Symantec indicates that BackupExec SMTP Notification does not work on SMTP servers that require authentication, even though they provide options for entering SMTP authentication credentials. According to Symantec Document number 290886 (
http://support.veritas.com/docs/290886) this is a known issue that will be addressed in the next major release of BackupExec, presumably after version 12.5. I have found this information to be only partially true.
I am a computer consultant and I work with a number of companies that use BackupExec. I recently ran into this SMTP issue with a new client, but I was sure that I had been able to get SMTP authentication to work for one of my other clients. I double checked and found that, sure enough, it was working for one of my other clients. I did a little more testing and research and this is what I found.
There are apparently several different methods of SMTP authentication. BackupExec apparently uses a command set that is not supported by a number of mail servers, but that is supported by some. So if you are lucky enough to be using an SMTP server that supports the command set used by BackupExec then you are all set. If you are not, then a workaround is to setup an account on a SMTP server that does support the command set used by BackupExec.
The client that I have that has BackupExec SMTP authentication working properly has their E-mail hosted by a company called CrystalTech (
http://www.crystaltech.com). I contacted CrystalTech and found that they were using a mail server solution called Smartermail. I don’t know if this is just a setting within Smartermail or if BackupExec will work with all implementations of Smartermail. Furthermore, I do not know which other mail server packages will work and which ones will not. I have not had the time to research the specifics of this further, but for now, my workaround is to setup E-mail accounts with CrystalTech for all of my clients that want BackupExec to send E-mail notifications.
I hope that Symantec will fix this issue soon, but for now, there is at least a workaround. I hope this helps anyone needing a more immediate solution to the BackupExec SMTP problem.
