How to Create an E-Mail Notification Channel in Essentials

Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010

Creating a notification channel in System Center Essentials 2010 is the first step in configuring notifications in System Center Essentials 2010. The following procedures show how to configure an e-mail notification channel, including steps on editing the format of message content, and how to create and configure the notification action account that is used by Essentials 2010 to send notifications.

To enable an e-mail notification channel

  1. In the Essentials console, click the Administration button.

  2. In the Administration pane, click Notifications, and then click Channels. In the Tasks pane, click New, and then click E-Mail (SMTP)….

    Note

    You can also choose to enable other types of notification channels, such as instant messaging, text messaging, or commands, by selecting the option when you click New.

  3. When the E-Mail Notification Channel wizard opens, provide a name and description for this channel or accept the default settings and click Next.

  4. In the SMTP servers area, click Add to display the Add SMTP server dialog box.

  5. Type the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, type the port number, select the authentication method, and then click OK.

  6. Type the Return Address that should appear on e-mail notifications, and then in the Retry interval list, select the number of minutes to wait before trying to resend a notification to the primary SMTP server.

  7. In the Default e-mail notification format area, specify the E-mail subject and E-mail message with wildcard parameters such as $Alert Source$ and $Alert Description$, and then specify the encoding type. You can click Placeholder for a full list of available variables.

  8. Click OK to return to the Essentials console.

To create and configure the notification action account

  1. In the Essentials console, click Administration.

  2. In the Administration pane, right-click the Security node, and then click Run As Accounts. Use the Create Run As Account wizard to create an account to use as the Notification action account, which is used to send the notifications.

  3. When the Create Run As Account wizard opens, click Next.

  4. On the General Properties page, select Windows from the Run As Account type list, and then in Display name, type Notification action account. Click Next.

  5. On the Credentials page, type the information for the user name, password, and domain of the user account that you are creating. Click Next.

  6. Select the distribution security option. You have two choices: Less secure or More secure.

  7. Click Create, and after the account has been created, click Close.

  8. In the Administration pane, click Run As Accounts under Security.

  9. In the details pane, right-click Notification action account under Type: Windows, and then click Properties.

  10. On the Distribution tab, click Add to add the Essentials management server.

  11. In the Computer Search window, click Search to display a name of available computers.

  12. Select the server, click Add, and then click OK to close the search window.

  13. Click OK to close the properties window.

  14. In the Administration pane, click Run As Profiles under Security.

  15. Right-click Notification Account, and click Properties.

  16. When the Run As Profile wizard opens, click Next. The name and description for the Run As Profile will be populated for you. Click Next again.

  17. On the Run As Accounts page, click Add, and then select the Notification action account you created from the Run As account list box. Select which objects this Run As Account will manage, and then click OK.

  18. Click Save, and after the profile has been created, click Close.

  19. Double-click Alert Notification Subscription Server in the resulting list, and click OK.

See Also

Concepts

Notifications Node in Essentials

Other Resources

How to Configure Notifications in Essentials