Notification Issue- Email Working, but SMS From Same Event is Not

[jlaps]

Hello Community,

Our crisis manager, as well as some others, notified us today that they are receiving all other SMS notifications for P1/P2 incidents as normal, except for the NEW/created condition. For newly created P1/P2 they are receiving the email notification, but not the SMS. This is causing my hair to fall out, as it appears to be configured just like all the other conditions (ack, re-open, resolved), with the SMS_alternate field. We are using email templates, which again are working in the email portion of this notification, but for some reason not on the SMS. All other SMS notifications seem to be working correctly.

The last change a few weeks ago, added an email address to the notification-who will receive with the POP3 email address for our crisis management mailbox, but otherwise no change. However, this is the time frame being referenced by these people as to when it stopped working, so I include it in the hopes it is a clue.

Hoping there are some likely spots I can check for the problem.

Thanks!

Jeff

[samkikalis]

Hi Jeff,

Sounds like an interesting issue...

Since the people who are reporting the issue also mention they are receiving other SMS alerts fine, it would appear that their notification devices are configured successfully.

Have you tried using one of the "working" notifications as a template, making the necessary changes and then using "insert and stay" to test if that new notification works correctly? This would help isolate if the issue lies with the notification itself.

Have you checked the System Log to see if there are any errors generated around the time that the SMS should have been triggered?

Something to keep in mind, that I have seen occur a few times, is if there is some other process running at around the same that sets "workflow" to false, then this can also impact notifications and business rules.

If you still can't get to the bottom of the issue, I'd recommend opening a ticket in HI so we can investigate it further for you

Cheers

Sam

[jlaps]

Sam,

In the email logs, I can see the email going out that has all the phone numbers, and there does not appear to be any errors. The REALLY frustrating part, is that some people are receiving them. I did find an anomaly in my comparisons with the items that were working; saw it when comparing the email templates to the email logs. The REPLY TO address in the email notification is blank for the notification that is seemingly partially functional at best. All the others have a DONOTREPLY email address posted, and this does change the actual email to use the default email address instead, for the notification where it is left blank.

That seemed like a harmless enough change, so I copied in the donotreply. Never before have I found myself waiting for a P1/P2 to come in...

Is it feasible that it is some sort of reply address check being performed by the carriers? It seems unlikely, as I have confirmed non-delivery and confirmed delivery with the same carrier, but different people.

Thanks!

Jeff

[samkikalis]

Hi Jeff,

I'm interested to hear if setting that field does make a difference. Different mail servers will have different rules as to what checks they do when determining if they will relay a message, so it might be possible that this does make a difference. Perhaps even at the phone carrier side, if the people not receiving the message are using a different carrier?

Do you know if you are using the ServiceNow SMTP email server to send, or do you have your own server configured? The admins of the mail server may be able to check the logs also to see if there is any error or message being seen.

Fingers crossed for a P1??

Cheers

Sam

[jlaps]

Sam,

We are using the SN SMTP server. And it does appear that filling that field with a DNR address did the trick. My crisis manager (the most important of course) immediately started receiving the new notification on his VZ mobile. The thing that is strange, is that there was at least one SN admin, also a VZ customer, that was receiving them fine all along.

Thanks for your thoughts Sam!

Jeff