Email Alerts - not receiving

[Kilkenny1]

We have alerts set up on a number of lists in Sharepoint, The Alerts apper in the "My Alerts" Summary, however we do not receive the email notifications.

I have had a look in the SPSNOTIFICATIONSERVICE.LOG and I see the following.
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11/08/04 17:20:46:859 UNK 00000000 00000F30 Alert Notification could not access database. Database appears to be offline or tables are locked
11/08/04 17:20:46:875 UNK 00000000 00000F30 The notification could not be generated temporarily. Retrying(limited). Notification details:{Seed Owner=09e309b9-52c8-4084-859a-0013ec232fd4 TypeId=AlertResultNotification SeedValue=2280;1;Nov 3 2004 2:35:42:133PM Tag=27} Portal site details:{site=Niche Generics Intranet id=0027fe81-24d2-4e8e-8add-304de4be9fb0} Exception information: Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.NotificationDataTemporarilyUnavailableException: Failed to generate notification:Alert Notification could not access database. Database appears to be offline or tables are locked ---> Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.SecurityAccessCheckFailedException: Tripoli Security trimmer failed and returned a null array at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.x.a(PortalContext A_0, SecurityTrimmer A_1, DataTable A_2, Hashtable A_3, Boolean A_4, WindowsIdentity A_5, Byte[] A_6, Boolean[]& A_7, Int32& A_8) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.x.a(at A_0, PortalContext A_1, SecurityTrimmer A_2, DataSet& A_3, Guid A_4, WindowsIdentity A_5, Byte[] A_6) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.at.a(Guid A_0, String A_1, SqlParameter[] A_2, WindowsIdentity A_3, Byte[] A_4) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.at.a(Guid A_0, String A_1, SqlParameter[] A_2) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.j.a(String A_0, SqlParameter[] A_1) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.j.a(String A_0, SqlParameter[] A_1) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.NotificationTypes.a.a() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Alerts.ai.c()
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Has anybody come across this before

Many Thanks

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

Have you tried to restart the timerservice? Also look in the SQL if you have any locks on the databases (or tables).

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Kilkenny1]

Thanks Thomas,

I have restarted the server completely and still have the issue. I cannot see anything out of the ordinary in the Locked files on SQL, any ideas which table I should be looking for the locks on.

Thanks again for your help

John

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello John,

I am not sure in which table to look at, will do some investigation.

Have the alerts worked before?

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Kilkenny1]

Thanks Thomas,

Yes, Alerts did work before. And I can't think of anything that might have changed. I would have thought that a server restart would clear any locks.

Thanks Again

John

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello again,

You have not changed the account that the timerservice runs? have you made sure that that account used for the service have access to the SharePoint databases?

Yes a restart of the server should have cleared the locks, so it seems not to be a problem with that.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Thomas2000]

Hi,

Check the Alert service aswell and make sure it runs and that it has an account that is valid and have enough access aswell.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Kilkenny1]

Thomas,

the Timer service is running and using the spsadmin account, so that should be OK

However, the "Alerter" service is disabled. Does Sharepoint depend on this.

John

 

[Thomas2000]

Hi John,

Looking at the description of the SharePoint Portal Alert service it says:
"The SharePoint Portal Server Alert Service schedules and sends alerts and alert results to users on one or more servers running SharePoint Portal Server."

So It most likely need to be running. Mine is set to manual, although it is started and I am using the same account for that one as for the SharePoint timer service.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Kilkenny1]

Thomas,

firstly, I picked you up wrong he last time. I was looking at the "Alerter" service, not the "Sharepoint Alert Service"

This is set to manual, and is started and using the same credentials as the login service.

Thanks

John

 

[Kilkenny1]

One other interesting fact. The alerts in the Team sites are working fine. I assume that this is because they are controlled by Windows Sharepoint Services, rather than Sharepoint Portal Server

 

[Thomas2000]

Yes, the WSS utilizes the SharePoint Timer service.
So did you get the alerts from the Portal to work by starting the SharePoint Alert Service?

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Thomas2000]

Okay, did not read your previous post that the SharePoint aleter service was started. But that service uses the same spsadmin account as for the timerservice?

Regards,
Thomas

 

[Kilkenny1]

Thomas

Afraid not, it was already running

John