Use of LocalHost for Email Delivery in HMOL

[dmorin1]

It was indicated years ago that if you didn't have a server to smarthost mail to from HMOL, you could use localhost.

https://community.aerohive.com/aerohive/topics/reports_not_sending_to_email_on_hmol_6_1r3

That had worked for some time but recently I only get reports delivered and not alerts.

Last time that happened I got it working by toggling the mail settings, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. Support has no idea what I am talking about. They don't seem to understand how internet mail works in general, let alone the mail flow in their own system.

Anyone else still successful specifying 'localhost' as the mail server?

We have mail security so if I am going to have HMOL send mail to our spam filter, I need to guarantee the source IP so I can allow it without restrictions.

[dmorin1]

I’ve been going in circles with support on this issue for about a year now. Most there don’t understand mail services in general (requirements for SPF, guarantee of source IP so it matches SPF, etc), and even less on how their own systems handle mail flow. It would be helpful if they had an include one can use in their SPF as most SaaS providers provide that deal with mail but support doesn’t seem to know what that is, let alone if Aerohive has one for their clients.

Since migrating to Office 365, configuring HMOL with a smarthost/relay address to O365 would be challenging without a guarantee that the source IP would never change, or if we pay for a licensed account that HMOL can use to authenticate.

Alerts worked for a while using ‘localhost’ after ‘touching’ mail settings, but then after a month or so, mail flow for alerts stopped again. However reports still properly come in. The only difference between reports and alerts is that you specifically specify the recipients in reports, whereas recipients for alerts are specified on the email settings page.

Respectfully,

Daniel Morin, Systems Engineer IV
5332 Avion Park Dr, Tampa, FL 33607
Tel: 813-289-9613 x 1207756
Direct: 813-392-7756
dmorin@laserspineinstitute.com
LaserSpineInstitute.com

[samantha_lynn]

I have been asking around for you since my last post, but I haven't been able to find any more information for you. I would urge you to create a technical support case so we can get you an answer.

[dmorin1]

I'm glad my last post was marked as a best answer, but it can only be a a workaround answer and not a permanent solution answer, if we can't rely on HMOL to consistently send alerts. I was polling on how many others were using localhost as their mail server and finding they tend to not receive alerts.

[dmorin1 · Accepted solution]

It stopped sending alerts on 7/9. I just now ‘touched’ the setting and now it sends alerts again. This seems to intermittently occur without warning.

Respectfully,

Daniel Morin, Systems Engineer IV
5332 Avion Park Dr, Tampa, FL 33607
Tel: 813-289-9613 x 1207756
Direct: 813-392-7756
dmorin@laserspineinstitute.com
LaserSpineInstitute.com