SMTP Setup for Exchange Server

[Helge Plack]

Hi there,

I'm trying to get the SMTP running on our bigbluebutton server.
Our external IT guy configured a connector in the exchange admin console, which gives access to the BBB server on port 25. According to the IT guy, there is no authentication needed, as he (and I checked that myself on the EAC) put in the IP address of the BBB server, so the Exchange server recognizes the BBB server by its address. TLS is being used

So, I put in the following in the .env file:

SMTP_SERVER=outlook.<ourdomain> (that's how he configured the exchange server)
SMTP_PORT=25
SMTP_DOMAIN=<ourdomain>
SMTP_USERNAME=
SMTP_PASSWORD=
SMTP_AUTH=none
SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=false

After saving that, I tried checking it with "docker run --rm --env-file .env bigbluebutton/greenlight:v2 bundle exec rake conf:check" and I get the following result:
Checking environment: Passed
Checking Connection: Passed
Checking Secret: Passed

Checking SMTP connection: Failed
Error connecting to SMTP - end of file reached

Is this the correct way to set it up? I'm wondering how to configure the SMTP_USERNAME and SMTP_PASSWORD, as it's not necessary to use one with our exchange server. Should I comment out the two lines?

Thanks in advance
Helge

[Helge Plack]

Hi again,

I have to apologize to not have tried everything, which now I did.

Obviously, I got one info wrong: I surely need TLS and also username and password for this to work. So, I changed it to the following:

ALLOW_MAIL_NOTIFICATIONS=true

SMTP_SERVER=outlook.<ourdomain>
SMTP_PORT=25
SMTP_DOMAIN=<ourdomain>
SMTP_USERNAME=username
SMTP_PASSWORD=password
SMTP_AUTH=plain (Also tried 'ssl' and 'tls')
SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=false (also tried 'true')

SMTP_SENDER=<MAILADDRESS>

With SMTP_AUTH set to 'plain', it replies with "Error connecting to SMTP - 504 5.7.4 Unrecognized authentication type", with 'ssl' or 'tls' it says "Error connecting to SMTP - wrong authentication type tls/ssl". So what should I give him, it seems to be able to connect, but can't authenticate properly. I think, I tried every combination now, so I'd be happy to get suggestions.

Thanks again

Helge

[Ali Alhaidary]

Try:

SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE=none

SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

Ali

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[Helge Plack]

I accidentally only replied to Ali, so once more for all:

Hey Ali,

thx for your reply. I tried your idea:

SMTP_AUTH=plain
SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE=none
SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

The rest I left as is. Result was:

Error connecting to SMTP - 504 5.7.4 Unrecognized authentication type

Any ideas?

[Ali Alhaidary]

I assume that:

1. reload (restart) greenlight after each change

2. you can telnet your server on port 25

Other than that, I can not help, sorry

Ali

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[Helge Plack]

Hello again,

I did a fresh installation (newest version) of BigBlueButton and first of all: I'm amazed what happened since version 2.2! Great work, guys! :-)

About my SMTP problem: The Exchange Server is set up to allow connections from the IP address of the BBB server, so I don't need to give any login credentials. I tried that with telnet. After helo <IP-Address_of_BBB_Server> I could easily send a mail, which arrived at the correct address.

Now I'm trying to get this into the config for greenlight and I don't know how.

I have these to choose from:

#   SMTP_SERVER=smtp.gmail.com --> outlook.<FQDN> of our Exchange server

#   SMTP_PORT=587 --> 25 in my case
#   SMTP_DOMAIN=gmail.com --> <FQDN>
#   SMTP_USERNAME=<your...@gmail.com> --> This is where I start to not know what to do...do I leave it blank, take out the whole line, uncomment it...??
#   SMTP_PASSWORD=<yourpassword> --> Same as the line above...
#   SMTP_AUTH=plain --> here I'm relatively clear, what to put in, but maybe I'm wrong
#   SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=true --> when connecting to the server by telnet, it hung up when giving the command "starttls"...although the server ist configured to require TLS, I don't know, if that is the right way to go...

So as always, I'm happy to get help with that.

Thx in advance and best regards

Helge

[Helge Plack]

According to this answer, I wanted to try to send a mail through my current setting, which is the following:

ALLOW_MAIL_NOTIFICATIONS=true

SMTP_SERVER=outlook.<FQDN> of our Exchange server

SMTP_PORT=25
SMTP_DOMAIN= <FQDN>
# SMTP_USERNAME=
# SMTP_PASSWORD=
SMTP_AUTH=ttls
SMTP_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

After I restarted the docker container, I got the error "Rerouting error" in Firefox, but, after finding out that the page shows in Google Chrome, I deleted all cookies in Firefox. After that, I could access it again, re-verify my e-mail-address and that actually worked! So, although the command to check the config says

"Checking SMTP connection: Failed", it still works like a charm.

Thanks for all your help :-)