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Improve SmarterMail LOGs to better assist clients
Idea shared by Gabriele Maoret - SERSIS - 10/23/2021 at 12:59 AM
Proposed
We have been e-mail systems managers for years now and have seen and managed many different systems (some examples: Kerio Connect, MailEnable, MS Exchange, Zimbra, mDaemon, etc ...)

For some time we have been migrating our customers to SmarterMail because, in our opinion, it is a great system.

Having said that, I would like to propose an improvement for the LOG system which would greatly help manage and help customers.

In particular, I find that at the moment it is a bit complicated to assist a customer using the current LOGs when he asks us for things like "I can't find any more emails", or "I haven't received an email" ...


On this front Kerio Connect has a beautiful LOG system to see what a customer has done (for example: moved mail, deleted mail, etc. ..) and to see what has been sent and what has arrived.

It will be very cool if you cna add logs like those.
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS
Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)

23 Replies

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1
Those logs (especially OPERATIONS log) were very useful for handling user complaints, especially if a user deletes or moves emails (perhaps by mistake) and then days later complains to us that they couldn't find those emails ...

In those cases we can easily identify his mistake and give him a log, so the customer can understand that the mistake was his and be more careful in the future ...
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
0
I wonder if there is a way to do this in the current SmarterMail LOG system (I can't find it ...)
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
0
@Gabriele Maoret I recommend you redact the email addresses (including the domains) in the logs you posted, as well as the subjects of the emails, otherwise this is a major privacy violation. Web crawler bots will soon index the above information (if they have not done so already) and scammers will use it for crafting targeted phishing scams.

On topic: a dedicated log for email operations would indeed be very useful so we can show users that an email did not disappear by itself, but they deleted it one way or another - which happens in most cases.
1
Kyle Kerst Replied
10/25/2021 at 4:13 PM
Employee Post
Thanks for your suggestion on this Gabriele. I am going to evaluate your suggestions further and get a feature request submitted for you. Have a good one!
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
0
Kyle Kerst Replied
10/25/2021 at 4:45 PM
Employee Post
@Gabriele- I was able to install a trial version of Kerio Mailserver so I could check out the Operations logging you noted. Here are some example logs I was able to get generated in testing: 
[25/Oct/2021 16:38:38] {DELETE} Protocol: HTTP/WebMail, User: admin@test.local, IP: 127.0.0.1, Folder: ~admin@test.local/Sent Items, From: "Administrator" <admin@test.local>, Subject: "Test", Delivered: 25/Oct/2021 16:38:31, Size: 466
[25/Oct/2021 16:38:42] {DELETE} Protocol: HTTP/WebMail, User: admin@test.local, IP: 127.0.0.1, Folder: ~admin@test.local/INBOX, From: "Administrator" <admin@test.local>, Subject: "Test", Delivered: 25/Oct/2021 16:38:31, Size: 466
[25/Oct/2021 16:38:46] {DELETE} Protocol: HTTP/WebMail, User: admin@test.local, IP: 127.0.0.1, Folder: ~admin@test.local/Sent Items, From: "Administrator" <admin@test.local>, Subject: "Test", Delivered: 25/Oct/2021 16:38:31, Size: 466
As you can see the logging is pretty limited, and seems to register all of my moves and deletes as delete operations! I compared this to SmarterMail and found the following logging for similar operations in the Administrative logs: 
[2021.10.25] 16:42:38.289 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Webmail Login successful: With user admin-logging@example.com
[2021.10.25] 16:42:44.836 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling set mail settings
[2021.10.25] 16:42:56.884 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling send message, subject: Test
[2021.10.25] 16:43:00.571 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling move messages, owner: admin-logging@example.com, folder: sent items, newOwner: admin-logging@example.com, new folder: inbox, count: 1
[2021.10.25] 16:43:03.868 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling move messages, owner: admin-logging@example.com, folder: inbox, newOwner: admin-logging@example.com, new folder: sent items, count: 1
[2021.10.25] 16:43:05.775 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling delete messages, folder: sent items, owner: admin-logging@example.com, all: , count: 1
[2021.10.25] 16:43:06.040 [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] User admin-logging@example.com calling patch message, owner: admin-logging@example.com, count: 1, folder: sent items
So, I think the general administrative logging is a little more detailed in our case, and I recommend checking out those logs for an Operations log alternative in SmarterMail. Let me know what you think :-)
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
3
Hi Kyle, thanks for the answer!

I think that the OPERATIONS log of Kerio it's better than ADMINISTRATIVE log of SmarterMail because it's more datailed.

SmarterMail only give me the user and the operation  (DELETE or MOVE or SEND), while Kerio give me also the details of WHAT message was moved or deleted (with better details) and the folders involved in that operation (yes, it laks sent mails, but you can see them in the MAIL log).


Look ad this OPERATIONS log for a MOVE operation:

[24/May/2021 07:35:39] {MOVE} Protocol: HTTP/KOFF, User: XXX@YYYYYYY.com, IP: 93.64.85.252, Folder: ~XXX@YYYYYYY.com /INBOX, Destination Folder: ~XXX@YYYYYYY.com /Deleted Items, From: USER@DOMAIN.com, Subject: "Backup Veeam", Msg-Id: <<1772258266-2316@mail1.proemail.it>>, Delivered: 22/May/2021 03:01:45, Size: 19276
 

You can see:
  • the local user
  • the original sender of the mail
  • the original folder folder
  • the destination folder
  • the subject
  • the original received date of the mail
  • The size in bytes of the message...

In your ADMINISTRATIVE log I can only see:
  • the local user
  • the original folder folder
  • the destination folder
There's no way to know what message is involved...

Same issue if I search for a DELETE message log.


Those logs (OPERATIONS and MAIL togheher) are WAY better and detailed than SmarterMail ADMINISTRATIVE log.

It would be great if the ADMINISTRATIVE SmarterMail log reaches this level of detail in the future.
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
2
P.S.: it should be noted that in Kerio's MAIL log both sent and received mails are logged, and for sent mails there is also the possibility to see if they have actually left the server (relayed) or if they are blocked in the outbound queue for some reason (of course the complete details are missing, these will then be visible on the SMTP logs or other detailed logs ...)
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
2
There is a similar suggestion to this from 2019. It would allow the users to see their own logs directly so they could look up some basic info themselves before ever contacting support.
www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !
0
Hi Curtis!

You are right, but for the moment I am talking about improving the reports (already present) visible to system administrators, not to users or domain admins.

Of course it would also be great to have visibility by domain (for domain admins) or even by single user...
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
1
Hello
Also I have suggested both here on the community and via ticket to review the log system
https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a94141/logging.aspx

My best experience with logs is with icewarp, at least in real time

Tracking a user's session based on IP in real time is a very useful thing for me during a support session, for example

Via ticket I was told that they were still completely overhauling the log system and therefore today I am confidently waiting

Also in my opinion currently sm is one of the best mail systems I have tried. But it lacks some features that would make it the top
1) A better logging system
2) An archiving system (without having to invent difficult rules to manage): eg. Automatic creation of an archive/inbox and archive/sent folder where to deposit all the incoming and outgoing messages of the single user and accessible via webmail to the user himself in read-only mode (it would solve many problems upstream, when a user is missing a message if he goes to look for it himself without creating a ticket) Icewarp does it, archive and archive folder integration in user imap, and retention rules for the archive folder. The archive system currently present is for administrators and not for the user and also has no automatic rules for clean
3) Generation of ssl certificates for domain based on SNI (here I know that they are working on it and that they will be able to do it after porting to core net)
4) Abandoning the weekly release on Thursday
5) 2fa for login administrator
6) Some handy features found on other mail server systems that are handy:
6a) backup gateway smtp out, i.e. if outgoing fails with default gateway, try another one. Currently it is possible to choose another gateway, but it is either used in round robin or fixed for a domain
6b) routing to another mailserver based on single email

I repeat I find sm a very valid product and I hope it can become the top
Sabatino Traini Chief Information Officer Genial s.r.l. Martinsicuro - Italy
1
Kyle Kerst Replied
10/28/2021 at 9:31 AM
Employee Post
Thanks Gabriele, I appreciate you clarifying the differences here. I'll get this submitted as a feature request to add the additional details to our existing log system so that this will better enable you to assist end-users in the future. 

@Sabatino and others: Please post these suggestions on their own thread to avoid this feature request being hijacked by unrelated topics. If you can ping me with the link once you get the request submitted I'd be happy to get this going as a feature request for you. Have a good one!
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
2
Thx Kyle.

I looking ahed for SmarterMail become better and better!
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
0
Thanks kyle
I created a new thread
Sabatino Traini Chief Information Officer Genial s.r.l. Martinsicuro - Italy
1
Is there any news on that?
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
1
News on this request?
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
3
I like the idea of isolating log access for each client and only allow them to see logs from their domain. 
It would save some of us from having to provide logs to clients, which sometimes opens a can of worms and their many other questions.
1
Are there any news on a more detailed OPERATIONS log sistem?
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
1
Kyle Kerst Replied
2/9/2023 at 3:49 PM
Employee Post
Nothing just yet, but I'll circle back and make sure this is still on our list to look at in the future. I know these details can be pulled together through the various log channels but it would be neat to have an Activity log that reports on user's mailbox activities for ease of support. 
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
2
Not being able to indicate to a customer when a message was deleted and by what means is something that embarrasses us.

Another major limitation is not being able to give the client the possibility to consult the logs of his domain. It's hours of work analyzing, filtering and providing logs.
2
+1

Some client just want to check the log themselves without emailing over to us. For our use case, if we can have some log to proof that the client setup POP3 and deleted all the email before emailing us and complain that someone has hacked into their account and deleted all the email. That will be a wonderful log to be available on client end.
0
BUMP
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
1
Any news for this topic?
Gabriele Maoret - Head of SysAdmins at SERSIS Currently manages 6 SmarterMail installations (1 in the cloud for SERSIS which provides services to a few hundred third-party email domains + 5 on-premise for customers who prefer to have their mail server in-house)
1
BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!
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