Chapter 10. Configuring Email Notifications

Email notifications are created by Satellite Server periodically or after completion of certain events. The periodic notifications can be sent daily, weekly or monthly.

For an overview of available notification types, see Section 10.1, “Email Notification Types”.

Users do not receive any email notifications by default. An administrator can configure users to receive notifications based on criteria such as the type of notification, and frequency.

Important

Satellite Server does not enable outgoing emails by default, therefore you must review your email configuration. For more information, see Configuring Satellite Server for Outgoing Emails in Installing Satellite Server in a Connected Network Environment.

10.1. Email Notification Types

Satellite can create the following email notifications:

  • Audit summary: A summary of all activity audited by Satellite Server.
  • Host built: A notification sent when a host is built.
  • Host errata advisory: A summary of applicable and installable errata for hosts managed by the user.
  • Compliance policy summary: A summary of OpenSCAP policy reports and their results.
  • Promote errata: A notification sent only after a Content View promotion. It contains a summary of errata applicable and installable to hosts registered to the promoted Content View. This allows a user to monitor what updates have been applied to which hosts.
  • Sync errata: A notification sent only after synchronizing a repository. It contains a summary of new errata introduced by the synchronization.

For a complete list of email notification types, navigate to Administer > Users in the Satellite web UI, click the Username of the required user, and select the Email Preferences tab.

10.2. Configuring Email Notification Preferences

You can configure Satellite to send email messages to individual users registered to Satellite. Satellite sends the email to the email address that has been added to the account, if present. Users can edit the email address by clicking on their name in the top-right of the Satellite web UI and selecting My account.

Configure email notifications for a user from the Satellite web UI.

Note

If you want to send email notifications to a group email address instead of an individual email address, create a user account with the group email address and minimal Satellite permissions, then subscribe the user account to the desired notification types.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Click the Username of the user you want to edit.
  3. On the User tab, verify the value of the Mail field. Email notifications will be sent to the address in this field.
  4. On the Email Preferences tab, select Mail Enabled.

  5. Select the notifications you want the user to receive using the drop-down menus next to the notification types.

    Note

    The Audit Summary notification can be filtered by entering the required query in the Mail Query text box.

  6. Click Submit.

    The user will start receiving the notification emails.

10.3. Testing Email Delivery

To verify the delivery of emails, send a test email to a user. If the email gets delivered, the settings are correct.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Click on the username.

  3. On the Email Preferences tab, click Test email.

    A test email message is sent immediately to the user’s email address.

If the email is delivered, the verification is complete. Otherwise, you must perform the following diagnostic steps:

  1. Verify the user’s email address.
  2. Verify Satellite Server’s email configuration.
  3. Examine firewall and mail server logs.

10.4. Testing Email Notifications

To verify that users are correctly subscribed to notifications, trigger the notifications manually.

Procedure

  • To trigger the notifications, execute the following command: 

    # foreman-rake reports:_My_Frequency_

    Replace My_Frequency with one of the following:

  • daily
  • weekly
  • monthly

This triggers all notifications scheduled for the specified frequency for all the subscribed users. If every subscribed user receives the notifications, the verification succeeds.

Note

Sending manually triggered notifications to individual users is currently not supported.

10.5. Changing Email Notification Settings for a Host

Satellite can send event notifications for a host to the host’s registered owner. You can configure Satellite to send email notifications either to an individual user or a user group. When set to a user group, all group members who are subscribed to the email type receive a message.

Receiving email notifications for a host can be useful, but also overwhelming if you are expecting to receive frequent errors, for example, because of a known issue or error you are working around.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts, locate the host that you want to view, and click Edit in the Actions column.
  2. Go to the Additional Information tab. If the checkbox Include this host within Satellite reporting is checked, then the email notifications are enabled on that host.

  3. Optional: Toggle the checkbox to enable or disable the email notifications.

    Note

    If you want to receive email notifications, ensure that you have an email address set in your user settings.