PowerStore: How to Import a Valid Certificate for SMTP to Use STARTTLS

Summary: How to use OpenSSL to obtain certificate used by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service for Transport Layer Security (TLS)

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Symptoms

Error message:

No certificate available. Import a certificate to proceed:

screenshot of error message

Cause

This error occurs because the PowerStore does not have a valid CA certificate to authenticate the SMTP server.

Resolution

From a Linux server, install OpenSSL and run:

echo |openssl s_client -showcerts -servername <server> -connect <server>:<port> -crlf -starttls smtp 2>/dev/null | awk '/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----/,/-----END CERTIFICATE-----/'

For example, for smtp.office365.com:587:

echo |openssl s_client -showcerts -servername smtp.office365.com -connect smtp.office365.com:587 -crlf -starttls smtp 2>/dev/null | awk '/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----/,/-----END CERTIFICATE-----/'

The output is similar to:

# echo |openssl s_client -showcerts -servername smtp.office365.com -connect smtp.office365.com:587 -crlf -starttls smtp 2>/dev/null | awk '/-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----/,/-----END CERTIFICATE-----/'
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIIpTCCB42gAwIBAgIQBajiV3qawxB6wEysPSgq8jANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBL
MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEVMBMGA1UEChMMRGlnaUNlcnQgSW5jMSUwIwYDVQQDExxE
aWdpQ2VydCBDbG91ZCBTZXJ2aWNlcyBDQS0xMB4XDTI1MTExMDAwMDAwMFoXDTI2
MTEwOTIzNTk1OVowajELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxEzARBgNVBAgTCldhc2hpbmd0b24x
EDAOBgNVBAcTB1JlZG1vbmQxHjAcBgNVBAoTFU1pY3Jvc29mdCBDb3Jwb3JhdGlv
ggEKAoIBAQDoK5xE8CIH...truncated…5xE8CIHc5xE8CIHctZmUeiKB/n8cz
2CZOMNqMEe4WpnoBFmxuBi7rtIsrAHYAwjF+V0UZo0XufzjespBB68fCIVoiv3/V
ta12mtkOUs0AAAGab+8p1QAABAMARzBFAiAh0N/z9iTilJ0ANf1lXpSsjA4owNRK
QHOIdwO1C65JEQIhALb0jD66T6Xl9TvN8qP3fDccHs4WmSCbwSaKczAA3r62AHYA
AiEAyC0JBk9bOGJPbSvabOGEZ/8qLIC0pnGuRAbDckIlis0CIFjM4aDKfmiu7yDx
kifw+d6jVpAu
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIE5jCCA86gAwIBAgIQDxcaSMbyI4CSGM0u1t3A6DANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADBh
MQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEVMBMGA1UEChMMRGlnaUNlcnQgSW5jMRkwFwYDVQQLExB3
d3cuZGlnaWNlcnQuY29tMSAwHgYDVQQDExdEaWdpQ2VydCBHbG9iYWwgUm9vdCBD
QTAeFw0yMDA5MjUwMDAwMDBaFw0zMDA5MjQyMzU5NTlaMEsxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT
MRUwEwYDVQQKEwxEaWdpQ2VydCBJbmMxJTAjBgNVBAMTHERpZ2lDZXJ0IENsb3Vk
IFNlcnZpY2gVzIENBLTE...truncated…3DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQDR
rfaHFHlUJ1fHLwVoPJs8zWfsRRAshPKkR8TZU0JFCbvk/jPB17xGL9GL5re1Z3h8
anC+/bjltlTPTF6suCJ0c1UpCHPIZPfQlQkOeYNQv1/11MybQmGOgAS5QarOThKZ
m6zWxb5bAnO1FqSrcWLUmOpAOYWm9rsv6OeHwov2nDLN7Pg+v4nndCOCS9rqv3Om
JTz9v6nlaP/4MKJgxzsuo/PFfzs7/Q8xoXx0D9C/FMS9aPGl52un35sAfkYlTubo
x6pNQytYvwMPeg==
-----END CERTIFICATE----

Take these certificates, which contain the full certificate chain, and paste it into the certificate import wizard:

screenshot of importing cert using the wizard

And a new certificate is displayed:

screenshot of new cert

After this, enabling SMTP with STARTTLS also enabled should be successful.

Affected Products

PowerStore 1000T, PowerStore 1200T, PowerStore 3000T, PowerStore 3200T, PowerStore 5000T, PowerStore 500T, PowerStore 5200T, PowerStore 7000T, PowerStore 9000T, PowerStore 9200T
Article Properties
Article Number: 000394229
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 06 Dec 2025
Version:  2
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