I have tried everything I can to figure out why im not getting email.  I set up  channels subscribers and subscriptions.  I have a network switch that I unplug to create the alert -  so the alert pops up and I go into Notification Subscription Wizard and set up an ultra simple net work device responsiveness rule.  Add myself as a subscriber then add channels for email and also one for a test script.  And NOTHING ever happens. I get the alert but the script is never triggered and the email never goes out.  Is there a log file on disk somewhere I can see how the alerts travel to the channels?  I have an email test script that runs from the MGT server and it sends email. I know that much.

What kind of ISP are you using? That information will help people give you some help.

Troubleshoot email notification
1. create subscription with notify on all alerts with channel and subscription which are same as the problematic subscription

2. Generate SCOM alert

3. If you recevie email alert which means that problems come from subscription criteria.

4. If you does not receive email alert, check the following
a) Check the FQDN and port of the SMTP server.  and make sure that this address and port should be accessible from the MS and not blocked by firewall rules or anti-malware software.

b) The channel can be configured for Anonymous authentication or Windows authentication.If Anonymous is selected, the SMTP server should either allow anonymous connections, or be configured with an exclusion for the IP address of the RMS.If Windows Authentication is selected, a Run-as account will need to be created and associated with the Notification Account Run-As profile.This account will need permission to send e-mail through the SMTP server

c) Make sure that subscription email address is correct and make sure that the subscription schedule is correct.The SMTP server and e-mail client of the subscriber should not have any filtering rules blocking e-mail from the Operations Manager server or the domain name.The Reply-To address defined in the notification channel can be added as an exemption to any filtering rules on the SMTP server or client, if needed.

For detail pls. refer to
http://blogs.technet.com/b/momteam/archive/2012/05/22/kb-notification-of-operations-manager-alerts-may-not-be-received.aspx

Roger

I would go for the suggestions by the hopeless guy :-)

Important things are to first test with a catch-all notification subscription, just blast all alerts through email to yourself. SO you can test that first before you narrow down the filters.

Also many times an Exchange server defines which internal machines are allowed to send emails through it. SO make sure your scom management servers are allowed to send email through exchange.

ok I have done the various steps by the hopeless guy and set to anonymous - one step I didn't do before was add the notification account and adjust the notification group.  wonder if there is a text log file in some directory that shows results of alerts sending email?  the other thing is I wonder if there is a way to turn on some debug steps.  I'm really getting a very deep understanding of how this all meshes so the effort is well spent!

And it works.

Thanks Bob!

Thing is there isnt much logging of this unfortunately (it has been requested often enough though..). There is some in the event log of operations manager. Perhaps increasing tracing in SCOM might come up with something, but wouldnt keep my hopes up too much. In most cases its:

- Channel not correct
- Subscriber not defined correctly (email address for instance) or restricted to certain times.
- subscription contains too many filters or doesnt conect to the right subscriber/channel combination
- receiving end doesnt accept emails (such as the exchange server)

What I always do in the few cases I create script based alert chanels is that I build in logging in each step for troubleshooting and after testing I turn those off or just keep the resulting command for later reference.

In any case its good to hear you are learning and moving forward. Good luck!