Notifications (by email) and Utils

[jordipalet]

If I understood correctly, some additional modules need to be enabled (https://openwisp.io/docs/stable/ansible/user/enabling-modules.html).

However, the Notifications (I will like to configure them by email) and Utils modules, looks like are enabled by default (in fact web notifications are working fine for me).

However I'm not able to find info about how I can configure the email notifications, neither I've in the menu a notifications (and utils) menu.

Not sure if I'm missing something or something else need to be configured in the playbook or installed in addition to openwisp.openwisp2 itself?

Tks!

[nemesifier]

If I understood correctly, some additional modules need to be enabled (https://openwisp.io/docs/stable/ansible/user/enabling-modules.html).

Optional but enabled by default:

• Monitoring

Optional modules disabled by default:

• Firmware Upgrader
• Network Topology
• RADIUS

However, the Notifications (I will like to configure them by email) and Utils modules, looks like are enabled by default (in fact web notifications are working fine for me).

I am not sure about what you mean with "I will like to configure them by email", I'll try to provide pointers and links to different parts of the docs to help shed light on this subject.

Utils is not a module but rather a collection of common utilities for the server application (python/django), used by all the other server modules.

The notifications module is a dependency of several modules and over time it's going to become a basic dependency almost like openwisp-users, as most server modules need to communicate with network admins when unexpected events happen.

Refer to the architecture overview for more info: https://openwisp.io/docs/stable/general/architecture.html

However I'm not able to find info about how I can configure the email notifications, neither I've in the menu a notifications (and utils) menu.

Not sure if I'm missing something or something else need to be configured in the playbook or installed in addition to openwisp.openwisp2 itself?

There's an important clarification to make: notifications VS monitoring alerts.

Notifications: provided by notification module (refer to notifications docs), there can be several notification types which are registered by different openwisp modules. The notifications module allows the openwisp modules to send notifications to admins about events happening in the network.
Think of this as a library. It provides settings to alter the behavior for all notifications. Only minor things can be changed via the web UI, most need to be changed via django settings (if you're unsure about django settings refer to How to Edit Django Settings).

Monitoring alerts: these are notification types that are registered by the monitoring module. Refer to the monitoring alerts page for more info.
The thresholds for alerts can be tweaked from the web UI for single devices or globally via the OPENWISP_MONITORING_METRICS setting.

Maybe you're looking for changing the global alert settings (eg: increase the tolerance to avoid getting spammed with alerts?) or maybe you're looking for other settings, but I tried to cover most cases in the docs I linked.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you still have doubts.

[jordipalet]

Hi,

I really tried to understand everything for hours before sending the previous message and now again, but no luck. My be the documentation is assuming that you know about Django and all the programming blocks. I already got some idea, but probably not enough.

What I'm trying to do is to send emails for alerts, for example, when ping or just health fails for a given device. So now I guess this is a monitoring alert, but I can't see how to set it up.

Also I tried to find the GUI the page that I see in this link https://openwisp.io/docs/stable/notifications/user/notification-preferences.html but is not there for me.

So that's why I think that something for the notifications is not installed in my setup, or I just was not able to find it.

Tks!

[nemesifier]

Yes, you're referring to monitoring alerts. The ping checks and its alerts are enabled by default.

Notifications show up in the upper right corner of the screen as shown in Notification Widget.

What installation method are you using? Please provide the link to the installation instructions you're using.

[jordipalet]

I used ansible, following https://openwisp.io/docs/stable/ansible/user/quickstart.html

Ping alerts are working in the GUI. I can see the health status, including ping, cpu, memory, disk, etc.

What I will like is to be able to generate an email when, for example, ping fails or health is not OK, etc.

[nemesifier]

Email notifications are enabled by default, but you need to make sure the email address is flagged as verified (in the user details page, under the email section):

Then, you need to ensure emails are being sent successfully, eg:

# SSH into your VM
cd /opt/openwisp2
source env/bin/activate  # activate python virtual environment
python manage.py sendtestemail [email protected]

If you don't receive it you'll have to check the postfix logs in /var/log/mail.log.

Note: From version 25 (which should be released soonish), upon login we notify the user in the UI if the email address is not verified. Notifications also got various improvements like batching, improved UX for notification preferences and a better email template, these features right now are only avaialable in the dev version.

[jordipalet]

Clear now, I forced a too low disk level and got the email notification, tks!