EDpCloud

Sync, Replicate, Protect Data

EDpCloud™: Synchronization software alerts configuration.

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• REQUIREMENTS
• FILE FORMAT
• ALERT PARAMETERS.
• SMTP EXAMPLE.
• SENDMAIL EXAMPLE.
• FIREWALLS AND ANTI VIRI/MALWARE
• ENVIRONMENT
• SUPPORT
• AUTHOR

NAME

edalerts.cfg - EnduraData's File Replication Software email alerts.

SYNOPSIS

EnduraData's file replication and synchronization software uses $ED_BASE_DIR/etc/edalerts.cfg to configure alerts to send notifications to an administrator about critical events related to EDpCloud file synchronization software solution. The same alerts configuration file is also used to send custom reports that monitor the health of the file replication software. Such reports can be created by adding a custom report to the schedule configuration and by customizing the report script called edcustom, edcustom1 or edcustom2 under the bin directory.

REQUIREMENTS

Your mail should be configured correctly. To avoid spam, use smtp as a transport. In order to use smtp, you need a valid authenticated account. Make sure your email port is also correct. For security reasons, make sure you create a specific email for alerts and alias it or forward it to system administrators emails.

FILE FORMAT

edalerts uses one parameter per line. The line has the format key=value. "#" is used for comments. Blank lines and spaces are ignored.

ALERT PARAMETERS.

Alert parameters have the format param=value:

The following is a list of some parameters that are supported by EDpCloud file replication and synchronization software alert notification:

mailer=smtp This is the transport/protocol type. Valid values are smtp or sendmail.

sec=tls This parameter is used when the protocol is smtp. Valid values are tls or ssl.

port=value This is the port number of the mail server.

Example of port values are:

25 for sendmail protocol, 587 for tls authentication and smtp, 465 for ssl authentication and smtp.

Check with your system administrator to get the correct port.

smtp=smtpservername_or_ip : This is the ip address or fully qualified hostname of the smtp server.

When using smtp you need to also specify the authentication email and the authentication password.

authemail=authentication email: This is a valid authentication email.

password=smtp server authentication password: T

This is a valid authentication password for the account on the smtp server above.

sendername=Name of the sender

This is an optional parameter that indicates the name of the person sending the email alert.

from=sender_email

This is the email of the person or process sending email.

sendmail=/usr/sbin/sendmail -bs

This is the path to sendmail on Unix/Linux if using sendmail as a transport.

to=who should receive emails

This is the mail or email alias of who should receive email notifications from EDpCloud file synchronization software.

frequency=seconds

How many seconds between alerts. The default is 30 minutes.

Be warned that you will get a flood of emails if things start to fail on the receiver side. It is best to enable the alerts only on the sender side since the alerts are controlled at a finer granularity on the sender side. When you receive an alert on the sender side, examine both the sender (eddist.log, ed_sender*log) and receiver logs (ed_receiver*.log) on both end points of the communication.

limit=bytes

Maximum number of bytes to send. Alerts are critical issues. An alert notification may be up to "limit" bytes.

monitor=sender,receiver,both

Which side to monitor: sender: for the sending/source side, receiver: for the server that is receiving data, both for the sender and the receiver.

The keywords can be separated by any character. The default is to send alerts from the sender only. Be warned that the receiver side may be very verbose if a failure occurs. It is sufficient to use monitor=sender rather than both or sender and receiver.

The sender's failure will give you a clue about failures (You will need to examine ed_sender*log and ed_receiver*log to resolve the problem).

SMTP EXAMPLE.

        mailer=smtp
        sec= tls
        smtp=smtp.gmail.com
        authemail=jane.doe@gmail.com
        password=Jane1234Password
        sendername=Jane Doe
        from=janedoe@somecorp.com
        to=admin@somecorp.com
        frequency=300
        limit=1000

SENDMAIL EXAMPLE.

        mailer=sendmail
        sendername=Jane Doe
        from=janedoe@somecorp.com
        to=admin@somecorp.com
        frequency=300
        limit=1000

FIREWALLS AND ANTI VIRI/MALWARE

If the alerts are failing. Use edcustom to test from the command line by typing edcustom.

If this fails as well, make sure that your firewall allows outbound communication from your host to the mail server.

Make sure that the port can be reached. Windows users are likely to experience this more on Windows XP or Windows 2003.

ENVIRONMENT

ED_BASE_DIR: This is the name of the top directory where the file replication and file transfer software is installed. This directory will also contain various configurations, journals and log files.

SUPPORT

Users of EnduraData alert notifications must make sure that their mail server is configured correctly before using alerts. They can also use third party smtp mail servers such as gmail, yahoo, microsoft, etc.

For more information contact <support@enduradata.com>

AUTHOR

A. A. El Haddi, elhaddi@ieee.org

S. Dimitri, sdimitri@enduradata.com