Configuring email

While working on tickets, Technicians often interact with Requestors by using email messages. By using email conversations, you can create a single repository to store information about all the conversations that are part of a record. The Technicians have access to all the information in one place, and you can track all communications about any record. 

Video presentation

The following video (11:57) provides information about configuring email in Track-It!:

 https://youtu.be/R9lV8I38rY4?list=PLibAMtD70sYGYdao7TNnEiuvoHy_z8t4V

Key features

• You can configure the incoming and outgoing email settings, notification schedules, email filters, and email monitor settings, which allows you to customize and manage your emails quickly and easily. Email configurations in Track-It! enable users to convert email messages to records, to update records, and to send email notifications.
• You can use emails to configure Business Rules to perform the following actions:
  • Create, update, or delete tickets, assignments, requestors, and announcements.
  • Schedule reports to be sent.
  • Automate actions and send email notifications based on the configured service level agreements (SLAs).

For more information, see Configuring-Business-Rules and Configuring-service-level-agreements.

• If you want to configure only the TLS protocol version for your email configuration, seeMicrosoft support article.

Key considerations

• If the length of an email subject for an incoming email message is more than 400 characters, the email is not processed.
• If the email message has a restricted file type attached, that attachment is not added to the record. Instead, only an Email Received note is added to the record.
• To allow incoming email messages to be processed quickly by the Track-It! server, make sure that the "ref#Ticket/Assignment-<ID>" is added as a keyword to the email subject or in email body.
• When an email message is received, if the email address of the logged-in technician is mapped in the email settings, a note is added in the context of logged-in technician. If the email address added is not mapped, the note is added in the context of technician to whom the record is assigned.
• If the mandatory email settings are not configured, the Email Configuration tile is denoted with a red bar.
• You must stop and start the email monitor service to ensure that the changes are applied after the following actions:
  • After you configure or update the email settings
  • After you configure, edit, or delete an incoming mailbox
    For more information, see Restarting Email Monitor Settings.
• Track-It! supports the following TLS protocol versions:
  • TLS 1.0
  • TLS 1.1
  • TLS 1.2

Before you begin

Before you begin to use emails, ensure that the following requirements are met:

• Ensure that you set a preferred value for the featEmailProcessingPostAction flag in the NAMSYSProperties table in the database. If you are installing Track-It! for the first time, the value is set as 2 by default. If you are upgrading your version of Track-It!, the value is set as 0 by default, but you can change it based on your preference:

• 
  
  • 0—Mark the email as read after processed by the email processor
  • 1—Delete the email message after processing

  • 2—Copy the email message to the TrackItProcessedEmails  folder and delete it from the inbox folder.

    Important

    For more information on how to change the default behavior of the processed emails, see Knowledge Article 000266751.

• Ensure that you have at least one email account set up on the exchange server.
• Ensure that the email exchange server and the Track-It! server are on the same domain or have an established two-way secure connection.
• Ensure that the IIS SMTP server is configured to send email messages to the correct email server so that the outbound email messages are routed correctly.

Configuring incoming and outgoing email settings

You can configure email accounts to receive email requests to automatically generate help desk tickets. Also, you must configure the account that you want to use to send the outbound email notifications. Incoming email must be configured before users can communicate with Track-It! via email. For more information on configuring Track-It! to read and send emails with a Gmail or Google account, see 

Configuring Track-It! to read and send with Gmail or Google account

(2020 Release 01) Track-It! supports Exchange Web Service (EWS) for incoming and outgoing email. EWS supports both on-premise and the Microsoft Office 365 email mailbox.

(2020 Release 02) Track-It! supports EWS with OAuth for incoming email. The following prerequisites are applicable before you configure incoming email using EWS with OAuth:

• You must register Track-It! with Microsoft Azure Active Directory. For the related procedure, see Azure documentation or website.
• You must generate the Application (Client) ID, Directory (Tenant) ID, and Client Secret for Track-It!.

You must set up at least one EWS, POP3, or IMAP mailbox exclusively for Track-It!.

To configure an incoming email mailbox

Perform the following steps to configure an incoming email mailbox:

1. Click the hamburger menu  and select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings > Email Configurations > Incoming and Outgoing Emails.
3. In the Incoming Emails section, click New.
4. In the Add Incoming Mailbox dialog box, from the Mailbox Type list, select an appropriate mailbox type:
   • (2020 Release 02) Exchange Web Services with OAuth
   • Exchange Web Service with Basic Authentication
   • IMAP
   • POP3

5. (For either type of EWS only) In the User Account Name field, enter the email address of the user. The format of the email must be userName@domain.com.
   If you enter email in an incorrect format, the following error message is displayed:
   

6. (2020 Release 02) (For EWS with OAuth only) Perform the following steps if you selected Exchange Web Services with OAuth in step 4.
   1. In the Application (Client) ID field, enter the application ID that you generated while registering Track-It! with Azure.
   2. In the Client Secret field, enter the client secret that you generated while registering Track-It! with Azure.
   3. In the Directory (Tenant) ID field, enter the directory ID that you generated while registering Track-It! with Azure.
7. (For IMAP and POP3 only) In the Server (Name or IP) field, enter a server name or IP address for the mailbox.
8. (For IMAP and POP3 only) In the User Account Name field, enter a valid username.
9. (For IMAP, POP3, and EWS with Basic Authentication only) In the Password field, enter a valid password.
10. (For IMAP, POP3, and EWS with Basic Authentication only) In the Confirm Password field, enter the password again. 

11. (For either type of EWS only) Click the Auto-discover Exchange Web Service button to automatically connect to the end-point of the email that you entered in step 5.
    If you have entered an incorrect email or Track-It! could not discover the endpoint of the email, the following error is displayed:
    

    Tip

    You can manually enter the Exchange mailbox URL in the Exchange Web Service URL field. The format must be https://serverName/EWS/Exchange.asmx.

12. (For IMAP and POP3 only) In the Port field, enter the port details.
13. To enable the mailbox, select the Enable Mailbox check box.
14. (For IMAP and POP3 only) (Optional) To establish a secure connection for the mailbox, select the Use SSL check box.
    Ensure your email exchange server supports SSL protocol.
15. (Optional) To track events related to emails that are sent to the mailbox, select the Log Events check box.

16. (2021 Release 01) (For either type of EWS only) (Optional) To validate the server certificate for authenticity when you connect to an EWS mailbox, select the Validate Server Certificate check box. If you do not want to validate the server certificate for authenticity, clear this check box.

    Notes

    • The following considerations apply to the check box:
      • It is selected by default when you configure a new EWS mailbox. 
        
      • It is not selected by default for the EWS mailboxes that were configured in Track-It! 2020 Release 03 or earlier. If you select the check box for such an EWS mailbox, then the server certificate will be validated for authenticity. 
    • If the server certificate is invalidated, then:
      
      • The test connection to the EWS mailbox fails.
      • The incoming email messages are not processed.
      • This information is logged in the EwsMailListener_yyyy-mm-dd.log log file where:
        • EwsMailListener is the component.
        • yyyy-mm-dd is the date of creation of the log file.
17. (Optional) To test the connection to the mailbox and send a test email message, click Test Connection.
18. Click Save. When you click Save, test connection is also performed for the Enabled mailboxes. 
    Repeat the steps to add new incoming email mailboxes.
19. (Optional) To edit a mailbox, select a mailbox and then click .
20. (Optional) To delete a mailbox, select a mailbox and then click .

To configure outgoing email settings

Perform the following steps to configure an outgoing email mailbox:

1. In the upper-left section, from the hamburger menu , select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings > Email Configurations > Incoming and Outgoing Emails.
3. In the Outgoing Email section, click Configure.
4. In the SMTP Server Name field, enter your server name.
5. In the Port field, enter the port number.
6. From the Security Type list, select an appropriate option for your email security:
   • None
   • SSL
   • SSL/TLS
7. If you want to set up the SMTP authentication, select the SMTP requires authentication check box.
8. In the User Account Name field, enter your username.
9. In the Password field, enter your password.
10. In the Confirm Password field, reenter your password.
11. In the From Address field, enter an email address from which you want to send the outgoing email messages.
    The email address entered in the From Address field must be one of the email addresses configured for incoming emails.
12. Click Save.

Scheduling Track-It! to check email messages

You can configure settings for Track-It! to check incoming email messages after a certain period of time and you can set the number of email messages to process at a given period of time.
For example, you can schedule the email monitor to check a maximum of 5 email messages after every 10 minutes. You can process a maximum of 9999 emails after a maximum interval of 9999 minutes.

After you make changes to the email monitor settings, ensure that you stop and start the email monitor service.

1. In the upper-left section, from the hamburger menu , select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings > Email Configurations >  Email Monitor Settings.
3. On the Email Monitor Settings page, in the Poll Interval field, enter the number of minutes after which you want Track-It! to check for email.
4. In the Emails to Process field, enter the number of emails that you want to process at a given time.
5. Click Save.

Configuring the URL used in the email notifications

Track-It! allows you to configure a specific URL to use in the email notifications that are sent to the users (technicians and requestors). You can configure Business Rules to send notification emails to the requestors and technicians keeping them informed about the records. For more information, see Configuring-Business-Rules.

Also, when certain actions are performed based on the service level agreement attached to a record, an email notification is sent to the users. For more information, see Configuring-service-level-agreements.

You can use the Response URLs while configuring the body of email notifications used in the Business Rules and service level agreements. By default, the response URL comprises of the following attributes: 

• Host name server name - for example, vw-bmc-trt.bmc.com

• Port - for example, 80
• Virtual Directory name - specified during installation. By default, the directory names are TrackIt and Self Service. 

 To configure the URL used in email notifications

1. In the upper-left section, from the hamburger menu , select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings > Email Configurations > Email Monitor Settings.
3. In the Advanced Settings section, in the Response URL field, enter an appropriate URL, such as http://vw-bmc-trt.bmc.com:80/TrackIt.
4. In the Self Service Response URL field, enter an appropriate URL such as http://vw-bmc-trt.bmc.com:80/TrackIt/SelfService.

5. (Optional) To enable Track-It! to create an event log, select the Enable Email Event Logging on the Track-It! Server check box.

   You can view the event by using the Debug utility. For more information, see Using-Track-It-utilities.

6. Click Save.

Restarting Email Monitor Settings

You must stop and start the email monitor service after you update the email settings or after you configure, edit or delete an incoming mailbox.

1. In the upper-left section, from the hamburger menu , select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings > Email Configurations > Email Monitor Settings.
3. On the Email Monitor Settings page, click Stop Now to stop the Email monitor service.
4. Click Start Now to restart the Email monitor service.

Configuring email filters

You can restrict Track-It! from sending and receiving email from certain email accounts or domains. For example, you can prevent users from sending mail to or receiving email from a Mailer Daemon account or you can block known spammers by using filters.

Key considerations

• The filters restrict the users based on their email address, username, or email subject.
• You can also configure email filters to restrict emails sent by a technician, requestor, or both.
• While emails are being processed, the other restrictions, such as restricted permissions or the inactive state of the requestor or technician, are not considered.
• If the sender's email address or email subject is partly or fully configured as an email filter, the emails messaged are not processed.
• If multiple email addresses are configured (comma separated), then all email addresses are validated.
• The email address or subject configured in the email filter must have more than one character.

Out-of-the-box email filters

The following table provides information about the out-of-the-box email rules for senders and subjects:

To add email filters

1. In the upper-left section, from the hamburger menu , select Configuration.
2. Click Application Settings >  Email Configurations > Email Filters.
3. Perform one of the following actions:
   • To add email filters for email senders, click Rules for Sender.
   • To add email filters for email subjects, click Rules for Subject.
4. From the Filter Inbound email by only accepting email from existing list, select an appropriate option: 
   
   • Do not filter (process everything): Select this option to process emails sent by any users.
   • Requestors: Select this option to process emails sent by requestors only.
   • Technicians: Select this option to process emails sent by technicians only.
   • Requestors and Technicians: Select this option to process emails sent by requestors and technicians only.
5. Click Save.