Webmin is a web-based interface that allows easy setup of user accounts in the server, service edits and many more.

Also, it comes with a powerful feature to set up email alerts. It makes server monitoring easier by sending email alerts from backup or background tasks.

At Bobcares, we often get requests from our customers to configure ‘Webmin email alerts’  as part of our Server Management Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Support Engineers configure ‘Webmin email alerts’ and fix the related errors with it.

How we configure email alerts in Webmin

Here we will see how our Support Engineers configure email alerts in Webmin to send an email alert via Gmail. Moreover, the same method can be used for sending email using another email provider or from the local email server.

To configure email alerts we took the following steps.

1. Firstly, we logged into Webmin.

2. In the left menu selected Webmin > Webmin Configuration > Sending Email.

We set up the following field with customer details too.

1. Via SMTP to remote mail server:- smtp.gmail.com
2. Select Use SSL encryption.
3. Use port number:- 465.
4. SMTP server authentication:-  choose Login as and enter the Gmail username with password.
5. SMTP authentication method:- choose Plane.
6. From address for email from Webmin:- Email address that sends emails from.

3. At last, we clicked save button.

How we fixed the errors related to Webmin email alerts

Now, let’s see how our Support Engineers solved errors related to email alerts in Webmin.

1. Firewall configuration settings

Recently, one of our customers had a problem with Webmin email alerts. When the backup wasn’t made due to an error, he couldn’t get email alerts.

Then our Support Engineers checked the /var/webmin/miniserv.error and found an entry corresponding firewall IP block due to missing port in the firewall configuration file.

Because the email alert error may happen when the firewall doesn’t allow the connection to port 465.

In Ubuntu, we allowed port 465 in the firewall by executing the following command.

ufw allow 465

That’s fixed the problem.

2. Changing email address

Similarly, another customer had an issue like he was getting emails from abc@example.com instead of xyz@example.com. Then our Support Engineers took the following steps to solve the issue.

1. Login to Webmin control panel.

2. Then we go to Webmin > Webmin Configuration > Sending Email.

3. After that, we added the new email address in the field From address for email from Webmin

4. At last, we clicked save button.

This is how we fixed the problem.

[Having trouble with Webmin email alerts? We’ll fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, Webmin has a feature like ‘Webmin email alerts’ that sends email alerts from scheduled backup or background monitoring. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed errors related to email alerts in Webmin.