Aeries needs to send emails to users, parents, and students for a variety of reasons. The Aeries Administrator needs to configure certain settings correctly so that Aeries can send emails on behalf of your school or district.


Portal Settings

Navigate to School Info | School Options, and select school 0 (District).

Click the Change button and populate the fields under the section labeled Portal Settings.



These settings tell the Aeries Web Version front-end how to send emails, such as when a new Parent/Student Portal account is created, an Intervention Referral is submitted, or a parent completes Data Confirmation.


  • Server DNS or IP – The name or IP address of your SMTP server (e.g., mail.yourdistrict.org or smtp-relay.gmail.com)
  • Send Emails From – This address will appear on the "From" line on Portal-related emails. To avoid mail delivery issues, this should be a real valid email address with a domain from your organization, and not a fake DoNotReply or NoReply email address. Even if your organization chooses not to monitor replies, all email addresses used to send emails from should be valid.
  • Use SSL/TLS – Set this to Yes if your SMTP server supports or requires a secure connection.
  • SMTP Port – Common ports used for email include 25, 465, and 587. Check your mail server configuration or documentation from your email provider.
  • SMTP Username – If your SMTP server requires authentication, Aeries will log in with this username.  This may be different from the "Send Emails From" address.
  • SMTP Password – If your SMTP server requires authentication, this password along with the SMTP Username will be used to authenticate.


You can use the Test Email Settings feature to test your settings. We recommend sending a test email to address inside your domain and one outside your domain. Multiple email addresses can be tested separated by commas or semicolons.


Note: all emails from within Aeries will be sent from either the email address specified above, or from the email specified in the Aeries Reporting Config. below. Additional email addresses, such as a teacher's email address for gradebook emails, will be used as the reply-to email address.


School-Specific Portal Email Address

On the School Options page, each school can have a Portal Confirmation Email Address entered. When an email is sent pertaining to a specific school, this address will be used as the "From" address instead of the District-based Send Emails From setting.



Aeries Reporting Config

On the server where the Aeries Reporting Service is installed, there is a file called AeriesReportingConfig.config. A section of the AeriesReportingConfig.config file needs to be populated so that the Aeries Reporting Service can send emails. In the file you will find the block named SMTP Settings.



The options are essentially the same as those explained above in Portal Settings on the School Options (District) page, just in a different format. In most cases, the same values should be used in both places.


If the <RequiresAuthentication> option is set to "True", then the <UserName> and <Password> should be populated. Otherwise, <UserName> and <Password> should be left blank, and RequiresAuthentication should be set to False.


Note: In the majority of implementations, the <Domain> should be left blank.


These settings tell the Aeries Reporting Service how to send emails. The Aeries Reporting Service processes all reports, long-running processes (such as Initialize ATT/CAR and Copy Grades to Transcripts), and scheduled processes (such as Aeries Analytics, Google directory sync, or Update Attendance History). When one of these functions needs to send an email, the SMTP Settings in the AeriesReportingConfig.config file are used.


Please note that some providers, such as Google's G Suite for Education or Microsoft Office 365, limit the total numbers of emails sent per day. For more information on Google specific email setup and limitations, visit this article provided by Google.