SQL Agent Notifications issue.

Question

SQL Agent Notifications issue.

Joseph Hirn

SSC Veteran

Points: 286
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September 1, 2004 at 9:48 am

#102182

Hello.
I've searched the forums and haven't found this problem in particular with the SQL Agent Mail. Basically we have it set up to send mail on failures. However, there comes a point when it stops sending mail. If we reboot the server, I end up with 90 e-mails in my inbox. The mail will send without issue for a few days, then stop sending again until the next time we reboot the box and it will send all of them out. It's as if they are getting stuck in a queue somewhere but I have absoultely no expereince dealing with this and I figured someone else has had of of experienced something similar.

Thanks in advance

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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EdVassie SSC Guru Points: 60478 More actions · Answer 1

SQL Mail is not the most bug-free product that Microsoft have produced. Even though it can work for weeks without trouble, it is not unusual for mail to stop working without warning.

Sometimes you can avoid a rebot by logging on with the SQL service account and opening Outlook. If you need to troubleshoot this, you may find the cause of your mail outages. However, sometimes only a reboot will clear the problem. The bad news is we had one SQL Mail problem that simply could not be fixed, and ended up formatting the disks and re-installing everything to get it going again. The good news is that Microsoft reckon they have coded some fixes for SQL Mail problems that are currently in beta, but you will need to run SQL2005 to get them...

Also, if you are experiencing regular problems, you should get your Exchange people involved. If the times that SQL Mail stops working are linked to maintenance slots on Exchange, you may have the answer. Ther may be some Exchange configuration items that can be tweaked to make SQL Mail more reliable.

Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

Aaron Myers Ten Centuries Points: 1139 More actions · Answer 2

You might be going offline from your exchange server and Outlook just builds the emails up in the outbox. You might be able to set Outlook to stop going offline.

Also you can set SQL mail to use SMTP rather than Exchange. This may prove more reliable.

http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3345091

Just some ideas...

Joseph Hirn SSC Veteran Points: 286 More actions · Answer 3

Well we are a Lotus Notes shop, and it's already set up to use SMTP. The strange thing is that when I opened Outlook, BLAM!!!! I got 86 e-mails sent to my account. I'm starting to think it has somethign to do with the e-mail settings in outlook. I'll tinker with a few settings and see what I can find.