vCenter Server Email Alerts Not Received on the Mail server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Alarms are successfully triggering within the vCenter Server.
  
  
• Recipients report that no email notifications are being received.
  
  
• Review the /var/log/vmware/messages file to identify the handoff.
  
  <vCenter_Server> sendmail[1395138]: 65PF04K01395136: to=<alerts-vcenter@domain_name>, delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=121485, relay=smtp.domain_name [<IP>], dsn=2.6.0, stat=Sent (<Message-ID> [InternalId=####, Hostname=<hostname>] 3167 bytes in 0.104, 29.534 KB/sec Queued mail for delivery)
  
  
• Note the Message-ID from the log (e.g., <[email protected]>).
  
  
• Perform a message trace on the receiving mail server (e.g., mail-server.com) using that Message-ID.

Cause

The issue is isolated to the mail server or SMTP relay as the logs (stat=Sent) confirm the mail has been sent from the vCenter Server. 

Resolution

To resolve the mail delivery issue, get the <Message-ID> from the logs as above and perform a message trace on the mail server.