"Alert Me" problem

[oguz83]

There is a problem with "alert me". Server usally does not send the alert mail. I look at "Virtual Server General Settings" but I can not see anything wrong. What may be problem?

 

[Beowulf005]

Are the users part of you network with assigned exchange accounts?

 

[oguz83]

Yes users are part of the network. Sometimes it sends alert mails but generally it does not send.

 

[Beowulf005]

I have had the same type of issue hopfully someone else knows how to fix it.

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

have you checked that the timerservice (owstimer.exe) and spsnotification.exe are running properly? Check your eventlogs and sharepoint logs to see if they have generated any information.

Best Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

I've got similar issues, Alerts work from Team Sites but not the Portal Site, I get emails saying that an alert has being added from the Portal.

Alerts do show up in the 'My Alerts Summary' but no email is received.

I can see email in the Manage Alert Settings screen but eventually they drop off.

SPS is setup with our Exchange server as the Global email server. I have the SPS services set up as a Domain Admin with full access to all the Sharepoint db's.

I have noticed the amount of dots in the password field of the services doesnt equal the actual length of the password after it is applied closed and reopened. Not sure if that is normal or not but I can restart the service OK.

I dont think its actually ever getting to our exchange server because if I search the emails sent by the user SPS is configured to use the alerts dont show up.

I read a MS article advising to go to Central Admin click on Windows Sharepoint Services on the left and the under server configuration click configure virtual server for Central Administration and then click use existing application pool. Didnt work for me but you guys might want to try.

 

[ouzojd]

Found this as well, hasn't helped me yet but maybe it will help someone else.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;894632

I get this in the log:

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()
08/23/05 08:55:26:047 UNK 00000000 00000A08 Alert Notification could not access database. Database appears to be offline or tables are locked
08/23/05 08:55:26:047 UNK 00000000 00000A08 The notification could not be generated temporarily. Retrying(limited). Notification details:{Seed Owner=54f4aeb5-2ffb-419c-ab1c-481232af0501 TypeId=AlertResultNotification SeedValue=786;1;Aug 22 2005 4:06:04:700AM Tag=9} Portal site details:{site=??? id=6076ecb6-66ce-4037-914d-54d9946f8960} 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 ---

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

Have you made user that the accounts you use in sharepoint (for running the services etc) and also the admin account in sharepoint central admin has rights to sharepoints databases?

From the log you posted it seems to be a user-rights problem and that the account you use does not have sufficient rights to the databases.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

From what I can see it does, it is a domain admin account. I used this account whenever prompted during setup of the server, SQL 2000 and SPS. I can log on to the server with this account and open enterprise manager and see all the db's and their tables, I can also do backups and restores of SPS wotht this account.

I know it certainly sounds like a permissions issue between SPS and SQL 2000 because of a. the logs and b. Exchange server never sees it.

Are you able to possibly let me know what permissions you have on the db tables for the account you run the services with? Also should SQL 2000 be using Windows authentication?

Thanks.

 

[Thomas2000]

Hello,

I have done in the same way I use the same account for all SPS related things and also on the SQL db's.


I am using Windows Authentication for the SQL also (running all SQL services with the same admin account as SPS)

In SQL that Windows account has the following rights:
- Security Administrators
- Process Administrators
- Database Creators

Have you checked the Topology
On the SPS machine that admin account is also a member of the following groups:
- IIS_WPG
- SPS_Query
- SPS_WPG
- STS_WPG

Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

Those things are all good. I have another problem and it occured to me this mning that they could well be related.

If I click on import contacts in a contacts list I get a msgbox saying Your Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable.

I'm thinking SPS doesnt like talking to other servers on the domain although it is successfully using AD for permissions and to import user profiles. I'm not sure what would cause this.

 

[Thomas2000]

Hmm..strange. In Central Administration under configure server topology you do not have any errors there?

And your exchange server is open for relaying aswell? So that sharepoint can use it as an SMTP relay?

Are you using the DNS name or IP for your Exchange server when you configured it in SPS?

Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

No errors under configure server topology. DNS is fine I have tried IP, server name and FQDN

Not sure about the relaying though and to be honest it is probably closed, everything is locked down pretty tight.
I always get lost in system manager where abouts would I find it - SMTP connector or something?

 

[Thomas2000]

Yes, most mail systems are pretty tight and locked down. I am not sure where in Exchange to find it (was a looooong time ago I looked at Exchange).

Take a look at below links and see if they can help out

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/exchangeserver/excrelay.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...ing/f90f6dd2-5492-4745-82ea-b65d208021de.mspx

Just make sure that you do not open and allow realying for any machine then you will be in trouble

Regards,
Thomas


Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

Unfortunately not working still. I am just about to create a new portal site on a different server to see if that works. Got me stumped though, it really is looking and acting like a sql permissions thing though but, I dont know I'm just making uneducated guesses now, logic hasnt got me anywhere yet. No doubt it will end up being a little check box buried away somewhere in Active Directory or Enterprise manager.

 

[Thomas2000]

Might be a good idea to test with a new portal site and see if that resolves your problem or not. As you say (and looking at your previous logs) it does sounds like a problem with the SQL DB.

Please let me know if you get it to work by creating a new portal site or if you find a solution.

Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

Will do, its looking more and more like SQL permissions problem. I deleted all the old dbs on my backup server, now it wont let me create a new config db.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Thomas2000]

Ok, make sure in SQL that you give the useraccount
the following rights (before trying to create any databases)

- Security Administrators
- Process Administrators
- Database Creators

I'll keep my fingers crossed

Regards,
Thomas

 

[ouzojd]

Mate, took a few days but eventually got it working on the production site.

Everything was setup correctly but I had to remind it how it was setup.

Basically I noticed my search was working on SPS and it would also return results from team sites, however the team sites search had stopped working. Apparently team sites use SQL and SPS uses mssearch service. Anyway, I found a post that said to try this as a fix, which I though might be my alert problem - it was:

1. Open the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. From the Action menu point to Properties, and then click Security.

2. Change the Startup service account to System Account.

3. Stop and then restart the MSSQLServer service.

4. Change the Startup service account back to the domain account you want. (Make sure that you perform this task through the SQL Server Enterprise Manager and not Control Panel.)

So it was already a domain admin account, but I set it back to system which stopped and started the SQL service, Changed it back to my domain admin account again, did a reboot of the server, and it works, yeh I'm sort of half happy, now I have to work out the search problem because it didnt fix that.

Cheers and thanks for your help.c

Also credit where credit is due the post is

http://mindsharpblogs.com/bill/archive/2004/10/05/163.aspx

 

[ouzojd]

Also sorry oguz83 for hijacking this thread - I hope one of the fixes suggested works for you too. My bad.