SMTP Server Isn't Found In Discourse

Hussein · June 21, 2022, 2:20pm

I have installed Discourse successfully on Free Oracle Cloud. Currently, I am in the finalized step where I need to verify the email address that I used during installation process.

I want to use my cPanel email that I created to send emails through Discourse app. I ran

./discourse-doctor

and the error was

======================================== ERROR ========================================
                                  SMTP SERVER NOT FOUND

getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

====================================== SOLUTION =======================================
The most likely problem is that the host name of your SMTP server is incorrect.
Check it and try again.

I ensured SMTP server credentials, which all were correct.

Does this type of email from cPanel supports sending emails through Discourse?

eris · June 21, 2022, 2:29pm

Free Oracle cloud blocks outgoing traffic for SMTP.

Hussein · June 21, 2022, 2:50pm

Many thanks @eris for your response. Any recommendation to use email for Discourse?

Also, on the other hand, I added this code below to etc/nginx/ngnix.conf to create proxy server in order to install Discourse.

discourse.stpl

server {
    listen      %ip%:%proxy_ssl_port% ssl http2;
    server_name %domain_idn% %alias_idn%;
    ssl_certificate      %ssl_pem%;
    ssl_certificate_key  %ssl_key%;
    error_log  /var/log/%web_system%/domains/%domain%.error.log error;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://unix:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/nginx.http.sock:;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    location /error/ {
        alias   %home%/%user%/web/%domain%/document_errors/;
    }

    location @fallback {
        proxy_pass      https://%ip%:%web_ssl_port%;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht    {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.svn/  {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.git/  {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.hg/   {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.bzr/  {return 404;}

    include %home%/%user%/conf/web/%domain%/nginx.ssl.conf_*;
}

discourse.tlp

server {
    listen      %ip%:%proxy_port%;
    server_name %domain_idn% %alias_idn%;

    include %home%/%user%/conf/web/%domain%/nginx.forcessl.conf*;        

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://unix:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/nginx.http.sock:;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }

    location /error/ {
        alias   %home%/%user%/web/%domain%/document_errors/;
    }

    location @fallback {
        proxy_pass      http://%ip%:%web_port%;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht    {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.svn/  {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.git/  {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.hg/   {return 404;}
    location ~ /\.bzr/  {return 404;}

    include %home%/%user%/conf/web/%domain%/nginx.conf_*;
}

Now, after I installed the discourse successfully, do I need to delete them or keep them?

Appreciate your response.

eris · June 21, 2022, 2:56pm

You need to keep the template forever…

You might be able to connect to relay over a different port an connect to Amazon SES or SMTP2GO.

But never used Discourse for admin side…

Hussein · June 21, 2022, 3:15pm

Appreciate your response. I’ll keep them, however each time I restart the service a window error pops up saying ‘can’t restart nginx’. Is that notification normal?

eris · June 21, 2022, 3:26pm

If you have error run:

nginx -t

And see if there is any config error

Hussein · June 21, 2022, 3:33pm

Yes, just ran the command and here is the output:

nginx: [emerg] "server" directive is not allowed here in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:168
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

What could it imply?

eris · June 21, 2022, 4:12pm

Check: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf line 168 There is server and it it is not allowed…

Hussein · June 21, 2022, 4:30pm

Yes, I made changes on it. Now there is another error:

nginx: [emerg] invalid port in "%ip%:%web_ssl_port%" of the "listen" directive in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:165
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

eris · June 21, 2022, 5:09pm

Same as before if you added certain template code in nginx.conf you should remove it…

As it is an nginx issue and not an Hestia issue I can’t help with it…

Hussein · June 22, 2022, 12:12am

Many thanks @eris. Properly an update is need from nginx’s side to solve this issue…

Hussein · June 23, 2022, 12:18am

Hi Eris

Just bought a professional email package from networksloution.com and I put the credentials and port number of SMTP correctly in app.yml. Still when I issue this commend:

./launcher rebuild app

it throws the same error, which is SMTP NOT Found? I made thousands of check for the information I put in the app. Do you mean Oracal block outgoing traffic for SMTP even if the port is different? They want me to upgrade the account, right?

Raphael · June 23, 2022, 6:21am

Oracle blocks outgoing traffic on port 25, use 587 or 465.

Hussein · June 23, 2022, 5:12pm

Many thanks @Raphael. I’ve followed your advice and used the port 587 as it’s set by email provider I bought pro email from. Here are the settings from the app.yml with of course changing the actual credentials.

  ## Required. Discourse will not work with a bare IP number.
  DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: talk.tiptopcomputers.shop  # I am using subdomain for Discourse.

  ## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
  ## on initial signup example '[email protected],[email protected]'
  DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: '[email protected]'

  ## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
  # SMTP ADDRESS, username, and password are required
  # WARNING the char '#' in SMTP password can cause problems!
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: smtp.XXXXXXXXXXXX  
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: [email protected]
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: "6372hudshas65"   # Fake Password just for example 
  #DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true           # (optional, default true)
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN: tiptopcomputers.shop
  DISCOURSE_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL: [email protected]

  ## If you added the Lets Encrypt template, uncomment below to get a free SSL certificate
  LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL: [email protected]

I can tell you that I double check the credentials many times, but no luck. The error is:


======================================== ERROR ========================================
                                  SMTP SERVER NOT FOUND

getaddrinfo: Name or service not known

====================================== SOLUTION =======================================
The most likely problem is that the host name of your SMTP server is incorrect.
Check it and try again.
=======================================================================================

I followed the Email troubleshooting guide published by the discourse team, but still the error persists. for some reason, I suspect if the email domain is incorrect since the host name is subdomain whereas the email domain contains root domain, so I ran the commend below after uncomment it and changed the value to the actual email for one time:

#- exec: rails r "SiteSetting.notification_email='[email protected]'"

Then rebuild the app

./launcher rebuild app

The error drives me crazy because I clearly followed the instruction, nothing happens as expected! However, I have a doubt if the error comes from the discrepancy between the host name and the email domain. Does discourse require email domain that is similar to root domain? Am I missing something in my work? Thank you for your time…

Update: I finally managed to fully install Discourse it was the DNS records that weren’t inputted
properly.

Thanks for reading…

Raphael · June 24, 2022, 7:02am

For hestia we use the following configuration:

  ## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
  ## on initial signup example '[email protected],[email protected]'
  DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: '[email protected]'

  ## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
  # SMTP ADDRESS, username, and password are required
  # WARNING the char '#' in SMTP password can cause problems!
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: mail.hestiacp.com
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: [email protected]
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: PutPasswordHere
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: login
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE: none

Which is working properly, more I can’t help - maybe you’ll find more help at the discourse support forum.

Hussein · July 1, 2022, 2:19am

Many thanks @Raphael I managed to solve it by changing the SMTP server address to XXXX.com, no prefix is needed from my end.

system · July 31, 2022, 2:20am

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.