[resolved] Email Piping/Fetching w/ Microsoft Exchange

tdefreest

Having difficulty finding this solution by searching. I've read that someone posted how to do this but I was unable to find that thread.

I'm looking to utilize email piping with the osTicket installation on the webserver with the email accounts residing on our on-premise Microsoft exchange server. Each email account has been created and are functional. Currently, I am creating tickets/updates on behalf of the customer using the "create ticket" and "internal notes".

I am trying to enable POP (or IMAP) with the following settings:

• Status: Enabled

• Host: webmail.domain.com

• Port: 995

• Protocol: POP

• Encryption: None

• Fetch Frequency: 5 minutes

• Emails per Fetch: 10

• Fetched Emails: Do Nothing

However, I receive the following errors:

• Warning: imap_open(): Couldn't open stream {webmail.domain.com/pop3/novalidate-cert}INBOX in /home3/user/public_html/ticket/include/class.mailfetch.php on line 142

• Connection failed to webmail.domain.com,995: Connection timed out

Questions:

1. Does that warning message have any impact on functionality?

2. Am I using the correct port?

3. Is there something I'm missing?

ntozier

Someone posted a way to do this, however my understanding is that you cannot use piping with Microsoft Exchange. It was a kludgey work around that involved using postfix on the local web server... I wouldn't recommend doing it. Simply setup IMAP/POP instead. It takes way less effort and works just as good.

tdefreest

Forgive my naivety. I'm not sure what you mean by setting up IMAP/POP. You mean in the email admin section?

ntozier

enable IMAP in php (restart webserver)setup your IMAP account in the Admin panel.setup Windows task scheduler to run cron.phpenable mail collection in Admin panel.Please see these wiki articles for more information:http://osticket.com/wiki/Email_settingshttp://osticket.com/wiki/POP3/IMAP_Setting_Guide

tdefreest

Thank you very much for that thorough response. Could you explain the "enable IMAP in php (restart webserver)" line for me?

ntozier

That depends on the OS that your webserver is running (which you haven't told us).The short version is that you need to enable the imap extension in your php.ini.You should be able to find it easy enough by Googling "how to enable imap in php $OS" where $OS is your operating system.

tdefreest

Embarrassed to say, I do not know which OS we are running, or more specifically, which one is pertinent.

We have our website on hostgator, running Linux CentOS. My computer runs on Windows 7. Our Microsoft Exchange server runs on... to be honest I'm not sure.. probably 2010, I'd have to ask our IT department this.

tdefreest

So now I realize that my OS is Linux CentOS. I suppose my next action is to contact my host, Hostgator, and ask them how to create a php.ini file and enable IMAP. Does that sound right?

ntozier

I don't know if they let you use imap or not... I imagine that they would but you would want to ask them.Here's a link to their php.ini articlehttp://support.hostgator.com/articles/what-is-php-ini

tdefreest

OK so I contacted Hostgator. They tell me IMAP is already enabled and the php version is compatible (5.4). I believe the problem may lie with our MX record (webmail.domain.com), which still points to Network Solutions. So now I have to contact them.. to be continued!

ntozier

Is your host running SELinux? That might be blocking traffic to the mail server.

tdefreest

HostGator is running CentOS (Linux). Network Solutions is running TBD.. Unfortunately, I don't have the credentials for that account, so I'm asking our IT department to contact the manager, apparently we outsourced this function.

ntozier

Yes and CentOS (Linux) usually has SELinux installed, which is why i asked.

tdefreest

See attached list of program versions. Yes, we do have SELinux installed, which comes bundled with Redhat's distribution. I'm unable to find any documentation or preferences for SELinux however.

Program Versions.PNG

ntozier

Red Hat? I think that you mean CentOS (and yes its enabled by default in CentOS). You can try disabling it and see if it fixes the problem. If it does then you should re-enable it and research how to create a rule to allow the connection that you want to have work. You may find this link helpful;https://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.1/Deployment_Guide/sec-sel-enable-disable.html

tdefreest

Yup, Red Hat, the support guy on host gator mentioned it and it's also mentioned in the fine text at the bottom of the page you linked there.

Thanks for this information. I'll check this out tomorrow.

ragortue

Hi tdefreest, so did disabling SELinux fixed this for you? blank

tdefreest

Actually, I have not yet had a chance to finish troubleshooting this. I will certainly post with results when I do.

tdefreest

The issue has been resolved. We changed protocol to IMAP SSL port 993. Despite trying this initially and failed, it now works correctly.