I see that fail2ban has a built in capability to send jail entries off to abuseIPDB. See https://www.abuseipdb.com/fail2ban.html
Several questions:
Is there any value in sending a report in - what does it offer me, you or the world at large?
You'd need to read all their information and decide if and how you can utilise it.
That is a key question before you go any further.
- assuming it is worthwhile - how to set it up with smeserver config/template system?
I'm willing to have a go at it but am completely new to that sort of thing.
There is mountains of info in the wiki. You need to grab a coffee and a test machine, and read and play. You will learn far more that way.
https://wiki.koozali.org/Template-driven_configuration_systemhttps://wiki.koozali.org/Template_TutorialIt really isn't hard. Just start by browsing the templates in your own TEST server in /etc/e-smith/templates
Look at how they generate actual files. Look at how they can get variables from configuration entries.
You can then copy them to templates-custom and try some small changes.
When you get stuck on a specific issue then describe what you have done, and then ask..
To enable AbuseIDBP you will have to do a combination of add some of their stuff and customise a bit of the existing templates.
PS: I did look at the web management page for fail2ban but saw nothing there...
Nope because F2B does what it does, and you want to add an enhancement.