Failed to send alert email from fortinet-notifications.com

[van_sta]

Good morning, I'm having a problem with two-factor authentication using email. Nobody is receiving the token (it was working fine until yesterday). I see the message "Failed to send alert email from fortinet-notifications.com to..." I pinged fortinet-notifications.com and it responded, but I don't see any other information in the logs. How do I fix this?

I have a FortiGate 120g Fortios v7.4.9 build2829 (Mature).

How can I resolve this?

[AEK]

Hi

Try follow this troubleshooting guide.

https://community.fortinet.com/t5/FortiGate/Troubleshooting-Tip-Email-alert/ta-p/199344

In case it persists then you may configure it to send via your mail server instead of Fortinet notification service.

[van_sta]

I followed the steps in the article and these are the logs...

exec ping fortinet-notifications.com
PING fortinet-notifications.com (208.91.114.151): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 208.91.114.151: icmp_seq=0 ttl=45 time=233.8 ms
64 bytes from 208.91.114.151: icmp_seq=1 ttl=45 time=232.9 ms
64 bytes from 208.91.114.151: icmp_seq=2 ttl=45 time=245.5 ms
64 bytes from 208.91.114.151: icmp_seq=3 ttl=45 time=232.9 ms
64 bytes from 208.91.114.151: icmp_seq=4 ttl=45 time=232.8 ms

--- fortinet-notifications.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 232.8/235.5/245.5 ms

get system email-server
type : custom
server : fortinet-notifications.com
port : 465
source-ip : 0.0.0.0
source-ip6 : ::
authenticate : disable
validate-server : disable
security : smtps
ssl-min-proto-version: default
interface-select-method: auto

diagnose debug application alertmail -1
Debug messages will be on for 30 minutes.

FGT-120G-xxxxxxx # 2025-11-12 17:34:28 create session
2025-11-12 17:34:29 resolve fortinet-notifications.com to 1 IP
2025-11-12 17:34:29 ==> send mail
2025-11-12 17:34:29 connecting to 208.91.114.151 port 465
2025-11-12 17:34:29 Arrived msg(type 6, 84 bytes):xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
AuthCode: 253609
Your authentication token code is 253609.

2025-11-12 17:34:29 mail_info:
from:fortinet-notifications.com user:DoNotReply@fortinet-notifications.com
2025-11-12 17:34:29 mail_info:
reverse path:DoNotReply@fortinet-notifications.com
user name:DoNotReply
2025-11-12 17:34:29 to[0]:xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
2025-11-12 17:34:29 <==_init_mail_info
2025-11-12 17:34:29 create session
2025-11-12 17:34:29 resolve fortinet-notifications.com to 1 IP
2025-11-12 17:34:29 ==> send mail
2025-11-12 17:34:29 connecting to 208.91.114.151 port 465
2025-11-12 17:34:29 send mail 0x5583455d80 session 0x5583463af0
2025-11-12 17:36:22 Arrived msg(type 6, 84 bytes):xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
AuthCode: 472912
Your authentication token code is 472912.

2025-11-12 17:36:22 mail_info:
from:fortinet-notifications.com user:DoNotReply@fortinet-notifications.com
2025-11-12 17:36:22 mail_info:
reverse path:DoNotReply@fortinet-notifications.com
user name:DoNotReply
2025-11-12 17:36:22 to[0]:xxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
2025-11-12 17:36:22 <==_init_mail_info
2025-11-12 17:36:22 create session
2025-11-12 17:36:22 resolve fortinet-notifications.com to 1 IP
2025-11-12 17:36:22 ==> send mail
2025-11-12 17:36:22 connecting to 208.91.114.151 port 465
2025-11-12 17:36:22 send mail 0x55834651c0 session 0x558349a150
2025-11-12 17:36:39 failed to connect
2025-11-12 17:36:39 failed to connect
2025-11-12 17:36:39 session_io_event: creating ssl structure for session 0x5583460520
2025-11-12 17:36:39 create_ssl: 0x7f9171e000
2025-11-12 17:36:39 error in SSL_connect (null)
2025-11-12 17:36:39 _session_on_destroy
2025-11-12 17:36:39 <== send mail failed, m = 0x558345e7a0 s = 0x5583460520
2025-11-12 17:36:39 session_io_event: creating ssl structure for session 0x5583463af0
2025-11-12 17:36:39 create_ssl: 0x7f9171e000
2025-11-12 17:36:39 error in SSL_connect (null)
2025-11-12 17:36:39 _session_on_destroy
2025-11-12 17:36:39 <== send mail failed, m = 0x5583455d80 s = 0x5583463af0
2025-11-12 17:36:59 resolve fortinet-notifications.com to 1 IP
2025-11-12 17:36:59 ==> send mail
2025-11-12 17:36:59 connecting to 208.91.114.151 port 465
2025-11-12 17:36:59 create session
2025-11-12 17:36:59 resolve fortinet-notifications.com to 1 IP
2025-11-12 17:36:59 ==> send mail
2025-11-12 17:36:59 connecting to 208.91.114.151 port 465

[damatka5]

Yeah that is what I read it as, which is disgusting, especially if you're a home user like myself without a private SMTP server.

[AEK · Accepted solution]

According to the output the SSL connection failed, for an unknown reason.

[van_sta]

So the only thing left for me to do is set up a private SMTP server? The strange thing is that it was working until yesterday. Could it be the internet provider?

[van_sta]

today is working again...

thanks for for help