Documentation forIpMonitor
Effective December 31, 2024, IpMonitor will reach its end of life and will no longer be available or supported. If you liked IpMonitor, consider trying another SolarWinds product.

IMAP4 User Experience monitor

The IMAP4 User Experience monitor verifies that the SMTP server can receive and distribute email, and ensure that your end users can log in from an IMAP4-enabled email client and manage their email.

The monitor uses the following process to simulate an email round trip and measure the time required for a series of transactions to occur:

  1. Connects to port 25 on the SMTP server for the recipient address you specify to deliver an email.
  2. Logs in to the IMAP4 mail server and selects the INBOX.
  3. Searches for the test email it sent and flags it for deletion.
  4. Sends a LOGOUT command.

If the SMTP mail server or IMAP4 server fails to respond, or responds with an error code at any time, ipMonitor considers the test to have failed.

Use the IMAP4 - User Experience Monitor to verify that:

  • The SMTP mail server can accept and distribute email
  • The IMAP4 mail server can authenticate users
  • The IMAP4 server can respond correctly to IMAP4 commands
  • The server responds within a required number of seconds

ipMonitor uses a message with a special subject line to test the IMAP4 mail server send and receive functionality, similar to: Subject: ipm8:imap4:guid:441991169.

Create an IMAP4 User Experience monitor

  1. Click Devices in the toolbar.
  2. Locate and click the targeted device you want to monitor.

  3. In the toolbar, click Add > Add New Monitor.

  4. In the Select Monitor menu, click IMAP4 - User Experience

  5. Under Identification, enter information about the monitor.

    1. Enter a name in the Monitor Name field using up to 64 characters. This name will appear in the monitor list, monitor status, log files, and your reports.

      You can change this name later, if necessary. ipMonitor does not use this field to internally identify this monitor.

    2. Select Enabled to enable the monitor.

      When enabled, the monitor tests the specified resource using the settings you enter under Test Parameters. You can disable the monitor later if required.

    3. Select Store Monitor Statistics for Recent Activity and Historical Reports to enable this functionality.

  6. Under Test Parameters, enter the monitor testing parameters.

    1. Enter the IP address or domain name of the SMTP server you want to monitor.
    2. Enter the TCP port number that the targeted resource responds on. The default is TCP port 143.
    3. Select a credential for monitoring. When selected, ipMonitor uses the credential account and password information to authenticate to the SMTP server and test the status.

  7. Under Analysis of Test Results, set up your sending and receiving email addresses.

    ipMonitor retrieves the file based on the test parameters and generates a checksum for comparison against the original value. If the file size or checksum differ, ipMonitor initiates the failure and alerting process.

  8. Under Analysis of Test Results, set up your sending and receiving email addresses.

    1. In the Email To field, enter the receiver email address for your test and distribution email.

      SolarWinds recommends setting up a dedicated email account to receive test and

      distribution emails.

    2. In the Email From field, enter the sender email address for the test email.
    3. Click Verify to confirm that the email credentials are valid.

  9. Under Timing, configure the fields for the monitor testing states.

    1. In the Maximum Test Duration field, enter the maximum test duration rate (in seconds) that the monitor times out before the test is considered a failure.

    2. In the remaining fields, enter the number of second between each test while the monitor is in an OK state (Up), a failed state while alerts are processed (Down), and a failed state and the maximum number of alerts have been processed (Lost).

      In the Lost state, no additional failure alerts are processed. However, a recovery notification is sent if the monitor recovers.

  10. Under Notification Control, complete the fields to determine how many test failures must occur before an alert is sent.

    1. Enter the number of test failures that occur for each alert before ipMonitor generates an alert for the monitor. The default option is 3.

    2. Enter the maximum number of alerts to send before the monitor enters a Lost state.

      The monitor must be assigned to a notification alert to generate an action.

  11. Under Recovery Parameters, complete the fields to indicate the corrective action used to automatically restore a resource using the External Process Recovery, Reboot Server Recovery, or Restart Service Recovery action.

    1. Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), NetBIOS, or IP Address of the machine hosting the service that needs a restart or the machine that needs a restart. You can also click Browse to locate and select the machine.
    2. Select the set of credentials used by the recovery alert. You can select a specific credential to execute recovery alerts that require access to restricted resources, such as Reboot Server, Restart Service, or External Process.
    3. Select the list of services to restart on the target machine specified in the FQDN/NetBIOS/IP Address field. This field is only required for the Restart Service alert. If a service has dependencies, select all dependent services.
  12. Click OK.