Issue
Emails having attachments sent from a custom ProofPoint email account are at times stuck in a send-retry loop, and actually get sent many times.
One symptom is the following warning traced in a node log when the email is sent:
2020-09-07 07:46:28 (966) worker.7 worker.7 txid=f2294aaadb4f WARNING *** WARNING *** handling smtp exception: javax.mail.MessagingException: Exception reading response; nested exception is: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out : Exception reading response 2020-09-07 07:46:28 (973) worker.7 worker.7 txid=f2294aaadb4f WARNING *** WARNING *** EMAIL.b0f70ea6db4f54d09a686b4bd39619c8: send-retry |
This makes the administrator believe that the instance might not be waiting a long enough timeout to receive a response from a mail server.
Release
All
Cause
The SMTP timeout duration is something that ServiceNow set at code level and we cannot modify it. The default SMTP timeout is 60 seconds and the default SMTP max timeout is 300.
From the ServiceNow side the step to take is to validate if there is any business rule with current.update in the target or sys_email table.
The use of current.update is discouraged:
Recommended Practices in Using current.update() in Business Rules
Avoid using current.update() in a business rule script
Resolution
https://www.proofpoint.com/sites/default/files/essentials_administrator_guide_for_end-customers_cm.pdf
https://mso.harvard.edu/faq/i-have-email-attachment-was-delayed-proofpoint-what-happens-my-email-during-5-7-minute-delay#:~:text=delayed%20by%20Proofpoint.-,What%20happens%20to%20my%20email%20during%20the%205%2D7%20minute,email%20and%20attachment%20are%20blocked.
https://help.proofpoint.com/Proofpoint_Essentials/Email_Security/Administrator_Topics/110_logs/Troubleshooting_email_delivery_problems_using_Email_Logs
https://www.uml.edu/docs/Secure%20Email%20FAQs_tcm18-237100.pdf
https://help.proofpoint.com/Proofpoint_Essentials/Email_Security/Administrator_Topics/110_logs/Understanding_Email_Logs
Related Links
Slow outbound email processing when own SMTP server is used
Custom SMTP Server fails sending emails with error "Local address contains control or whitespace"