Set Up E-Mail Notifications

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server Update Services

The WSUS 3.0 server can be configured to send e-mail notifications of new updates and reports on the status of the WSUS network. Notifications will be sent whenever the WSUS server synchronizes new updates, and status reports can be sent daily or weekly. E-mail notifications do not include rolled-up computer status from replica downstream servers.

Set up e-mail notifications

  1. In the WSUS Administration console, click Options in the left pane.

  2. In the center pane, click E-Mail Notifications.

  3. Click the General tab.

  4. If you want update notifications, select the Send e-mail notification when new updates are synchronized check box.

  5. In the Recipients box, type the e-mail addresses of the people who should receive update notifications. Separate the names with semi-colons.

  6. If you want status reports, select the Send status reports check box.

  7. In the Frequency box, select either Daily or Weekly.

  8. In the Send reports at box, set the time at which you want status reports to be sent.

  9. In the Recipients box type the e-mail addresses of the people who should receive status reports, delimited by semicolons.

  10. In the Language box, select the language in which the status reports should be sent.

  11. Click Apply to save these settings.

Note

If both the WSUS administrative console and the WSUS server have the same settings for Daylight Savings Time adjustments, notifications will appear at the correct time. If the adjustments for Daylight Savings Time are different, then notifications will be off by the difference in the Daylight Savings Time adjustment.

Set up the e-mail server

  1. Click the E-Mail Server tab.

  2. In the Outgoing e-mail server (SMTP) box, type the name of your SMTP server.

  3. In the Port number box, type the server's SMTP port (25 by default).

  4. In the Sender name box, type the sender's e-mail display name. Generally this will be the name of the WSUS administrator.

  5. In the E-mail address box, type the sender's e-mail address.

  6. If the SMTP server requires logon information, select the My SMTP server requires authentication check box.

  7. Enter the user name and password in the respective boxes.

Note

You can change authentication credentials only on a WSUS server, not from a remote administration console.

  1. Click Apply to save this information.

  2. After saving the e-mail server information, test your configuration by clicking Test. The Event Viewer will show any issues related to sending the e-mail.

  3. If your e-mail notification is not working properly, one place to look is the SoftwareDistribution.log file (found in your WSUS directory, usually …\Program Files\Update Services\LogFiles). One error message that is symptomatic of an incorrect SMTP configuration is the following:

    EmailNotificationAgent.WakeUpWorkerThreadProc Exception occurred when sending email of type Summary: System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: Failure sending mail. ---> System.IO.IOException: Unable to read data from the transport connection: net_io_connectionclosed.

    Investigate your SMTP e-mail server configuration to resolve this problem.