Troubleshooting Missing Email Alerts

One of the most popular features of all of our products is the Email alert. Everyone relies on it to be notified of issues that are occurring on monitored computers. But sometimes the alerts don't arrive.

Test email work?

When you initially configured the Email Action a test message was sent. If the test message failed to arrive (of if you're no longer able to get a test message to send):

Look closely at the error message (if any) that is shown when the test message was sent. It is a log of the conversation with your mail server. What is your mail server saying? Often it will say something about:
- failure to authenticate (username/password are bad)
- perhaps something about connection terminated (which could indicate that an anti-virus or firewall app is preventing the monitoring service from sending the test message). You might need to add an exception for the monitoring service to the anti-virus/firewall app. Depending on which application you are using, the service name is:
  
  PA Server Monitor - ServerMonSvc.exe
  PA Storage Monitor - StorageMonSvc.exe
  PA File Sight - FileSightSvc.exe
If the message was successfully sent, did you receive it? If successfully sent, it means your SMTP server accepted the message for delivery, so if you didn't get it, something downstream is involved. Check your spam folder closely.

Exchange and other mail servers

Microsoft Exchange, and other mail servers as well, actively try to keep from sending spam. Because of this, you need to check a few settings on the mail server which might prevent message delivery:

Is the mail server configured to accept outgoing mail via SMTP? (Relay settings)
Do you need to enable SMTP sending from a specific IP address?
Does the user account that logs in to the mail server have rights to forward/relay mail via SMTP?

Still not working?

If the above doesn't help, it's time to look at log files. Enable Debug Logging at the bottom of the Settings dialog. Then wait for the event which should have sent an email.

When an email should have been sent but wasn't received, you can look at the product's service log file. The file is located in the directory shown at the bottom of the Settings dialog. It will be named {product name}_Service_Log.txt. Look in the file for lines that contain "SMTP:" (without the quotes). That is a log of the application's conversation with your mail server. It will either shown the problem, or show that the mail server accepted the message for delivery, in which case you'll need to look at your mail server.

If you need help interpreting the log file, you can send it to us at .

Test message received, but no alert emails

If the test message was received, all of your settings are OK. If alert emails are not being received, either the service isn't trying to send them, or something is blocking them.

To ensure the service is trying to send emails, add the Message Box action to the monitor. If the Message Box appears, you know an email should too. If the Message Box doesn't appear, the monitor doesn't think it needs to fire alerts.

If you got the Message Box, but still no mail, it's time to look at environmental factors. Most often this ends up being an anti-virus or firewall application that is blocking the service from sending emails. You may need to add an exception for the service application (either ServerMonSvc.exe, StorageMonSvc.exe or FileSightSvc.exe).

Finally, check your spam filter. There have been cases where test emails go through, but for some reason alert emails were tagged as spam.