Overview
When an alert fires, Condense always creates an in-app notification. If you also configure SMTP, Condense sends the alert as an email to the recipients set on that alert. SMTP is configured per environment. Staging and Production can use different mail servers and different sender addresses, and they never share details.Only Environment Admins can configure or modify SMTP settings. Other roles do not see the SMTP screen.
Before you begin
You need:- The Environment Admin role in the environment you are configuring.
- The details of your mail server, which your IT or mail administrator can give you: host, port, encryption protocol, and a username and password.
- The email address alerts should be sent from.
Configure SMTP
- Open the SMTP settings. In the environment, go to Settings → Integrations → SMTP.
- Enter your mail server details. Fill in the fields in the table below. Condense signs in to your mail server with the username and password you enter.
- Send a test email. Choose Send Test Email. The recipient is pre-filled with your own email address, and you can change it to any address. The test uses the details currently in the form, so you can check new credentials before you save them.
- Save. You can save without testing, but the configuration then shows as not verified until a test passes.
Check your settings before you save
Condense shows a note, but still lets you save, in these cases:- Unusual port and encryption pair, such as SSL/TLS on port 587 or STARTTLS on port 465. If the test fails, try 587 with STARTTLS or 465 with SSL/TLS.
- Sender address on a different domain from your mail server. Some mail servers only send from their own domain. If emails are rejected, use a sender address on the same domain as your host.
- Encryption set to None. Your username, password and email content are sent unprotected, so use it only on a trusted internal network.
Test the connection
The test email runs through connecting, signing in and sending. When it succeeds, Condense shows the address it sent to and records Last verified by [name] on [date] at [time] UTC.A passing test confirms your credentials and server connection. It does not confirm that your mail server accepts connections from Condense’s outbound IP address. If live alert emails do not arrive after a successful test, ask your network team to allow Condense’s outbound IP range.
After any error, Try again keeps the recipient address you entered.
Configuration states
The SMTP screen shows where your configuration stands:
If email delivery is failing and you are not an Environment Admin, you see a message asking you to contact an Environment Admin.
How an alert email is sent
When an alert is triggered:- The alert is generated in Condense.
- An in-app notification is created immediately.
- If SMTP is configured, the alert email is sent to the configured recipients.
- Temporary delivery failures are retried automatically.
- Permanent failures are marked Delivery Failed and shown in the alert history.
Retries and delivery failures
An alert email counts as delivered only when your mail server accepts it for every recipient. If an alert has several recipients and any one of them fails, the whole event is marked Delivery Failed.
What the alert history shows
Each alert row in the history shows one email outcome:Roles and permissions
Best practices
- Send a test email every time you change a setting.
- Set up SMTP before you add email recipients to alerts, so the first alert that fires can reach them.
- Use a sender address on the same domain as your mail server.
- Use None for encryption only on a trusted internal network.
- Use separate SMTP settings for Staging and Production if you want their alert emails kept apart.
- Review the alert history regularly for Delivery Failed entries.
- When credentials rotate on your mail server, update them here and send a test email.