Notifications

Notifications work in the form of email. The backend software used here is postfix [1] configured as a MTA in satellite mode. The options allow to configure to send mail via SMTP servers using the standard port or use SSL/TLS. The web interface allows the configuration of two recipient addresses. Both are assigned to the root user.

Configuration

The central MTA configuration is stored in /etc/postfix/main.cf

openmediavault creates the /etc/postfix/recipient_canonical to define the root (admin) and normal users mail addresses when added via the web interface. Example:

root rootthe@gmail.com
mike mikeadmin@themailco.com
@server.lan rootthe@gmail.com

When a scheduled task is defined to run as a certain user the output generated from that task, will be sent to that user defined mail.

The last line is the catch all address. For example a scheduled task set to be run as user with no mail defined in their profile will get the output generated sent to the catch all address (rootthe@gmail.com). The same will happen with any other mail action intended for an undefined user (not in that list).

Mails can be sent from terminal also with mail command. mail receives from stdin.

Examples 1:

$ echo "Message body" | mail -s "Test subject" mike

Mail will be delivered to mikeadmin@themailco.com as it is defined in canonical_recipients. The delivery address can be explicit also:

$ echo "Message body" | mail -s "Test subject" mikeadmin@themailco.com

Examples 2:

$ echo "Message body" | mail -s "Test subject" john

Mail will delivered to rootthe@gmail.com because user john does not have an email address defined in canonical_recipients, so it goes to the catch all address.

Warning

openmediavault stores the configuration values in the database (including the password). Before posting information for support please sanitize the values.

Events

The server will send notifications for this events:

  • Log in from browser (If cookies are allowed, then it just sends once).

  • Use of sudo by a user not in allowed group.

  • Summary of locked users by pam_tally2 [2]. This happens when a user or admin attempts fails to log in for more than three times.

  • MD RAID events: degraded, reshape, etc. [D]

  • Monit software: php-fpm, nginx, netatalk, rrdcached, collectd and omv-engined. [D]

  • Monit filesystem: usage and mount points. [D]

  • Monit system: CPU, Load and memory usage. [D]

  • Scheduled tasks. [D]

  • Rsync jobs. [D]

  • Cron-apt: Summary of upgrade packages available. [D]

  • SMART: Report of attribute changes. [D]

Options marked with [D] can be disabled selectively. The rest only when the whole notification backend is disabled.

Gmail

Gmail can be used to send notifications, but only if you have enabled 2FA for your account. The App-Password must then be used as the password in the settings page. You can manage your Google App-Passwords here.

Please use the following settings:

SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Port: 587
Encryption mode: STARTTLS
Sender email: <USERNAME>@gmail.com
Authentication required: Yes
Username: <USERNAME>@gmail.com
Password: <THE_APP_PASSWORD>
Primary email: <USERNAME>@gmail.com
Secondary email: optional

You can use any email address as your primary address. It can, but does not have to be, the sender address.

Note

Aliases are allowed. This is good for filtering later in gmail. <USERNAME>@gmail.com can be <USERNAME>+server1@gmail.com or <USERNAME>+whatever@gmail.com.

Note

Google removed the “less secure apps” option on May 30, 2022. This means that there is no way to turn it on. An App-Password must be used instead as described above.

Third Party Notifications

Whenever a mail is dispatched by the MTA, postfix will execute a run-parts of this directory /usr/share/openmediavault/notification/sink.d, passing the following environmental variables:

OMV_NOTIFICATION_FROM
OMV_NOTIFICATION_RECIPIENT
OMV_NOTIFICATION_SUBJECT
OMV_NOTIFICATION_DATE
OMV_NOTIFICATION_MESSAGE_FILE

Also the following positional arguments are passed:

$1 The path of the file containing the message text (OMV_NOTIFICATION_MESSAGE_FILE)
$2 The FROM email address (OMV_NOTIFICATION_FROM)
$3 The TO recipient email adresses (OMV_NOTIFICATION_RECIPIENT)

Most modern non mail notifications systems have a documented API, where you can send text using curl payloads with a secret TOKEN. So most common case would be to use OMV_NOTIFICATION_MESSAGE_FILE variable only in your script.

Your script’s filename must adhere to the following standards:

  • Must belong to one or more of the following namespaces:

    • The LANANA-assigned namespace (^[a-z0-9]+$)

    • The LSB hierarchical and reserved namespaces (^_?([a-z0-9_.]+-)+[a-z0-9]+$)

    • The Debian cron script namespace (^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+$)

  • Start with a number like this: <##>pushnotification

Note

  • Do not add an extension to your script in the run-parts directory, otherwise it will get excluded.

  • Make sure the script file is executable. In this case also make sure the script is not a symlink to a mounted filesystem with noexec flag.