How can I config Open-edX Production Stack SMTP settings?

Question

I recently just used Vagrant to install the Production Stack of the Open-edX online learning platform. I followed the blog address at this URL http://iambusychangingtheworld.blogspot.ca/2014/03/edx-platform-to-run-cms-at-port-80.html when it came to configuring the ports that the Open-edX platform listens on, and that worked out well. I would like to thank user Trinh Nguyen. However I would like to know more about configuring SMTP as well so that when users create accounts they receive their activation email. This could help anyone just starting Open-edX development including me. It would be good to know about what files need configuring and other important details. Thank you.

Answer 1

As far as I know, after you finish the production stack deployment, the SMTP service will work as desired (can be able to send out emails). And there are something about emails you can do:

• Change the site's domain in the activation email
• ...

And those settings are located at: /edx/app/edxapp , especially these 2 files:

• cms.env.json
• lms.env.json

Hope that will help

Trinh

Updates: To sending email via GMail, add the following settings to the common.py:

EMAIL_HOST = 'smtp.gmail.com' 
EMAIL_PORT = 587 
EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'youruser@yourdomain.com' # or youruser@gmail.com 
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = 'YourPassword' 
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True 
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'you@yourdomain.com' 

You should restart the edx services, not just the nginx:

LMS/CMS:

sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf restart edxapp: 

Workers:

sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf restart edxapp_worker:

Answer 2

You need next data:

• EMAIL_HOST = "host"
• EMAIL_PORT = 25 or 587
• EMAIL_HOST_USER = "user"
• EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = "*******"
• EMAIL_USE_TLS = True

Optionality you can change some configurations more:

• API_ACCESS_FROM_EMAIL
• API_ACCESS_MANAGER_EMAIL
• BUGS_EMAIL
• BULK_EMAIL_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL
• CONTACT_EMAIL
• DEFAULT_FEEDBACK_EMAIL
• DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL
• PAYMENT_SUPPORT_EMAIL
• PRESS_EMAIL
• SERVER_EMAIL
• TECH_SUPPORT_EMAIL
• UNIVERSITY_EMAIL

This are files tha you must change on your installation

• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py
• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform/lms/envs/aws.py
• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/lms.env.json
• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/cms.env.json
• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/lms.auth.json
• sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/cms.auth.json

And finally you should run this script:

sudo /edx/bin/./supervisorctl restart all

Answer 3

Adding this answer for anyone using Juniper:

The parameters to edit are same but the relevant files are in different location now. You need to edit the following files:

/edx/etc/lms.yml

/edx/etc/studio.yml

Following are the values to edit:

EMAIL_HOST: smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD: YOUR_PASSWORD
EMAIL_HOST_USER: 'YOUR_MAIL@domain.com'
EMAIL_PORT: 587
EMAIL_USE_TLS: true

Then restart the following services:

sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl restart lms
sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl restart cms
sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl restart edxapp_worker:

Note: The following files exist but editing them do NOT work anymore:

/edx/app/edxapp/lms.env.json
/edx/app/edxapp/cms.env.json