Chapter 2: Before you Create any Maintenance Plans… 41 Figure 2.11: If all went well, you will see lots of "Success" entries. If the Configuring… screen reports success, then Database Mail has been successfully set up for your SQL Server instance – or has it? While the success statuses are great, we still don't know if Database Mail has really been set up correctly. For example, perhaps there was a typo in the e-mail address or password, made when entering the SMTP information. If there was, Database Mail won't have any way of knowing this. In short, this means that you need to test your set up. In order to test that Database Mail really is working as expected, close the Configuring… screen, then right-click on the Database Mail folder, just as you did when you began the Database Mail Wizard, and select Send Test E-Mail, as shown in Figure 2.12. Chapter 2: Before you Create any Maintenance Plans… 42 Figure 2.12: To ensure that Database Mail really works, you need to send a test e-mail. The Send Test E-Mail screen, shown in Figure 2.13, will appear. Figure 2.13: You need to enter your e-mail address to see if a test e-mail can be sent successfully from Database Mail. Notice that the first option is Database Mail Profile, and it has a drop-down box next to it. This is used to select the profile you want use to send the test e-mail. In this case, you need to use the profile you just created, which was Maintenance Plan. If the profile you want to test is not selected, then you can choose it by selecting it from the drop-down box. Chapter 2: Before you Create any Maintenance Plans… 43 Fill in the To box with your e-mail address and click on Send Test E-Mail (this box will be grayed out until you enter an e-mail address). The screen shown in Figure 2.14 should appear. Figure 2.14: This screen can be used to help diagnose e-mail problems if you don't receive your test e-mail. Having pressed Send Test E-Mail, the test e-mail will be sent to the designated account. The screen in Figure 2.14 tells you that it was sent (the number of the Sent e-mail is unimportant), so check your e-mail client and verify that the message was received. If the SMTP server is busy, or the e-mail client only polls for e-mails every few minutes, you may have to wait a short time before it appears. If you don't see the e-mail after a little while, be sure to check your spam folder to see if it ended up there. Once you receive the test e-mail, you know Database Mail has been configured correctly and you are ready to continue with the next step, which is to set up an operator. If your mail never arrives, try clicking on the Troubleshoot… button, as shown in Figure 2.14, which sends you to articles in Books Online that guide you through the troubleshooting process. How to Configure a SQL Server Agent Operator When we configure a Maintenance Plan to send an e-mail, created with either the Maintenance Plan Wizard or the Maintenance Plan Designer, we aren't able to enter an e-mail address directly into the Maintenance Plan. Instead, we configure e-mails to be sent to an operator. Chapter 2: Before you Create any Maintenance Plans… 44 An operator is an alias for a specific person (such as yoursel), or a group (such as a DBA mail group). This alias is more than just a name; it is actually a set of attributes that include the operator's name, the operator's contact information, and the operator's availability schedule. Here's an example: let's say that a company has three DBAs, each working a different eight hour shift, so that all of the organization's SQL Servers have 24-hour DBA coverage. The DBAs are: Name Contact Information Working Hours Brad brad@mycompany.com bradpager@mycompany.com 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tony tony@mycompany.com tonypager@mycompany.com 5 p.m. – 1 a.m. Andrew andrew@mycompany.com andrewpager@mycompany.com 1 a.m. – 9 a.m. Each DBA can become an operator. For example, an operator could be created called "Brad" that includes his name, contact information, and his working hours. The same is true for the other DBAs. One advantage of using operators, instead of using specific e-mail addresses, is that if any piece of information changes about an operator, it can be changed in a single place. If specific contact information was stored within Maintenance Plans, then every time some information changed, then all of the Maintenance Plans would have to be manually changed, which could be a lot of work. In addition, since working hours can also be associated with an operator, it is possible to create a Maintenance Plan that is able to send e-mails to the right DBA, during their working hours. Of course, you don't need to take advantage of all this flexibility, but it is there if you need it. Now that we know what an operator is, we need to learn how to create them, because a Maintenance Plan cannot be configured to use an operator until the operator has first been created and configured. To create a new operator, open SSMS, navigate to the SQL Server instance you wish to configure, open up the SQL Server Agent folder, navigate to the Operators folder, right-click on it and select New Operator, as shown in Figure 2.15. Chapter 2: Before you Create any Maintenance Plans… 45 Figure 2.15: Operators are created using the SQL Server Agent. The New Operator screen, shown in Figure 2.16 will appear. While the New Operator screen has lots of options, we will focus only on the three that are most important. • Name – this is your name, or the name of the person or group who you want to receive the Maintenance Plan e-mails. • Enabled – this option is selected by default, and you don't want to change it, otherwise you won't be able to receive any notices from SQL Server. • E-mail name – this option is poorly named. It really means that you are supposed to enter your e-mail address, or the group's e-mail address here. That's it; all the other options are optional, and you can use them if you like, or leave them blank. When you are done, click on OK, and the name you specified in Figure 2.16 will now appear under the Operators folder in SSMS. If you have more than one person who should be notified of Maintenance Plan jobs, you can create additional operators. Alternatively, you could enter an e-mail group instead of an individual e-mail address, in the E-mail name field. This way, when a Maintenance Plan report is sent to a single operator, everybody in the e-mail group will receive the same e-mail. . operator is, we need to learn how to create them, because a Maintenance Plan cannot be configured to use an operator until the operator has first been created and configured. To create a new operator,. SSMS, navigate to the SQL Server instance you wish to configure, open up the SQL Server Agent folder, navigate to the Operators folder, right-click on it and select New Operator, as shown in. troubleshooting process. How to Configure a SQL Server Agent Operator When we configure a Maintenance Plan to send an e-mail, created with either the Maintenance Plan Wizard or the Maintenance Plan Designer,