Issues setting up SMTP/Custom email

[UncleArya]

I am hoping someone might be able to help me troubleshoot my Aliasvault setup. I have used the install scripts using the official docs and everything runs and works as expected, except the SMTP container and the custom email service. I have tried some troubleshooting myself but I am unable to figure out what is causing this error:

Unhandled exception. System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException: Could not find a part of the path '/app/Certificates'.
   at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerator`1.CreateDirectoryHandle(String path, Boolean ignoreNotFound)
   at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerator`1.Init()
   at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerable`1..ctor(String directory, FindTransform transform, EnumerationOptions options, Boolean isNormalized)
   at System.IO.Enumeration.FileSystemEnumerableFactory.UserFiles(String directory, String expression, EnumerationOptions options)
   at System.IO.Directory.InternalEnumeratePaths(String path, String searchPattern, SearchTarget searchTarget, EnumerationOptions options)
   at System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(String path, String searchPattern, EnumerationOptions enumerationOptions)
   at Program.<<Main>$>g__CreateCertificate|0_5() in /src/Services/AliasVault.SmtpService/Program.cs:line 80
   at Program.<>c.<<Main>$>b__0_1(EndpointDefinitionBuilder serverBuilder) in /src/Services/AliasVault.SmtpService/Program.cs:line 49
   at SmtpServer.SmtpServerOptionsBuilder.Endpoint(Action`1 configure)
   at Program.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<<Main>$>b__0(IServiceProvider provider) in /src/Services/AliasVault.SmtpService/Program.cs:line 48
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitFactory(FactoryCallSite factoryCallSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSiteMain(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitRootCache(ServiceCallSite callSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSite(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitConstructor(ConstructorCallSite constructorCallSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSiteMain(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitRootCache(ServiceCallSite callSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSite(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitConstructor(ConstructorCallSite constructorCallSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSiteMain(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitRootCache(ServiceCallSite callSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSite(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitIEnumerable(IEnumerableCallSite enumerableCallSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSiteMain(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.VisitRootCache(ServiceCallSite callSite, RuntimeResolverContext context)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteVisitor`2.VisitCallSite(ServiceCallSite callSite, TArgument argument)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceLookup.CallSiteRuntimeResolver.Resolve(ServiceCallSite callSite, ServiceProviderEngineScope scope)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProvider.CreateServiceAccessor(ServiceIdentifier serviceIdentifier)
   at System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary`2.GetOrAdd(TKey key, Func`2 valueFactory)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProvider.GetService(ServiceIdentifier serviceIdentifier, ServiceProviderEngineScope serviceProviderEngineScope)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProvider.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProviderServiceExtensions.GetRequiredService(IServiceProvider provider, Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.ServiceProviderServiceExtensions.GetRequiredService[T](IServiceProvider provider)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.Internal.Host.StartAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.HostingAbstractionsHostExtensions.RunAsync(IHost host, CancellationToken token)
   at Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.HostingAbstractionsHostExtensions.RunAsync(IHost host, CancellationToken token)
   at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in /src/Services/AliasVault.SmtpService/Program.cs:line 120
   at Program.<Main>(String[] args)

Thank you for your time and assistance!

[lanedirt]

Hi @UncleArya,

Thanks for trying out AliasVault! That error seems to indicate the SMTP service is trying to access a folder that doesn't exist. I checked the error log for hints, and I think this has to do with the SMTP_TLS_ENABLED flag in the .env file.

The SMTP_TLS_ENABLED flag should be set to false:

# Set whether TLS is enabled for SMTP.
SMTP_TLS_ENABLED=false

If this value is set to true, then the SmtpService tries to load TLS certificates from a certain directory, however this feature is experimental and not (fully) supported yet via the Docker config.

Can you check your local .env file for the setting above and make sure its set to false, and afterwards try restarting the services with ./install.sh restart?

[UncleArya]

Thanks for helping me troubleshoot. I have gone over everything a few more times but I am guessing that I am also running Stalwart and my mail.domain.com is also being used by Stalwart. Is there a way I could setup Aliasvault on the same domain and have it use any other subdomain other than mail, or would getting a different domain for Aliasvault be the likely solution?

[lanedirt]

Hi @UncleArya, yes it's possible to configure AliasVault to receive email on a subdomain (e.g. [email protected]) instead of the root domain. I have just updated the docs that explain how to do it: https://docs.aliasvault.net/installation/install.html#3-email-server-setup. Please try it out and let me know if it works for you.

[UncleArya]

Wow! Amazing. That is super helpful, and it has helped me make some progress! I am getting a new error message now. Now it doesn't say that the mailbox doesn't exist, so I am guessing it is now actually creating the email aliases. But the error message when I try to send an email to the new aliases is:

The response from the remote server was:

550 5.1.2 Relay not allowed. 

So a DNS issue perhaps? In my cloudflare dashboard I added entries for Aliasvault like this:

Type	Name	Content	Proxy Status	TTL
A	mail.sub.domain.com	[my-server-ip]	DNS only	Auto
MX	sub.domain.com	mail.sub.domain.com	DNS only	Auto

[lanedirt]

Hi @UncleArya, after reviewing the docs again I noticed I made a typo, as in DNS the domain and extension should not be added explicitly to the [Name] column. That was my bad. :)

So if your full subdomain is sub.domain.com, then in the [Name] column you should enter sub instead. The [Content] column can stay as it is. So for your example it should look like this:

Type	Name	Content	Proxy Status	TTL
A	mail.sub	[my-server-ip]	DNS only	Auto
MX	sub	mail.sub.domain.com	DNS only	Auto

I have just fixed this typo in the docs. Can you check if it works with this adjustment?

[UncleArya]

Thank you for your help! This is an amazing service and I am excited to use it for the years to come. Thank you for your work on this 😄