Configure incoming mail

This topic explains how to configure incoming email for FireFlow, by either fetching emails from the mailbox using fetchmail, or by forwarding emails to FireFlow’s MTA.

It is necessary to configure incoming mail for FireFlow, in order to enable users to do the following:

• Submit change requests to FireFlow via email.
• Add comments to change requests by replying to FireFlow system-generated emails.

In this topic:

Incoming mail configuration methods

FireFlow supports the following methods for retrieving incoming mail:

Configure fetchmail for incoming emails	This is the recommended method. It requires that your organization's email server support POP3 and/or IMAP4 access.
Configure sendmail to receive forwarded emails as an MTA	Use this method if POP3 and IMAP4 access are not supported by your organization's email server, or not allowed by your organization's security policy.

Back to top

Configure fetchmail for incoming emails

Do the following:

Configure incoming mail for FireFlow. For more details, see Run the FireFlow setup program.

If you run into any issues, troubleshoot them as follows:

1. Log in to the FireFlow server using the username "root" and the related password.

2. Ensure that the file /home/fireflow/.fetchmailrc is owned by "fireflow" and that only this user has read/write permissions for the file.

   Do the following:

   1. Check the file's current owner and permissions, by entering the following command:

      ls –l /home/fireflow/.fetchmailrc

   2. If the owner and/or permissions require changing, enter the following commands:

      chown fireflow:fireflow /home/fireflow/.fetchmailrcchmod 600 /home/fireflow/.fetchmailrc

3. Open the file /home/fireflow/.fetchmailrc.

4. Do one of the following:

   • To configure fetchmail for POP3, add the following line in the file:

     poll <SERVER> protocol POP3 user <USER> pass <PASSWORD> mda "/usr/share/fireflow/local/bin/fireflow-mailgate"

   • To configure fetchmail for POP3 over SSL, add the following line in the file:

     poll <SERVER> protocol POP3 port <PORT> user <USER> pass <PASSWORD> ssl mda "/usr/share/fireflow/local/bin/fireflow-mailgate"

   • To configure fetchmail for IMAP, add the following line in the file:

     poll <SERVER> protocol IMAP user <USER> pass <PASSWORD> mda "/usr/share/fireflow/local/bin/fireflow-mailgate"

   In each case, replace the parameters as follows:

   <SERVER> - The email server's IP address or hostname

   <PORT> - The relevant port for the protocol used

   <USER> - The username required for accessing the mailbox (for example, [email protected])

   <PASSWORD> - The password required for accessing the mailbox

5. Save the file.

6. Ensure that the crontab of user “fireflow” runs fetchmail every 1 minute, by doing the following:

   1. Enter the following command:

      crontab -u fireflow -l

      You should see the following line:

      */1 * * * *    /usr/bin/fetchmail –-silent

      The line should not be commented out by a # prefix.

   2. If such a line does not exist, or if it is commented out, then edit the crontab of user “fireflow” by entering the command:

      crontab -u fireflow -e

7. To verify that fetchmail was configured correctly, submit a request by sending an email to the FireFlow server's email address.

   FireFlow should create a new change request within a couple of minutes.

Back to top

Configure sendmail to receive forwarded emails as an MTA

This solution involves configuring the organization’s main email server to forward emails that are addressed to FireFlow to the MTA running on the FireFlow server.

The outcome is that all emails sent to the FireFlow email address ([email protected]) are automatically forwarded to the address on the FireFlow server ([email protected]). The emails are received by the MTA running on the FireFlow server (sendmail) and processed by FireFlow.

Do the following:

1. Create a DNS entry (MX record) for the FireFlow server on the organization’s main DNS server (for example, fireflow.mycompany.com).

2. Log in to the FireFlow server using the username "root" and the related password.

3. If sendmail is not configured to listen on external interfaces, do the following:

   1. Enter the following commands to back up the current sendmail configuration and then edit it:

      cp -p /etc/mail/sendmail.mc /etc/mail/sendmail.mc_bkpcp -p /etc/mail/sendmail.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf_bkpvi /etc/mail/sendmail.mc

   2. Comment the following line by adding a dnl # prefix:

      dnl # DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl

   3. Save the file and exit vi.

   4. Enter the following command to compile the sendmail configuration:

      m4 /etc/mail/sendmail.mc > /etc/mail/sendmail.cf

4. Use the algosec_conf script to configure the hostname to be same as the FireFlow server's DNS entry name.

   For more details, see Configure ASMS machines.

5. Configure sendmail to process emails that are sent to the FireFlow server's address ([email protected]) using fireflow-mailgate, by doing the following:

   1. Enter the following commands to backup the current aliases and then edit it:

      cp -p /etc/aliases /etc/aliases_bkpcp -p /etc/aliases.db /etc/aliases.db_bkpln -s /usr/share/fireflow/local/bin/fireflow-mailgate /etc/smrsh/vi /etc/aliases

   2. Add the following line to the end of the file:

      fireflow:       "|/etc/smrsh/fireflow-mailgate"

   3. Save the file and exit vi.

   4. Enter the following command to compile the aliases file:

      [root@algosec /]# newaliases

   5. Restart sendmail, by entering the following command:

      /etc/init.d/sendmail restart

6. To verify that sendmail was configured correctly, submit a request by sending an email to the FireFlow server's email address.

FireFlow should create a new change request within a couple of minutes.

Back to top