How to get ssmtp working with Zoneminder

From ZoneMinder Wiki
Revision as of 07:21, 22 March 2015 by Asker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "===Why do you need this If you want Zoneminder to send you emails about alarms, you need to configure a way for ZM to send emails. SSMTP is one of several ways, and a lightwe...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigationJump to search

===Why do you need this

If you want Zoneminder to send you emails about alarms, you need to configure a way for ZM to send emails. SSMTP is one of several ways, and a lightweight and efficient one.


=== Background SSMTP is a really light mail transfer agent (MTA) that a lot of people use in Linux. It is much more lightweight that sendmail for sure and I am told postfix too. Note that SSMTP does not really run a daemon process in your box, so trying "telnet localhost 25" is going to fail (and also why a traditional Zoneminder configuration of using local host fails) Instead what is does is this:

  • It installs a program called ssmtp that you can use to send emails
  • Creates a soft link to point sendmail to ssmtp, so you can use the sendmail command too

If you are running ZM on a "not to high end" machine and are monitoring more than 3-4 HD cameras, you will want to be prudent on what you want to install. SSMTP is a great choice.


=== Installation of SSMTP Installation is very simple ``` sudo apt-get update apt-get install ssmtp apt-get installutils ```