Flexible sender email address

IBM believes that the request described has been solved in IBM i 7.5 by adding support to SMTP to allow a different sender email address to be specified when sending emails.

For more information, see https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6576777.

IBM Power Systems Development

Hello IBM _Systems_Developer,

The answer to your questions, please feel free to disagree:

1.The idea to allow only users with a certain level authority to change the parameter "mail from" is the right approach. My choice would be to allow only users with special authority like *SYSOPR *SECOFR to change the "mail from" parameter.

2. Level 2 seems a logical one and does fit the need of our customer for who we submitted this RFE.

Many thanks for asking and all the best for 2021, may all you wished for in 2020 also come true this year.

Hello IBM_Systems_Developer,

Please find below my answers to your questions:

1. By default the *PUBLIC authority for the command SNDSMTPEMM is set to *USE. I see no reason to change this or limit the available email addresses of the "mail from". There are more command set to *USE for *PUBLIC which may have unwanted effects (STRSBS). It is the security administrators task to manage this. Apart form that the change of *PUBLIC to somethings else as *USE, might break things.

2. For me the rules of the "mail from" address should follow the same rules/limitations as they are now implemented for the Change Directory Entry =>F19 Change name for SMTP and the Work with system alias table option 1 from the Configure TCP/IP SMTP menu.
The rules for email addresses which apply there should also apply for the "mail from".

If there are others who have a different opinion please respond, after all I could be wrong ;-)

Greetings Rudi

Adding "mail from" field to CL SNDSMTPEMM is a good option for this requirement. But this introduces some questions.
1. Authority question: Who can use this "mail from" function? One option is, only users with certain special authority (*SYSOPR or *SECOFR) can use the "mail from" parameter. Another option is, any user can use the "mail from" parameter. But, only the allowed email address can be specified in the "mail from" parameter for one specific user. And only *SECOFR user profile can change the allowed list for one user.

2. The email address validity: which level of validity will be verified for email addresses ? Level 1: the whole email address need exist on the local IBM i system? Level 2: the email domain is hosted on the local email system? Or, level 3, any valid email address ? The level 3 validity is easily be leveraged to send a spam email. Maybe, level 2 validity is good enough.

Please provide your input from your business scenario, which way can satisfy your business requirement and better security guarantee.

This is a valid requirement.

Due to processing by IBM, this request was reassigned to have the following updated attributes:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Power Systems
Product - IBM i
Component - Networking
Operating system - IBM i
Source - Client

For recording keeping, the previous attributes were:
Brand - Servers and Systems Software
Product family - Power Systems
Product - IBM i
Component - Languages - CL (Control Language)
Operating system - IBM i
Source - Client

One more thing to add from CAAC: Any command can be used in the Navigator for i monitors, so it is not limited to SNDSMTPEMM.

The CAAC has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a medium priority requirement that should be addressed. There is a work-around. The "MMAIL" application, available at easy400.net provides several commands that can send e-mails, and the commands do include a parameter for "from_address". The application is currently available at either no or low cost. However, it would be good for IBM to update the native support to behave as desired for this RFE.

Background: The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CAAC has a key role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community, and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

For more information about CAAC, see www.common.org/caac

For more details about CAAC's role with RFEs, see http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/i-Can/May-2017/COMMON-Americas-Advisory-Council-%28CAAC%29-and-RFEs/

Nancy Uthke-Schmucki - CAAC Program Manager

We use the command SNDSMTPEMM in Nav4i Monitors. All monitors are created by a sys admin account, with the right authority. By having this flexibility, the sender address can be used in mail rules to differentiate between the application or subject.

When we Monitor disk space it is for IT department.

When we Monitor for Qsysopr messages it is for the application department.

Using the API does require a program and extra skills which most customers do not have. If it for those customers for which this RFE was created.

Currently, IBM i CL command SNDSMTPEMM does not allow to specify sender's email address, it uses the email address of who calls the CL.
API QtmmSendMail accepts a parameter of specifying the sender's address, but it requires to send a MIME file and you need write a program to construct the MIME file first.
It is OK to use a different email address as a sender than mail from fields in the MIME file.

If this can not satisfy your business, could you describe in which case you need specify a different sender's mail and which API/CL is used to send the email ? We need this information to consider how to fit your requirement to the SMTP standard.

The COMMON Europe Advisory Council (CEAC) has reviewed this requirement and recommends that IBM view this as a high priority requirement that is important to address.

Enabling to change the email address will bring IBM i into line with what is standard in other communication middleware /email solutions. It will bring more flexibility to the multi-vendor service providers.

Background: The CEAC members have a broad range of experience in working with small and medium-sized IBM i customers. CEAC has a crucial role in working with IBM i development to help assess the value and impact of individual RFEs on the broader IBM i community and has therefore reviewed your RFE.

To find out how CEAC help to shape the future of IBM i, see CEAC @ ibm.biz/BdYSYj and the article "The Five Hottest IBM i RFEs Of The Quarter" at ibm.biz/BdYSZT

Therese Eaton – CEAC Program Manager, IBM

YES !!!