Software Update Manager – Tips and Tricks – Mail Notifier
Today I would like to show you how to use one of my latest discoveries – Software Update Manager Mail Notifier. By using this tool we can get an e-mail alert whenever SUM displays a dialog requesting our action. I think it’s great feature!
There is a bug in SUM SP18 PL8 and lower, which makes this tool not working. Please ensure you are using the latest packages from SAP.
After extracting the SUM archives you can find Mail Notifier in directory:
/usr/sap/<SID>/SUM/abap/mailNotifier
Firstly we need configure tool by editing the properties file MailNotifierApp.props. It consist of three sections:
- Upgrade related properties
- Mail related properties
- Check related properties
The very first thing I did was to create a mailbox that will be used to send e-mail. After that we can start filling the necessary fields in Mail related properties (sorry, I had to obfuscate some fields, but I think it it’s quite easy to put the values in right places):
Now it’s time to fill the second part – Upgrade related properties – which is more about our SUM settings. Most of them you can collect from SUM startup messages:
As I have self-signed certificate I won’t use SSL connection, otherwise I will get information certificate cannot be validated. This is how my Upgrade section of properties file looks like:
Few remarks about the parameters:
- sum.host – you can leave localhost if you’re running the Mail Notifier on the same host as SUM. When using SSL you need to provide the hostname that is signed by certificate. Otherwise you might get SSL error (javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException)
- sum.port – if you have SSL configured for SAP Host Agent leave the default value 1129 – if not, change it to 1128
- sum.ssl – if you have SSL configured for SAP Host Agent leave the default value true – if not, change it to false
Last section of configuration file focus on how often the checks are performed. I decided to leave the default values:
Now it’s the time to check if it’s all working correctly!
As you can see the tool started and after connecting to our system is trying to send us a welcome e-mail!
After few seconds I received my mail!
Now, whenever SUM requires attention it will inform us by sending appropriate e-mail! How cool is that?
At the moment I couldn’t find the way to customize e-mails, but it may be planned in future releases. But honestly I hope this tool will be integrated in SUM!
Hi Bartosz. Thanks for this!
In the past I've typically used a small freeware third-party tool for Windows that provides command-line outbound SMTP access called "blat.exe," and it has worked extremely well, at least in SUM (not sure it can be used from SWPM). And, I'm aware of others using VBscript to achieve similar things in Windows. However, I've always thought that SAP should just build in some SMTP functionality, and it looks like now they have done so. Good to know! It still looks more difficult to configure than BLAT, however.
Cheers,
Matt
Hi,
I also feel like this tool should be built-in SUM functionality. At least now it won't be necessary to refresh the webpage every 10 mintues 🙂
The config is really easy. You can prepare like a template and use it with other installations changing only SID and password.
Best regards
Bartosz
Dear Bartosz,
Thanks for the detail information and really happy to see mail configuration again which was missing from SP15 If I am not wrong.
One of the problem I would like to bring your notice which can help to add some new features in this jar based tool which might be faced by other users as well.
As per new tool we need to run the jar from Local PC which check the SUM and also connect the mail server to send the mails. But the problem comes when we use cloud based office365 mail server. For e.g we are not able to connect to smtp.office365.com directly from local PC as it is blocked from network level, but it is working via browser as it is using our proxy server to connect the office365.com.
Now due to this connection issue from jar we are not able to send the mails, there should be some options where we can pass proxy server details in properties files so it can connect to office365.com and mails can go without any issues. This will overcome to network level blockages.
Another point jar file is asking manditory for mail.user and its password, Is there option to skip username and password similar SCOT we can only provide mail server hostname and port only and not any manditory username and password.
Regards,
Anil Bhandary
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Hi Anil,
thanks for your comments.
I don't have influence to the development roadmap of this tool, but hopefully people from SAP will read your comments.
Best regards
Bartosz
Hi Anil ,
Yes smtp.office365.com has been a problem always
May you please list me what all problems do you face other than this to implement this feature
Thanks
Harish
Hello,
This is for Windows
Software Update Manager 1.0 SP19 MailNotifier for ABAP
Regards,
Yogesh
I'll just add that I have now used the new MailNotifier with SUM sp19 on an upgrade, and it worked beautifully. Indeed, the config is really rather easy. I also found it quite easy to run the MailNotifier directly on the server being upgraded -- i.e., the one where the SUM process is running -- so no need for an extra PC to run it from. The JVM required for MailNotifier is present in the SUM delivery itself.
Cheers,
Matt
I used it couple of times and I have to admit it shorten the total time of the upgrade. I like it a lot.
I have a copy of properties file on my local PC, so I'm just uploading it to the server where I run the upgrade (and of course I maintain the instance specific connection data). Total time of configuration is around 5 mins.
But still think it should be included in the SUM itself 🙂 But making it as separate file allows you to place it in the DMZ, which might be useful, as not all SAP systems have direct access to internet.
Best regards
Bartosz
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Hello Bartosz,
Thanks for the detailed information on how to start the mailNotifier and its properties. We are getting http 401 error. If I take the url and open it in my browser and supply the userid and password it works. But the command fails. What other logs/trace I can look to see the issue with http 401 error.
[24.05.2017 10:05:26]Â Â INFO SUM Monitor Request URL = http://servername:1128/slp/sumabap/ABC/monitor
[24.05.2017 10:05:26]  INFO Starting check request …
[24.05.2017 10:05:27]Â Â ERROR SumMailNotifier (Version 1.4.10) finished with errors: java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 401 for URL: http://servername:1128/slp/sumabap/ABC/monitor
Regards,
Asif
Which SP of SUM are you using?
Best regards
Bartosz
Hello Bartosz,
We are using SOFTWARE UPDATE MANAGER 1.0 SP19 patch 1.
Regards,
Asif
Anyone got this working with gmail account?
Is there a way to enable SSL or TSL on this?
mail.host = smtp.gmail.com
mail.port = 465
mail.user = xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
mail.pwd  = xxxxx
mail.from = xxxxx@gmail.com
mail.to   = xxxxx@gmail.com
mail.debug = false
I have also tried and no results so far...
have you done it?
Is there a possibility to start a command instead of an eMail? I work a lot with Pushover. Just curl a web page and I get a notification. You don't need a SMTP server or anything else.
Example for Pushover: