Handy tip to easily test SMTP functionality in ISE

[Arne Bier]

Symptoms

ISE (in)famously doesn't have an email sending test function to check whether the SMTP that you have configured is working correctly.  This should ideally be made available during acceptance testing.  There are many hurdles that can prevent SMTP from not working (wrong SMTP address, firewalls in between , SMTP refusing to accept ISE's non-authenticated connections, etc).  It can cause a delay in projects just figuring out why this simple operation doesn't work.

Solution

Configure the SMTP address in ISE as usual.

Then create an admin user (or use an existing admin user) and add an email address to it. Make sure that this is a valid email address (preferably one that you care about and have access to).  BTW, I discovered another bug here - ISE doesn't accept all email domains - it seems to presume to know what a valid email address is and refuses to accept valid email addresses.  I digress ...

The default password expiration is 45 days. Let's assume this value is suitable for you.  Then set the password expiration reminder notification to send you a reminder the following day (44 days prior to expiration).  I have not tried using the value 45 - perhaps that would send it immediately.  No idea.  Not sure when ISE even performs this check - I assume it's once a day.

 

This will trigger the sending of an email.

Other alternatives of testing SMTP including setting up a Sponsor Portal and sending notifications - but this is a lot more work.  Alternatively, using the Manage Accounts function in the Admin portal to create a dummy guest account and then send that dummy account an email reminder.

[Jason Kunst]

Nice tip. I think even easier is to use the test email notification under the Guest System. This requires only the SMTP server to be configured.

1. Work Centers > Guest Access > Portals & Components > Choose the self-reg or sponsored portal built-in
2. Choose Portal Customization > Email notifications page
3. Under the portal mini preview choose Settings and then send a test email from there:

Here is a sample of the email

[Arne Bier]

Thanks @Jason Kunst - amazing!  I never clicked that deep into the Guest portal options to see that little Easter Egg :-)  It's good to share these tips.

cheers!

[Jason Kunst]

:) my friend

[Nadav]

Perhaps a future patch for ISE 2.4/2.5 can add SMTP and Syslog testing functionality.

As for ISE deciding what an acceptable domain suffix is for email addresses... I recall the Cisco Unified Operations Manager (the predecessor of Cisco Prime Collaboration Assurance) making these unhelpful assumptions. You have to change one of the scripts within the application folders (I think it was javascript) to allow your suffix to be supported. I'm hoping that ISE would allow any domain, or at the worst give a small popup explaining that the domain name supplied is non-standard and that you should confirm your intent to use it. 

[Jason Kunst]

Please send recommendations through ise feedback link on the ise gui upper right