How can I have nagios alerts emailed to my gmail?

Solution 1:

First, install sSMTP, since in this instance postfix is overkill. Yes, this will remove postfix. Do we care? Not really.

sudo apt-get install ssmtp

1. Configure sSMTP by editing /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

#Config file for sSMTP sendmail
#
# The person who gets all mail for userids < 1000
# Make this empty to disable rewriting.
[email protected]
#I recommend setting this 

mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587

# Where will the mail seem to come from?
rewriteDomain=

#The full hostname
hostname=[some hostname here]
UseTLS=YES
UseSTARTTLS=YES
AuthMethod=LOGIN
[email protected]
AuthPass=yourpassword

# Are users allowed to set their own From: address?
# YES - Allow the user to specify their own From: address
# NO - Use the system generated From: address
# This is optional if you're going to use revaliases - I didn't
FromLineOverride=YES

Now, we need to set permissions on /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf to help (it isn't foolproof) protect your plaintext password.

sudo chown root:nagios /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
sudo chmod 640 /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Restart nagios and you should be set.

sudo service nagios3 restart