Internal error on sending email after a new autolab installation

[abrantesasf]

Your environment Let us know details such as

• Universidade Vila Velha (UVV) Autolab at https://autolab.computacaoraiz.com.br
• Rocky Linux 9.4
• Autolab v2.12.0
• This is a new installation of Autolab, in a new server, to substitute our old autolab server (the old autolab is v2.10)

Steps To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install Autolab according "Autolab + Tango Docker Compose Installation", on Autolab Docs
2. Configure e-mail according "Mailing for Autolab Docker Installation", on Autolab Docs
3. Test e-mail using "Forgot your password", on UVV Autolab page

Current behavior When I try to test e-mail using the "Forgot your password" feature, on https://autolab.computacaoraiz.com.br, an Error 500 Internal Server Error is triggered. Our currently email configuration, in .env file is this:

`# SMTP SETTINGS

SMTP_SETTINGS_ADDRESS=smtp.gmail.com

SMTP_SETTINGS_PORT=587

SMTP_SETTINGS_ENABLE_STARTTLS_AUTO=true

SMTP_SETTINGS_AUTHENTICATION=login

SMTP_SETTINGS_USER_NAME=our_user_name

SMTP_SETTINGS_PASSWORD=our_password

SMTP_SETTINGS_DOMAIN=computacaoraiz.com.br

SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM=autolab@computacaoraiz.com.br

HOST_PROTOCOL=http

HOST_DOMAIN=autolab.computacaoraiz.com.br`

This same configuration are working as expected on the old server, with Autolab 2.10. But, in this new server with Autolab 2.12, the same email settings are not working.

We test the email function after disabling SELinux and Firewall, but the internal error continues.

In the Autolab logs this message is displayed:

`autolab | App 191 output: W, [2024-06-30T15:29:56.977753 #191] WARN -- : An error occurred when sending a notification using 'email' notifier.Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2) for "localhost" port 25

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:631:in `initialize'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:631:in `open'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:631:in `tcp_socket'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:641:in `block in do_start'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/timeout-0.4.1/lib/timeout.rb:186:in `block in timeout'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/timeout-0.4.1/lib/timeout.rb:193:in `timeout'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:640:in `do_start'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/net-smtp-0.4.0/lib/net/smtp.rb:610:in `start'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/mail-2.8.1/lib/mail/network/delivery_methods/smtp.rb:109:in `start_smtp_session'

autolab | App 191 output: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-3.2.2/gems/mail-2.8.1/lib/mail/network/delivery_methods/smtp.rb:100:in deliver!' ...

It seems the Autolab is trying to use localhost:25 instead of smtp.gmail.com:587 to send email, but the correct email settings are configured in .env file.

Expected behavior Autolab sends a email.

[damianhxy]

Could you try configuring Autolab via Manage Autolab > Configure Autolab > SMTP Config instead?

With #2028, the way SMTP settings are configured was changed, looks like the documentation needs updating. Sorry for the trouble!

[abrantesasf]

I updated the email settings via "Manage Autolab" and now everything is working correctly. Sorry I didn't realize that the settings in this version are no longer done in the .env file. Really, the documentation needs a little updating. Thank you very much!

[damianhxy]

That's great to hear! We'll keep this issue open until we update the documentation.

[abrantesasf]

As the problem was solved, I'll close this issue. Thank you!

[abrantesasf]

OK, reopening the issue until the update on documentation. Thanks!

[damianhxy]

(For developer reference) Current mailing docs can be found at: https://docs.autolabproject.com/installation/mailing/ .env is set via: https://github.com/autolab/docker/blob/master/.env.template

Since #2028, the following vars are now read from the config file (see diff of config/environments/production.rb.template:

• HOST_PROTOCOL
• HOST_DOMAIN
• SMTP_SETTINGS_ADDRESS
• SMTP_SETTINGS_PORT
• SMTP_SETTINGS_ENABLE_STARTTLS_AUTO
• SMTP_SETTINGS_AUTHENTICATION
• SMTP_SETTINGS_USER_NAME
• SMTP_SETTINGS_PASSWORD
• SMTP_SETTINGS_DOMAIN

Thus, they should be removed from the docker .env file and the documentation updated accordingly. We might want to preserve the old documentation in a footnote in case anyone is using an older version of Autolab.

Things to note

• SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM is still being read directly from ENV in production.rb.template, even though it appears to be written to the config file. Perhaps the code should be updated to read from the config file, and we can remove the setting from .env. Check if this causes issues with config/initializers/devise.rb which reads that env var.
• MAILER_HOST (used by application.rb, set in Autolab's .env.template) seems to be redundant as it is used to set config.action_mailer.default_url_options's host, which used to be set by HOST_DOMAIN and now the UI. See if it can be removed -- however, the comment in .env.template seems to suggest that it MUST have a default value. In any case, we should be able to remove the dependency on HOST_DOMAIN even if we preserve the initialization statement in application.rb.

CC @20wildmanj