Sending Email from ESX Servers

For my next trick, I’m working on a script that will send out an email (on a set interval) when old .vmx files are on an ESX server. This can cause issues when recovering from a disaster scenario, so the basic logic of my script will be:
Check registered Virtual Machines.
Check .vmx’s in \home\vmware
IF discrepancies = TRUE
THEN send email with list of discrepancies.

Foremost, I had to find a way to send email from an ESX server using an SMTP relay. Since Sendmail/Postfix/et cetera is not built into ESX I found a pretty easy solution. The first step is to download smtp_send.pl from vmguru.com. The second step is to download the MIME-Lite-3.01 library on your ESX server.

Once you have downloaded MIME-Lite-3.01.tar to your ESX server, install the library by typing the following:
tar zxfv MIME-Lite-3.01.tar.gz
cd MIME-Lite-3.01
perl Makefile.PL
make test
make install

You are now ready to use smtp_send.pl. Here’s a test message below:

./smtp_send.pl –t sinter@klaas.com –s “What I want for Christmas” –m “one BMW Z4 M Coupe Alpenweiss” –f fromemail@goeshere.com –r 192.168.1.1 (IP of SMTP Relay)

Later this week, I’ll put the script together.

- Jason Langone

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