Network settings for groov email alerts

I have a situation trying to set up email alerts in groov and my beginner’s level of network knowledge is likely to impede the proper conveyance of required info.

I am working with a 3rd party IT service that assists us with out IT needs. I am trying to set up email alerts in groov and the settings the IT guys are expecting to use do not work. In the “Email settings” tab of “project” they are perplexed as to why “smtp.office365.com” is not working for the SMTP server hostname (we have had to use an actual IP address). They are wondering if setting the DNS to manual (in the groov EPIC) and using Google’s 8.8.8.8 would work. When I initially tried that I temporarily lost the ability to connect with my EPIC so I’m a bit gun-shy about trying things where I’m not sure if I’ll permanently mess something up.

I know there is probably other network specific info that is likely required to sort this out, please weigh in with any suggestions on proper set up.

The groov Email settings do tie back to the groov Manage network settings.
The EPIC is one single Linux computer, so all the different applications have the OS in common.
Are you using both network ports?
If not, are you using Eth0 as your main connection?

Looking at the groov Manage network settings. If you are on Automatic, it should be all dialed in correctly as all the settings are handed out by the DNS and DHCP servers on the network.
If you are on manual, you will need to be a lot more careful in setting up the right gateways etc.

By the sounds of it, you are on Automatic. Have you checked the auto settings in groov Manage with your 3rd party IT guys? Are they Ok with whats been handed out to the EPIC from their DHS/DHCP?

Also by the sounds of it, there is some issue with resolving host names (the smtp.office360 part). This indicates that the EPIC cant find a DHCP server on its network to do that job for it.

In in the bottom right corner of the groov Project Email settings page, there is a test button with an area below that that shows what errors were encountered when sending the email. What shows up there when you run a test?

Yes, currently it is set to Automatic and we are only using the Eth 0 port. See attached for our settings.

Would a broader network configuration affect how these settings need to be configured? The EPIC and an EB2 are connected to a managed switch via an unmanaged N-Tron switch which is then linked to a managed switch. The managed switch is the link between our PLC network (which the EPIC and EB2 are part of) and our business network.

The email alerts are currently working but only in setting the server host name to an IP address.

When we were testing I don’t recall any specific failure messages, just that the attempt had failed.

Would you be able to interface directly with our IT guys?

Hmmm, that’s a very odd combination / setup there…
Your IP address is manual, but your DNS is Auto with a manual gateway.
The subnet mask is a little odd as well. Not often you see that one.

What firmware version are you using?
(Under Info and Help - > About).

Subnet mask is such because a now-gone IT employee had set up a three-level network. We are not sure why as our total device needs would be served by a flat network but we are stuck with the achitecture now.

As for the other settings, right now this is how we’ve managed to get the email alerts working, would you suggest a manual DNS setting? This is what our IT guys are currently wondering.

Thanks for your answer on the subnet mask, it is what it is because reasons…

Ok back to the topic at hand, some of the network issues are possibly because of your firmware version. Its getting a little old. Here is the firmware readme, you can track the changes through the doc.

From 1.3.2 to 1.4.0, here are some of the network changes we made;

   Networking features have been added:
    • Diagnostic tools to test Internet connectivity have been added to groov
    Manage: ping, test tcp port, traceroute, and nslookup.
    • Additional configuration options have been added for more complex networking
    requirements, such as:
    ◦ Setting an order of priority for backup gateways and an order of priority
    for DNS provisioning according to each network interface.
    ◦ Policy routing is enabled automatically for improved connectivity.
    ◦ Gateway address, name servers, and search domains provisioned by a DHCP
    server can be manually overridden.
    • You can now connect the GRV-EPIC-PR1 to a virtual private network (VPN) with
    OpenVPN technology. You configure the GRV-EPIC-PR1 as a client to connect to
    an OpenVPN server.

And it only got better from there… The diagnostic tools would be very very helpful about now and the improved gateway/DNS settings might come into play in your install.

Currently we are at firmware version 2.0.2.
I know its a bit of task to update, but you might want to think about scheduling some time to do it.

Back to your question about the N-Tron. No, I don’t think the switch is impacting the issue at hand (static IP for email rather than host name). The switch is clearly moving the traffic to where it needs to go.
The problem is that the EPIC can’t resolve host names. So its more a DNS issue. The gateway is Ok since the email does get sent over the Internet, so the EPIC knows how to get out, just not how to resolve host names.

Thanks for the insight and info on the firmware updates. I will do the update tomorrow when I am on-site and report how/whether it impacts our issue.

Just a suggestion, if you have not done many EPIC updates, you might like to pull down our guide and review it before you get on site tomorrow.

https://www.opto22.com/support/resources-tools/documents/2327-technical-note-groov-epic-update-checklist

Like Beno said, this is a DNS issue. Your EPIC doesn’t have a DNS server setting configured.

If you just switch the DNS from automatic to manual, and enter 8.8.8.8 (google’s DNS) then you should be good to go.

Not sure why you lost connectivity when you did that before. Wouldn’t hurt to update the firmware though.

Using the Form 2327 steps, when I try to back-up the groov View project to my computer, after cycling for 30 seconds or so the webpage displays a “504 Gateway Time-out” error. Thoughts?

This thread might help.

Thanks for that thread Beno, helped me get past that road block.

However, I updated the firmware and went to restore the Epic and it’s saying “bad backup”…this is not good, I don’t have time for searching out solutions…what next? Is it possible to get an emergency ticket created to get some real-time assistance? We are dead in the water at this point.

Thanks

Yeah, not sure about that one, haven’t seen it myself.
Contact our support team and let them know are down.
https://www.opto22.com/support

This is just a close-out reply to wrap this topic up.

The most recent issue I had was my fault, in performing the restore part of the back-up sequence of my EPIC unit I think I initially (twice) selected the groov back-up file instead of the groov View project file - hence the ‘bad file’ error. On the third try everything went seamlessly.

On the initial issue I was having with the project settings, setting the DNS server to Google’s 8.8.8.8 fixed my issue and allowed me to switch from using the actual IP address to smtp.office365.com.

Thanks for your assistance, the groov restore guide was particularly helpful.

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Thanks for following up Craig.
That backup file name has been annoying me for a long while, I always rename it when I save it during the backup process.
I will make a note to ask the software guys to change it. It should be a lot clearer which file is for what.

Glad you hear you are up and running.