I am not sure if this method has already been shared because I have not figured out how to go to the the beginning of the thread (new user)!

Anyway, I am not a true DBA but I am a manager of system operations. I developed a proactive method for alerting me when a job fails by simply creating triggers on the sysjobhistory table and then emailing me the log output that was generated by the job (provided I enabled the job to produce a log.

It saved me time and loads of money messing around with 3rd party products or figuring out how to get other components of MS SQL 2005 to work how I wanted them to work. Obviously, db_sendmail needs to be enabled on each server that you are planning on deploying the solution to (or if you use some kind of linked server setup, just enable it on one server). I advise that anyone considering this solution check with their company's security practices when deciding for or against enabling mail on the database server.