database mail isn't working in the SQL Agent job notification

Hi,

Starting a few weeks ago I stopped receiving notifications when SQL Server Agent Jobs failed. The only error I see from the Error logs is the following: "[264] An attempt was made to send an email when no email session has been established"

I've followed all of the postings about stoping and restarting the Agent service, confirming that the database mail can send out test emails and making sure that database mail account name matches the actual SMTP account.

From my testing, I can successfully send out a test email by right-clicking on "Database Mail" - "Send Test E-Mail."

Here's my setup:
Active/Passive SQL Server 2005 Cluster.
32 bit
SS2005 SP1 installed

Database Mail worked for around 6 months and then stopped. Not sure if it's a permissions issue, patch issue or a configuration issue.

Any help resolving this would be great.

Sincerely,

Steve

Ditto for me. Standard SQL 2005 setup. Engine, AS, Integration, etc. with SP1. I've done all the troubleshooting steps detailed here because this was the closest related issue I found on the Web.
The stored proc sp_send_dbmail works. So I can craft a workaround.

I found the same issue posted under Technet here. Any ideas?

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Well this is a slap in the face.

My manager suggested I do a restart of the SQL Server Agent. I had tried that before but since he is the boss I did it again expecting the same results. Well as you might have guessed - its working. And not just on the development server but the production too. Can't figure it.

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Restarting has become my habit in debugging now thanks to this

"Restart" has been mentioned in couple threads though if you searched by your error message here (or Google)

It's really weird, SQL Mail stopped working randomly IMO, thank god this doesn't happen to SQL Server

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Steve,

I've seen this from time-to-time on our servers, as well. After a restart of SQL Server Agent, database mail will usually run fine for a month and then the error will come back again. It is frustrating especially when it happens on production boxes with replication, but at least it doesn't require a server reboot like SQL Mail always did when it locked up.