SQL Mail Problem

[alex]

I am trying to install SQL Mail to send automatic system messages. The SQL
Mail service starts but when I try to test it I get the following error.
Does any one have any solution to this problem?

Error: A Mapi error ( error number 273) occured. Unable to get the default
MAPI message Store due to MAPI error 273. The information store could not
be opened.

The MSSQL Service, SQL Agent, Mail Account name have the same account name.
The acoount log on as a service and has sysadmin rights in the sql server.
I have also set up the POP3 and smtp addresses in the mail profile. The first
thing I suspect is that the exchange mail account is on differnt domain.
Will this cause any problem? Does the exchage server have to be aet up in
the same domain? Infact the SQL service started working only after I set
up the SMTP and POP3 server addresses.

[Michael Orzo]

Alex,

I would suggest if you are using Exchange then you update to Outlook and
connect to the exchange server natively. Using POP3 has serious performance
issues with incoming mail. The message (MST) file may also be damaged, this
would cause the same message you re receiving.

Generally the instructions for setting up SQL mail goes:
1. On the SQL server console login in as the user account you established
for SQL server.
2. Verify Mail configuration and send a test message using the Microsoft
mail (assuming you are using the standard Microsoft messaging.) If you can
not run Mail from the console then don't even with attempting to get SQL
server to work because it won't, not reliably any way. Avoide using third
party mail clients, some use MAPI and others don't. Those that do may not
write the profile correctly and SQL server will not understand a cryptic
profile.
3. IF you can send a message then Log off the console. Keep in mind that
MAPI (the process SQL server uses to access mail has multi user issues and
will destabilize the system if you attempt to run a client session and have
SQL Server interact with it. I have seen it lockup to the point where I needed
to stop the services and restart them, not something you want to do on a
production system.
4. From an ISQL or WISQL (query analyzer for SQL 7 people)
master..xp_startmail
5. If the above indicates mail is already started then you may want to stop
and restart mail services:
master..xp_stopmail
GO
master..xp_startmail
GO
6. If the xp_startmail fails try using the user id and password:
master..xp_startmail @user = "MySQLAccountUser", @password="MySQLAccountUserPassword"
-- Note the above user id and password is the same what you assigned the
service to.
7. If this still does not work try the profiles setting for SQL server mail,
the simplest method for getting there is: Enterprise manager -> You SQL Group
-> Your SQL server -> Support Services. Then right click on SQL Mail and
select Properties (you can also double click on SQL mail). The drop down
box should have all the current system profiles for this user. Select the
one you created and click test.

Normally the primary cause for SQL server not being able to connect to mail
is the services user. This is based on the MAPI profiles associated to that
user and no one else. As you indicated you already resolved the user by creating
a user that can operate as a service. The second problem is lackluster response,
I am still searching for a fix to that problem.
Hope you get it working.

Michael


"alex " <alexp@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>I am trying to install SQL Mail to send automatic system messages. The SQL
>Mail service starts but when I try to test it I get the following error.
>Does any one have any solution to this problem?
>
>Error: A Mapi error ( error number 273) occured. Unable to get the default
>MAPI message Store due to MAPI error 273. The information store could not
>be opened.
>
>The MSSQL Service, SQL Agent, Mail Account name have the same account name.
>The acoount log on as a service and has sysadmin rights in the sql server.
>I have also set up the POP3 and smtp addresses in the mail profile. The
first
>thing I suspect is that the exchange mail account is on differnt domain.
>Will this cause any problem? Does the exchage server have to be aet up in
>the same domain? Infact the SQL service started working only after I set
>up the SMTP and POP3 server addresses.
>
>
>

[D. Patrick Hoerter]

alex,

> The MSSQL Service, SQL Agent, Mail Account name have the same account
name.
> The acoount log on as a service and has sysadmin rights in the sql server.
> I have also set up the POP3 and smtp addresses in the mail profile. The
first
> thing I suspect is that the exchange mail account is on differnt domain.
> Will this cause any problem? Does the exchage server have to be aet up in
> the same domain? Infact the SQL service started working only after I set
> up the SMTP and POP3 server addresses.

Ok, first, if you have your Exchange box in a different domain, it's a new
ballgame.

The first step is to establish trust between the two domains. The reason for
this is that the SQL Mail service must be able to hit the mailbox via NT
Security, i.e. by using network credentials, rather than passing
username/password.

So, you have 2 choices for this:
Assume SQL is in DomainSQL and Exchange is in DomainExchange.
Next, depending upon how you want to run your MSSQL Server and SQL Agent
services, you may either:
1.) Set up the services on SQL using a domain account from DomainSQL. If so,
you must enable DomainExchange to trust DomainSQL, and add the user account
from DomainSQL to DomainExchange, and grant it permissions to the Exchange
account.

2.) Set up the services on SQL using a domain account from DomainExchange.
In this case, DomainSQL must trust DomainExchange, and you would add the
domain account from DomainExchange to DomainSQL, and set up the SQL services
to use that account.

Once that's all set up NT-wise, you must do one more critical step:

Log onto the SQL server machine's console using whichever domain account you
set up as the one running the services. While logged on as this user, you
must configure the Exchange Profile for the SQL Mail to use, let's call it
SQLProfile for example. The reason you need to do this is because when you
configure the SQL Mail services, you must tell it a profile name, and
nothing more. Hence, when the service is running under the authority of the
chosen domain account, it will have access to that particular profile in the
registry.

Whew. Sorry so long-winded, but in summary: You must have a trust
established between the 2 domains, and you must configure an Exchange
profile on the SQL box while logged in using whatever domain account you're
running the services as.

Regards and Good Luck!
D. Patrick Hoerter



alex <alexp@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:399bd2a6$1@news.devx.com...
>
> I am trying to install SQL Mail to send automatic system messages. The SQL
> Mail service starts but when I try to test it I get the following error.
> Does any one have any solution to this problem?
>
> Error: A Mapi error ( error number 273) occured. Unable to get the default
> MAPI message Store due to MAPI error 273. The information store could not
> be opened.
>
> The MSSQL Service, SQL Agent, Mail Account name have the same account
name.
> The acoount log on as a service and has sysadmin rights in the sql server.
> I have also set up the POP3 and smtp addresses in the mail profile. The
first
> thing I suspect is that the exchange mail account is on differnt domain.
> Will this cause any problem? Does the exchage server have to be aet up in
> the same domain? Infact the SQL service started working only after I set
> up the SMTP and POP3 server addresses.
>
>
>

[outlook]

You might go looking for repair pst and email repair. I have been using it without problem since it came out.