From time to time, we’ve gotten questions on whether it is possible to send the alerts generated by SQL Sentry to cell phones in the form of a text message. The short answer is yes, with the use of SMS/MMS gateways. The not so long answer is this blog post :).
The process of getting alerts on your phone involves the use of SMS/MMS gateways. SMS/MMS gateways are domains provided by most cell phone providers that allow users to configure their phone number as an email address so that they can receive emails in the form of a text message. A list of SMS/MMS gateways domains for the major US carriers can be found here. If your carrier is not listed in the link provided, a quick search online should provide you with the gateway address of your cell phone provider, but in the case that you do not find this information online, you can also contact your cell phone provider for this information.
Now with the gateway address on hand, here are the steps you can take in order to get alerts from SQL Sentry on your phone.
Step 1 (Create/Edit User):
For our first step, we need to create a user in SQL Sentry that we will tie the gateway address to. In order to create a new user, look for the Contacts node in the Navigator pane (View > Navigator), expand this node, then double-click on the Users node. Once the Add a User tab is opened up, the only fields you need to fill out for this to work is the First Name field, as well as the Email Address field. The Email Address field is where you will enter the SMS/MMS gateway address. After this, you can save the new user by clicking on the save icon (floppy disk) located on the client toolbar.
Note: If you already have a user created in SQL Sentry that has an email address, rather than creating a separate user, you can edit the details of this user in order to add the SMS/MMS gateway address in the Pager Address box. By going this route, you can tie the Send Page action to the condition, instead of the Send Email action, both of which will work the same way.
Step 2 (Add an action to a condition):
Once you have a user configured with an SMS/MMS gateway address, the next step you need to take is to tie the user to a condition you want to be alerted on. As illustrated at right, you can do this by opening up the Conditions pane (View > Conditions), selecting the condition, and checking the target user you created.
In my scenario, I am using the SQL Server Agent Job: Failure condition, but this can be done with any of the available conditions.
Step 3 (Wait for the alert(s) to be triggered):
Now that you have SQL Sentry configured to send you alerts in the form of a text message, the only thing left is to wait for the alert to be triggered. Once that occurs, you should receive the message details on your phone in SMS/MMS format, as shown at left.
As always, if you run into any issues getting this configured, please feel free to contact support.
