Installing and testing the email utility

BLAT is the most common application is used for email notification. It is a mail client in the public domain. BLAT is used as an example in the following discussions.

Use the following procedure to install and configure the email utility.

To install and configure the email utility

  1. Download the .ZIP file from the BLAT download page, currently: www.blat.net

  2. Extract the files to a directory.

  3. Copy the blat.exe file to the Windows System32 directory.

  4. From a command prompt, run the following command:

    blat -install emailserver.company.com useraccount@company.com

    Where:

    emailserver.company.com is the hostname or IP address of the email server that sends the email notifications.

    useraccount@company.com is the primary account to send the emails from the specified server.

Use the following procedure to test the email utility.

To test the email utility

  1. Create a test text file that contains a message. For example, create C:\testfile.txt

  2. From a command prompt, run:

    blat C:\testfile.txt -s test_subject -to useraccount@company.com

    A correct setup sends the contents of testfile.txt to the email address specified.

  3. Use the following list to troubleshoot problems if NetBackup notification does not work correctly:

    • Make sure that the BLAT command is not commented out in the nbmail.cmd script.

    • Make sure that the path to blat.exe is specified in nbmail.cmd if the command is not in the \system32 directory.

    • Make sure that BLAT syntax has not changed in the later versions of BLAT. Check the README for the version of BLAT running on the system.

    • The BLAT command may need the -ti n timeout parameter if the system experiences delays. (n represents seconds.)

    • The BLAT binary must not be corrupt or incompatible with the email system. Download the latest version.

    • Configure the email addresses correctly in the host properties.

    • The email account that is specified must be a valid on the email server.

    • If the email server requires authentication for SMTP, make sure that the account that is used for the NetBackup client process is authorized. The default account is the local system.