Email Processing Validation Email Processing Validation
In order to prevent email loops caused by automated Out of Office and email bouncing replies, iSupport performs a check on the inbound email source address during the Email Processing routine.
iSupport tracks a cycle of ten Email Processing agent runs to see if there has been a communication from the same email address. It checks for a quiet period, which occurs when no email messages with excessive sender email addresses are detected for one complete cycle of the Email Processing Agent. If there is no quiet period during ten Email Processing agent runs and messages keep coming from the detected email address, the excessive sender’s email address is flagged as potentially causing an automated loop.
The following error appears in the log: "Email address (name) (email address) has potentially caused a loop."
During this first level excessive sender email address condition, both the Email Processing agent and notification rules will suspend sending any automated iSupport messages to the detected excessive sender’s email address. All other configured recipients of iSupport notifications will continue to receive the automated messages.
iSupport continues to track another cycle of ten Email Processing agent runs to see if there has been a communication from the same email address. If a condition occurs where there is no quiet period during the previous 20 consecutive runs and messages keep coming from the detected excessive sender’s email address, even after the first level’s suspension of automated notifications, the following error will appear in the log: "The (notification type) notification will not be sent for incident number (#). Reason: The From address (name) (email address) is a known automated email sender or has been flagged for causing an email loop or the subject (subject) indicates that the email is an out of office reply."
During the second level excessive sender condition both the Email Processing and notification rules will suspend sending any automated iSupport messages to the detected excessive sender’s email address and all other configured recipients of the notifications associated with incidents and/or changes affected by the excessive sender’s email address. Email addresses for other unaffected incidents and/or changes will continue to receive the configured automated notifications.
The system will automatically reset a first level condition, if a quiet period of one Email Processing agent occurs. In the case of a second level condition, two consecutive Email Processing agent routines must pass with no detected messages from the excessive sender’s email address to automatically reset. Once the reset condition is met, all notifications will resume as configured.
A second level condition will be in effect immediately if the source of the email is from a known automated response source:
Mailer Daemon
Postmaster
System Administrator
It will also be in effect if the subject line of the email contains a string of text containing:
"Out of office Autoreply:" (This is the default text for an MS Exchange out of office notification.)
"Undeliverable: “
These values are stored in the web.config file in the folder in which iSupport is installed. Administrators can add other automated sourced email addresses and standardized automated response subject lines unique to their environment.