Technical Tip: Alerts not sent by email, after selecting the Test button in the GUI

FortiGate unit, running FortiOS version 4.0 MR3

Steps or Commands

Be aware of the following conditions and caveats when testing Alert Emails:

• Go to Log & Report > Log Config > Alert E-mail, and ensure the Level value is set to "Information".

   

• The “Test” button may not work with some browsers. If you do not receive a sample test alert email, try clearing your browser cache, or using a different browser.

   

• Due to an internal scheduling algorithm, the FortiGate unit may take a couple minutes to send the notification.

   

• Try enabling all of the Alert Email Log Filter settings under Log & Report > Log Config > Log Filter.

   

• The unit requires a proper Default Route and may require a DNS server setting.

   

• Verify the user credentials to the SMTP server; they may be incorrect.

   

• The configured SMTP server may not be reachable.

   

• If multiple Default Routes are configured for redundancy purposes, the session to the email server may not be established out of the expected interface. For further details, see article Conditions and Caveats of Policy Based Routing.

   

• Try sniffing the FortiGate interfaces for SMTP traffic so see if the FortiGate unit attempts to send the Alert email. 

• For example:

   

  diag sniff packet external 'host x.x.x.x and port 25'

  OR

  diag sniff packet any 'port 25'

  Add the digit "3" at the end of the above commands to increase the verbose level.