You add a Standard Email Plug-In so that you can use Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to email vRealize Operations alert notifications to your virtual infrastructure administrators, network operations engineers, and other interested individuals.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have an email user account that you can use as the connection account for the alert notifications. If you choose to require authentication, you must also know the password for this account.

Procedure

  1. From the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings.
  2. Click Add, and from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu, select Standard Email Plugin.
    The dialog box expands to include your SMTP settings.
  3. Enter an Instance Name.
    This is the name that identifies this instance that you select when you later configure notification rules.
  4. Configure the SMTP options appropriate for your environment.
    Option Description
    Use Secure Connection
    Activates secure communication encryption using SSL/TLS. If you select this option, you must select a method in the Secure Connection Type drop-down menu.
    Note: In vRealize Operations Manager, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select the Use Secure Connection checkbox and select TLS as the Secure Connection Type.
    Requires Authentication

    Activates authentication on the email user account that you use to configure this SMTP instance. If you select this option, you must provide a password for the user account.

    SMTP Host

    URL or IP address of your email host server.

    SMTP Port

    Default port SMTP uses to connect with the server.

    Secure Connection Type
    Select either SSL/TLS as the communication encryption method used in your environment from the drop-down menu. You must select a connection type if you select Use Secure Connection.
    Note: In vRealize Operations Manager, the Standard Email Plugin always uses the 'starttls' command when you select the Use Secure Connection checkbox and select TLS as the Secure Connection Type.
    User Name

    Email user account that is used to connect to the email server.

    Password

    Password for the connection user account. A password is required if you select Requires Authentication.

    Sender Email Address

    Email address that appears on the notification message.

    Sender Name

    Displayed name for the sender email address.

    Receiver Email Address

    Receiver's email address.
  5. Click Save.
  6. To start the outbound alert service for this plug-in, select the instance in the list and click Activate on the toolbar.

Results

This instance of the Standard Email Plug-In for outbound SMTP alerts is configured and running.

What to do next

Create notification rules that use the Standard Email Plug-In to send a message to your users about alerts requiring their attention. See User Scenario: Create a vRealize Operations Email Alert Notification.