TomTheGreat

Gmail and/or Google Apps requires SSL for use when connecting and using it as your SMTP server. Unfortunately Business Objects Edge 3.1 does not support SSL connections in its various email delivery configurations.

No problem, I figured I could install a small SMTP server locally and use that to send out email. While that is possible, and one good choice is hMailServer, it has some potential problems with reverse DNS lookups, and MX record checks.

Instead I found a quick tool called sTunnel that can run as a service on any machine that will redirect a request to a defined location and handle the SSL wrapping. It is highly configurable, runs as a service, 5 minutes to install, minimal resource use, and requires no administration once setup.

Using this tool, I am able to configure Business Objects Edge 3.1 to use a Google Apps (should also work fine with Gmail) account to send emails from scheduled reports and other email destination services within Business Objects.

Here are the general steps I followed, keep in mind that my installation is Windows based, but that the general steps would work similar for non-windows based platforms (although sTunnel might require slightly more installation steps).

Step 1 –
Download sTunnel to the server your going to use for hosting the service. This can be the same server as your BO Edge, or a different server. As long as the BO Edge server can reach the server and port you define it doesn’t matter. I choose a separate server so that I can use sTunnel with other applications.

Step 2 -
Install sTunnel using the executable you downloaded.

Step 3 –
Edit the stunnel.conf file with the desired settings. sTunnel can be used with multiple services, but for email delivery the only one that matters is the one listed as [ssmtp]. I commented out the others as I won’t use them, but they could be left in if desired. The settings that matter are listed below along with some comments from me.

---

; stunnel comes with a certificate to test with, you should get your own though
cert = stunnel.pem

; debug is useful in setup, and can be commented out once its all working
debug = 7
; output is the location of the debug log file
output = stunnel.log
client = yes

[smtps]
; accept is what the service listens for incoming connections on
; insert the real IPaddress of the server you installed this on
accept = 127.0.0.1:25
; connect is the outbound connection to Google Apps (gmail)
connect = smtp.gmail.com:465

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Step 4 –

Install sTunnel as a service by clicking on the Service Install shortcut installed in the stunnel Start Menu.

Step 5 –
Configure Business Objects Edge email delivery method to use a Google Apps user account but the connection host of the server running sTunnel. You do this through CMC under the Servers section. You will need to modify all the Job Servers that are configured for email delivery. For me that list is:

AdaptiveJobServer
CrystalReportsJobServer
DesktopIntelligenceJobServer

But could also include:

DestinationJobServer
ListOfValuesJobServer
ProgramJobServer
PublicationJobserver

Go to Properties of the Job Server, then Destination, then Email. If Email doesn’t exist and you are adding it for the first type, select Email in the drop down and click add. The fields to enter to enable use of the stunnel service and Google Apps (Gmail) are

---

Domain Name: (insert domain Google Apps domain, ex: abc.com)
Host Name: (insert IP or FQDN of server running stunnel)
Port: 25 (if you used a different port in stunnel.conf insert that here)
Username: (insert Google Apps / Gmail user, ex: me@abc.com)
Password: (insert user password)

---

The rest of the fields don’t matter. At this point restart the Server job and your done. You can now use Google Apps with Business Objects Edge for email delivery of reports.

For additional reference the following sites I found useful with this effort.
http://www.sysadmin.md/how-to-access-gmail-smtppop3-service-with-stunnel.html
http://watchdirftp.blogspot.com/2009/02/gmail-as-your-smtp-server.html

Tags: 3.1, BO, Business Objects, Edge, Email, Gmail, Google Apps, Reporting, SSL, stunnel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Business Objects, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.