[audiomechanic]

So, I have an IBM x3500 M3 server running in my house (yes, overkill but I got it free). This server has a hardware management system with an Ethernet port that runs independently of the OS (IBM RSA-II). I can access this management system even if the server is powered down. I can use it to check the status of hardware, power the server off/on remotely, schedule power ons and do other nifty things.

One really neat thing is it can send an email to me if there's a problem, or if I just want status updates on a schedule I set up. Now here's the problem: it uses an SMTP server address to send the email, but it does NOT support authentication. I tried using Google's SMTP server, but those are not open and require a username and password. So that won't work. I searched the interwebs for free & open SMTP mails servers and did turn up with much. I could just setup a simple SMTP server on the server itself, but that won't help me if the server is down and the RSA-II is needing to send the report.

I'm about to toss 5 2TB hard drives in a RAID-5 in this server and the RSA-II will monitor the status of the drives and alert me if the array drops into a degraded status, so I want this to work.

Any idears?

Thanks in advance.

[CitizenOfDreams]

Free and open-for-all SMTP servers ceased to exist shortly after spam was invented.

[Kloogee]

Originally Posted by CitizenOfDreams

Free and open-for-all SMTP servers ceased to exist shortly after spam was invented.

This!

[audiomechanic]

Yeah, figured that. :(

The RSA-II will also send alerts via SNMP server and "IBM Director" but I don't have any experience with either of those.

[aspartz]

Run your own mail server on your own internal network. Do not allow access to any other IP than the IBM box, but don't require authentication.

ARS

[audiomechanic]

Thought about doing that, and it would work, as long as the server is up. If there's a hardware problem and the server is shut down, the SMTP server wont work because it wont be available. But, on the other hand, since this server is also my router, if the server is down for some reason, I'm going to know pretty darn quick as the other computers in the network (just two others, a media PC for movies/Hulu/etc and a laptop) wont connect to teh intertoobs.

I can always set up the SMTP server and if the RAID array does drop into degraded status, the server should still be up and the SMTP server operational to send out the alert. Plus, this array will be separate from the OS drive. I have a 1TB OS drive in it now, and then I will have the 5-disc array for storage.

Thanks!

[thonl]

I run my own mailserver from my house, and I use my isp's(charter.net) smtp server as a relay for outbound mail from my server, and it doesnt require auth, as long as it is originating from their network.

Have you tried just pointing it at whatever the server is your isp advertises?