• Where do the alarm messages come from? Would there be a way to dump them to a flat file or something? The .NET framework provides a file/folder listener that can detect changes to a file and provide events to an application or service so the events can be handled.

    The main problem I have seen with SQL Mail has been with sending emails. I have never used it to read mail before. The problems tend to occur in MAPI sessions and to get a session to quit, you need to restart the SQL Server services. If your system is on a cluster, I would forget even attempting to use SQL Mail. Microsoft does not support SQL Mail on a cluster due the the MAPI sessions inability to fail over with the SQL Server. I have seen other problems with MAPI on clusters that may or may not be related to clustering itself.

    My suggestion is to look at the problem your software is intended to solve from end-to-end and see where you might be able to streamline some things that will make future development faster and more able to provide better service. This might make the overall project timeline shorter even if the current phase goes into overtime.

    [font="Tahoma"]Bryant E. Byrd, BSSE MCDBA MCAD[/font]
    Business Intelligence Administrator
    MSBI Administration Blog