificate from the respective SMTP server site.

    2. Import the certificate using the following command: convert_to_fips -i <certificate_path>.

    3. Restart the Change Guardian server using the following command: rcsentinel restart.

    4. Add new email configuration with STARTTLS protocol using Policy Editor.

    5. Create routing rules in Change Guardian web console.

  2. (Conditional) To add email server to Change Guardian is in non-FIPS mode:

    1. Export the certificate from the respective SMTP server site.

    2. Import the certificate using the following command: /opt/novell/sentinel/jre/bin/keytool -import -alias <appropriate_alias> -keystore /etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/.activemqkeystore.jks -file <certificate_file_path> -storepass password.

      NOTE:If you have used a custom path for installation, modify the commad accordingly.

    3. Restart the Change Guardian server using the following command: rcsentinel restart.

    4. Add new email configuration with STARTTLS protocol using Policy Editor.

    5. Create routing rules in Change Guardian web console.

To add an email server to Change Guardian:

  1. In the Policy Editor, select Settings > Email Configuration.

  2. Under Email Servers, click Add.

  3. Specify the name and description of the email server you want to add.

  4. Specify values for the following fields:

      • SMTP Host. The fully qualified domain name of the email server computer.

      • SMTP Port. The remote SMTP port to use when communicating with the email server computer.

      • Secure. Specifies whether the connection to the SMTP computer must be a secure connection. If Yes, specify the protocol type.

        If you select No, the SMTP Port will be set to 25 by default.

        If you select Yes, the Protocol attribute is displayed.

      • From. The return email address appearing on each email alert for this email server.

      • Authentication Required. Specifies whether the email server requires SMTP authentication to send email. If Yes, specify the following:

        • User Name. The user name to use when connecting to the SMTP server.

        • Password. The password corresponding to the specified SMTP user name.

      • Protocol. Specifies which protocol can be used for the email communication. You can select SSL or STARTTLS.

        NOTE:If you select SSL, the SMTP Port value must be set to 465.

        If you select STARTTLS, the SMTP Port value must be set to 587.

6.8.2 Creating and Configuring Notification Groups

For each email server you add to Change Guardian, you must create one or more notification groups specific to that email server. A notification group specifies one or more recipients of the email alerts and contains change event information. When you assign email alerts to events in the Change Guardian web console, you can choose from the notification groups available for that email server. For more information, see Assigning Email Alerts to Events.

To create and configure a notification group:

  1. In the Policy Editor, select Settings > Email Configuration.

  2. Select the email server for which you want to create a notification group.

  3. Under Notification Groups, click Add.

  4. Specify the name and description of the notification group you want to create.

  5. Specify values for the following fields:

    • From. The return email address appearing on each email alert for this email server.

    • To. A list of email addresses, separated by commas, that receive email alerts.

    • CC. A list of email addresses, separated by commas, that receive copies of email alerts.

    • BCC. A list of email addresses, separated by commas, that receive blind copies of email alerts.

    • Subject. The subject for the alert email.

    • Maximum Events per Email. Specifies the maximum number of events in the email alert.

    • Include Change Details. Specifies whether the body of the email contains the details of the change detected by Change Guardian.

    • Email Format. Specifies either text or HTML.