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Troubleshooting outgoing issues with Email Engine

Remedy Email Engine processes various outgoing email messages and notification emails, such as initial email notifications, response emails to reply with results or verification for approvals, ticket creation, and other email integrations. When the Email Engine does not process outgoing emails, you might not get the expected response emails to confirm the results of ticket creation or updates to tickets and to know the approval status.

To resolve issues with outgoing emails, follow the guidelines described in this topic. Alternatively, create a BMC Support case.

You can also use the Email Engine Test Utility to collect diagnostics and troubleshoot outgoing issues with the Email Engine. For more information, see Helix Support: Solving AR System Email Notification Issues - Illustrated Example on BMC Communities.

Best Practice

We recommend that you refer to BEST FAQ on AR System Email Engine Issuesfor resolutions to the most common questions on Email Engine.


Related topic

Contacting Support

Issue symptoms

  • A large number of outgoing email messages are waiting to be sent.
  • End users do not receive email notifications.

For resolutions to these issues, see Resolutions for common issues. 

Issue scope

  • One or more users experience the symptoms.
  • One or more outgoing mailboxes do not process emails.

Diagnosing and reporting an issue

Perform the following steps to troubleshoot outgoing issues with Email Engine:

Task

Action

Steps

Reference

1.

Use the Email Engine Test utility to validate the mail server connection parameters that are set in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form for the outgoing mailbox.

The Email Engine Test utility helps you to validate your Email Engine connectivity to the mail server, independent of the AR System Email Engine.

  • If the test utility fails, note the reason for the failure from the output provided by the Email Engine Test utility.
  • Check and update the configuration as required and then retest Email Engine connectivity to the mail server.
  • Work with your Email Administrator or Network Administrator to make sure that there is proper Email Engine connectivity to the mail server.

  • To check the connection to the mail server, validate the user credentials, and send a simple email, see Email Engine Test utility.
    Note:
    We have introduced a new Email Test button. When you click the Email Test button, it calls the Email Engine Test utility from within the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form. We recommend that you install and use this utility to easily test your mailboxes after you complete your change process.
    For more information, see the article aboutEmail Test on BMC Communities.

2.

Review the additional parameters in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form, server group or failover related configurations, and Email Engine specific configurations.

Review the configuration for the outgoing mailbox in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form.

Make sure that the outgoing mailbox is enabled.


Designate the outgoing mailbox as the default outgoing mailbox by selecting Yes in the Default Outgoing Mailbox list.


Make sure that the polling interval is set appropriately.


Check the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form to make sure that server rankings for service failover are valid.

Check the AR System Service Failover Ranking form to make sure that service failovers are ranked correctly.

  • Check the AR System Service Failover Whiteboard form to make sure that the appropriate mailboxes are in active state.
  • Refresh the form frequently to make sure that the value of the Last Heartbeat field is getting updated as expected.


  • Check the settings in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form and EmailDaemon.properties file.
  • Use the AR System Configuration Generic UI form (not the EmailDaemon.properties file) to modify the settings in the Centralized Configuration.


Check if the following component parameter settings are correct in the EmailDaemon.properties file. These settings determine certain behaviors for outgoing emails:

  • MailboxPollingUnitIsMinutes
  • NumberOfSenderThreads
  • OutgoingMessagesQueueSize
  • SendEmailSetSize
  • RPC

To review all the properties or settings in the EmailDaemon.properties file, see Settings-in-the-EmailDaemon-properties-file.

3.

Enable logs.

Enable the Email Engine log by setting com.bmc.arsys.emaildaemon.level to FINEST.

4.

Reproduce the problem or wait for it to occur.

  • Perform the required actions to trigger a notification email.
  • Either restart the Email Engine process or wait for two polling intervals.


5.

Disable logs.

Disable the Email Engine logs by setting com.bmc.arsys.emaildaemon.level to SEVERE.

6.

Collect the logs.

Collect the Email log including the .bak file, if it exists.

The following are the locations for the Email Engine log:

  • (Windows) <ARSystem Install Dir>\AREmail\Logs\email.log
  • (UNIX) <ARSystem Install Dir>/AREmail/Logs/email.log


7.

Analyze the logs.


8.

Create a BMC Support case

  • Collect and send logs and detailed information when you create a case with BMC Support.
  • Collect and send screenshots of the Basic and Advanced tabs in the AR System Email Mailbox Configuration form for the outgoing mailbox.
  • Attach a ZIP file to your case. You can attach a ZIP file of size up to 2 GB. You can also upload the file on FTP.

Resolutions for common issues

After you determine a specific symptom or an error message, use the following table to identify the solution:

Symptom

Action

Reference

You get the following message in the Email Engine log:

com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSendFailedException: OutOfMemory

Increase the heap size of Email Engine.

You get the following message in the Email Engine log:

Could not connect to Email server Name/IP

Check the connection to the mail server with the Email Engine Test utility and engage the Exchange Server team.

You get the following message in the Email Engine log:

ERROR (623): Authentication failed

Reset the password of the Remedy Application Service.

You get the following message in the Email Engine log:

nested exception:class .SendFailedException: 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay

Check if the mail server allows relaying of messages.

You get the following message in the Email Engine log or on the related forms:

Service Failover not working

Review the Connect with Remedy Webinar for Email Engine.

 

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