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    Gateway down - no notification received via SMTP

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • P
      phaze75
      last edited by phaze75

      Hi,
      I have configured pfsense to send SMTP notifications via my LAN SMTP server. It works perfectly for the test notification and also for dyndns ip changes. However, pfsense does not notify me if my gateway goes down:

      Apr 27 03:45:35 rc.gateway_alarm 59722 >>> Gateway alarm: WAN_DHCP (Addr:80.109.220.1 Alarm:1 RTT:10.218ms RTTsd:4.909ms Loss:21%)
      Apr 27 03:45:35 check_reload_status updating dyndns WAN_DHCP
      Apr 27 03:45:35 check_reload_status Restarting ipsec tunnels
      Apr 27 03:45:35 check_reload_status Restarting OpenVPN tunnels/interfaces
      Apr 27 03:45:35 check_reload_status Reloading filter
      Apr 27 03:45:36 check_reload_status Linkup starting igb0
      Apr 27 03:45:36 kernel igb0: link state changed to DOWN

      Do I need to activate that somewhere?

      I am using:

      2.4.4-RELEASE-p2 (amd64)
      built on Wed Dec 12 07:40:18 EST 2018
      FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p6

      Best regards!

      chpalmerC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • M
        MoonKnight
        last edited by

        Hi,

        I think you need to install "mailreport" under Package Manager.

        --- 24.11 ---
        Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU D-1518 @ 2.20GHz
        Kingston DDR4 2666MHz 16GB ECC
        2 x HyperX Fury SSD 120GB (ZFS-mirror)
        2 x Intel i210 (ports)
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        • P
          phaze75
          last edited by

          Hi, I checked it out, but "mailreport" just sends out periodic reports. I would like to be instantly notified if the gateway goes down. I read in other articles that this is working for other users with SMTP notifications turned on. Thus I am wondering why it does not work for me...

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M
            mrsunfire
            last edited by

            If WAN is down, it can't be sent... You need a failover connection for that.

            Netgate 6100 MAX

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • P
              phaze75
              last edited by

              Hmm, why? The LAN interface (still up) and the SMTP server are in the same private subnet. I even configured the static IP of the SMTP server instead of the FQDN to prevent any DNS related issues.

              P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                last edited by johnpoz

                Do you have pfsense set to reset states on gateway down?

                system / adv / misc

                State Killing on Gateway Failure
                Flush all states when a gateway goes down The monitoring process will flush all states when a gateway goes down if this box is checked.
                

                Wonder if that could conflict with talking to your smtp server?

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                • P
                  phaze75
                  last edited by

                  Nope.

                  de2d99a0-b4e7-4db8-95e2-cf7b69526c09-image.png

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • M
                    mrsunfire
                    last edited by

                    Normally you don‘t need that. If your WAN is down, even a smtp on LAN can‘t send the mail.

                    Netgate 6100 MAX

                    P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • P
                      phaze75 @mrsunfire
                      last edited by phaze75

                      @mrsunfire said in Gateway down - no notification received via SMTP:

                      Normally you don‘t need that. If your WAN is down, even a smtp on LAN can‘t send the mail.

                      So why is it then possible to successfully send and receive a test notification (within the LAN) with a disabled WAN interface?

                      b3f0fd60-2bee-4be9-9db8-a4de64c28f2b-image.png

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • chpalmerC
                        chpalmer @phaze75
                        last edited by

                        @phaze75

                        Assuming that your email server logs never log the email attempt?

                        Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                        Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

                        P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • P
                          phaze75 @chpalmer
                          last edited by phaze75

                          @chpalmer
                          No, the SMTP server didn't log an email attempt at the incident "Apr 27 03:45:36 kernel igb0: link state changed to DOWN". But it logged my manually triggered SMTP test notifications properly.

                          I suspect pfsense did not try to send an email at all (bug?). What supports this suspicion is that pfsense properly logged my test notification (see below), but it did not log a notification of the "igb0: link state changed to DOWN" incident:

                          Apr 27 09:04:19 php-fpm /system_advanced_notifications.php: Message sent to @****. OK

                          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            mrsunfire
                            last edited by

                            Under System/Advanced/Notifications you're sure you did not check the first box "Disable SMTP"? Sometimes this happens because you think check a box enables something.

                            Netgate 6100 MAX

                            P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • P
                              phaze75 @mrsunfire
                              last edited by

                              @mrsunfire
                              No.
                              7cd9fd26-0a85-433a-a148-b81fbed40c8c-image.png

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Do you see notifications when the WAN comes back up?

                                Do you see gateway alarms logged when the WAN is down? If you just disable the WAN removing the gateway monitor on it I don't believe you will see an alert.

                                Steve

                                P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • P
                                  phaze75 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by phaze75

                                  @stephenw10 said in Gateway down - no notification received via SMTP:

                                  Do you see notifications when the WAN comes back up?

                                  No.

                                  Do you see gateway alarms logged when the WAN is down?

                                  Yes, see my first post. The first line of the log contains the gateway alarm.

                                  If you just disable the WAN removing the gateway monitor on it I don't believe you will see an alert.

                                  That is clear. I just disabled the WAN manually to prove that SMTP (test) notifications can still be sent by pfsense even if the WAN adapter is down/disabled.

                                  I suspect there might be an issue of pfsense preventing a gateway alarm to trigger the corresponding SMTP notification.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    You don't have gateway action disabled in the gateway setup?

                                    Though I would still expect the alarm to trigger an alert in that case. Not sure I've ever tested that though.

                                    Steve

                                    P 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • P
                                      phaze75 @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10 said in Gateway down - no notification received via SMTP:

                                      You don't have gateway action disabled in the gateway setup?

                                      No. See below.

                                      e2d1f2c1-96f7-497f-ae4b-0d7e51428e89-image.png

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                                      • P
                                        phaze75 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 So, where do we go from here? Should I file a bug?

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                                        • GertjanG
                                          Gertjan @phaze75
                                          last edited by

                                          I guess this is it :
                                          @phaze75 said in Gateway down - no notification received via SMTP:

                                          I suspect pfsense did not try to send an email at all (bug?)

                                          I took a look at what happens when a gateway (WAN) goes down.
                                          I'm pretty sure that there are no mail notifications attempts in that case.

                                          No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                          Edit : and where are the logs ??

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • johnpozJ
                                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                            last edited by

                                            This is kind of been a gray area for a while - I am not aware of any docs that spell out what triggers a notification.

                                            Would be a nice if there was some doc listing what exactly will trigger a smtp notification... Better yet would be a way to toggle different notifications on or off..

                                            Notification of wan down is prob never thought of since more than likely smtp notification would be going to outside smtp server. I just use a "free" outside monitoring service that send me email when it can not ping my wan IP..

                                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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