Notifications not sending (test ok)

[shonky2112]

I have just upgraded from 10.0 to 11D, and now do not get any notifications emailed (SMTP) from my backup jobs. I have checked the settings in the job setup (notification and job notification) and everything looks good. I tried unchecking and checking and that fun stuff, still no dice. Weird thing is any test notifications I send work every time. I've also tried recreating the backup job from scratch, but still no "real" notifications (either success of failure), but test notifications always work fine.

BE Version 11.0 rev 7170

Exchange Server 2003 on separate server.

Any help appreciated.

Shane.

[Scott_P]

Hi Shane,
Have you tried blowing away the recipients completely, the entire SMTP config, and recreating? I know you mentioned deselecting and selecting recipients but alot of times deleting and recreating the smtp info and recipients will resolve the issue. However, if it does not, please let me know and we'll continue to dig further.

Regards,
Scott

[Joe_CHPC]

Hi, I am having the same exact problem. I have removed all recipients and added them back. When I click the test I get the foolowing message: "A test notification has been queued for delivery to the recipient...". Am I missing something?

[D_B_5]

The messages about it being queued is the standard, you'll get that when it works or not.

With SMTP, have you verified if you are using Authentication or not on the SMTP server and set the appropriate credentials in the SMTP configuration?  Does your default logon account have all the rights needs (mailbox) to send notifications?  Are you using the same account as the service account?  If different accounts, that would potentially expalin the test message vs the real one working.

Try leaving the Sender name off the SMTP configuration, sometimes the server doesn't accept the name. (most do)

[Joe_CHPC]

Forgive me for being so new at this. I've never used Symantec and I just walked into this job with blinders on.

"Does your default logon account have all the rights needs (mailbox) to send notifications?"

Does the server need to have something like Outlook installed and setup with the email account? Or will it simply send it out on port 25 (thats what is listed in my configurations).

I did remove the Sender name, still no notification. I'm assuming that when I "Test" the email it should send something to my account right away.

Thanks

[D_B_5]

No problem about being new...  :)

Having Outlook installed is required for Mapi notifications.  I forget if SMTP uses it as well, or directly goes through the port.  If you isntall Outlook to test it, BE will not recognize Outlook is installed until you restart all Backup Exec services (Tools\Service has an option to restart all services with one click)

Your account in BE needs to have full rights to a mailbox.

Yes, a test mail would show up immediately in your mailbox.

Check you Exchange server to ensure the Pop3 service (smtp service) is turned on.  It is off by default.

[Joe_CHPC]

I think the problem may be in the fact that we dont have an exchange server. Our servers/maintenance has been outsourced by a local vendor who uses some external server for our email system. He originally setup the BE to use his personal email account (***@charter.net) for the outgoing notification messages.

To give you some more information... This server has been installed recently as an upgrade to our system. I am assuming he has setup this BE the same way the old server was. He had it working on the old server.

Is there something different that I need to do (that he might have forgot) to be able to do it this way? 

Thanks,

[D_B_5]

You can use the outsourced server, as long as they give you the settings and if they are using authentication or not. 

You could switch to MAPI, but that depends on if you use an Outlook client, or Outlook Express.

Netsend can be used to send a message which will pop up on your personal workstation rather than in an email.

[Joe_CHPC]

Thanks D B for all your help and patience. I will call this guy and see if we can get it set up with his remote email server.

Thanks for your time.

[shonky2112]

Thank you all for your replies. I've been following the suggestions and trying some things....without success, until today. Yesterday I completely removed (again) all SMTP settings and recipients, and added them back in. This time however, in the return address for the BE sender, I entered in a live email address (rather than just noreply-backup@). So this morning I still did not recieve the job notification email, however there was an email in the sender return address mailbox. It was an "undeliverable" notification stating "This message is larger than the current system limit".

So now that I know BE is at least sending the notification, I went back into Options, and checked the job log settings, it was set to "Summary information, directories and files processed". That would explain the huge job log.

So I have set it to "Summary information only", and will cross my fingers for tonight.

Cheers. Shane.

[Joe_CHPC]

VIOLA!!!

Instead of calling the guy with the remote mail server I just went to my Outlook at my Desktop and got the outgoing server info, plugged in my email into BE... all is well! Evidently our server does have rights with the remote mail server but didnt with Charter.

Thanks DB for keeping me focused. I knew i was in the right area, but didnt know how it all worked.

Now on to my other problem of remote BE not working. The remote services are not starting unless I am logged into the server. But I dont want to be logged in all the time on that server. I do have one thing to try and if it doesn't work this weekend i'll be back with a new post.

Have a great day,

Joe

[D_B_5]

No problem Joe, glad to help!

[shonky2112]

Just to follow up and bring a resolution to my issue for future searchers, my notification was successfully sent last night. The issue was resolved by changing the logging level down to "Summary Information only", so the notification email and it's attachment would not be larger than the limit set on my Exchange mailbox.

If I really needed that huge email I could obviously change the message size limit for my account, but for my purposes, a summary is all I need if everything is good.

Thanks to those that contributed to this thread....by the looks of it we got a two-fa' solved on this thread!

Cheers. Shane.

[nanefy]

Perfect!!! I had setup 12.5 on a server and I would get test notifications as well as test run notifications, but every night when the backup ran it would not send me the notification and I was tearing my hair out.

Sure enough, I checked the size of the job log and it was 22MB therefore our mail server was just blocking it.  Instead of changing the logging level down to 'Summary Information Only' I just unticked the box in the notification area to prevent the job log being sent with the notification - this way I can have the notification to let me know it was successful but I can still have a decent level of logging.

Thanks for posting your solution!