Forward Email for Automatic Ticket Creation in Atera (IT Departments)

This article provides instructions for the Atera for IT Departments platform.

The article will explain how to forward your support email to Atera, and customize related email settings. You will learn how to: 

• Forward your support email to the Atera auto-generated support email, and have all emails automatically open tickets in the Atera platform
• Set your auto-response email settings (for technicians and contacts)
• Set up email forwarding for Outlook 365
• Set up email forwarding for Gmail
• Customize your SMTP settings (optional)

Forward your support email to Atera 

You can forward your support email to Atera’s support address so that:

• You can continue to provide your users with your own support address (e.g.support@yourdomain.com).
• All emails automatically open support tickets in the Atera platform.

You'll need to configure email forwarding in your own email account. Exactly how this is done depends on the email provider you're using (scroll to the bottom of this article for instructions on setting up a forward in Outlook 365 and Gmail). Once that's set up, you'll need to set up the association on Atera's side as well.

Note: The primary support email address you are using to forward emails to the auto-generated address needs to have the Sender Rewriting Scheme (SRS) enabled. SRS improves the deliverability of applicable messages that pass Sender Policy Framework (SPF) checks when they arrive from the original sender but that then fail SPF at the final external destination after they are forwarded.

To set up (on Atera's side):

1. Click on the Admin page (in the side menu) > Email Settings.

2. The Email Settings page appears. Please fill in the fields as indicated:

Notes: 

• Email aliases are not supported, and will not work for auto-forwarding emails (and opening tickets). Please enter your actual primary support email address.
• Enter your ‘Primary Service Desk Support Address’ (or Additional Service Desk Support Addresses), in addition to setting up a forward with your mail provider. This is also the default 'reply-to' address that will appear in ticket communications with your customers after setting up SMTP settings. 

Set your auto-response email settings (for technicians and users)

3. Select your auto-response settings.

Notes:

• Clicking on 'Auto-create new user' will enable automatic user creation, upon receipt of an email from a new address.
• You can select or create an email template to be sent to new users.

4. Click Update to save all changes/additions.

If your email is hosted by Outlook 365, click here for instructions on setting up forwarding:

If your email is hosted by Gmail, click here for instructions on setting up forwarding.

Note: When adding the Auto-Generated Support Address in Gmail's forwarding section, a verification message will be sent to that address. You will find this as a ticket created in your Atera console from where you can copy the verification link.

You'll also need to add your external email address as a support address in Atera. See Forward your support email to Atera (above). Additionally:

Customize your SMTP settings (optional)

You have the option of using your own SMTP server.  If you don’t add your server, ‘reply’ emails to users will come from ‘noreply@atera.com’.

To customize:

1. Click on the Admin page (in the side menu) > Email Settings.
2. Make sure you filled in the ‘Primary Service Desk Support Address’ field with the support address you provide your customers (e.g. support@yourdomain.com).
3. Add your SMTP server, username/password, port, and SSL/TLS preference (under ‘Customize SMTP Settings’).
4. Click Update.

Notes:

• The email white-labeling will apply to ticket replies only. Reports and invoices will still be sent from noreply@atera.com 
• The SMTP settings for Office 365 can be found in this Microsoft guide. While option 1 is recommended, depending on your email configuration, you may be required to use the other options described in the article.
• To successfully use Gmail SMTP settings in Atera, you may need to allow less secure apps on Google's side. Learn more
• Please add app.atera.com to the allowed list in your email server as well as the following subnets:

52.157.0.0/16
40.113.0.0/16

If you cannot whitelist an IP address range of /16, please use add the following:

52.157.175.0/24
40.113.216.0/24
40.113.221.0/24  
40.113.222.0/24