Designate a Fail-Safe Operator

A fail-safe operator is a user who receives the alert if the designated operator cannot be reached. This topic describes how to set a fail-safe operator to receive Microsoft SQL Server Agent alert notifications in SQL Server 2012 by using SQL Server Management Studio.

In This Topic

• Before you begin:

  Limitations and Restrictions

  Security

• To designate a fail-safe operator, using:

  SQL Server Management Studio

Before You Begin

Limitations and Restrictions

• The Pager and net send options will be removed from SQL Server Agent in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using these features in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use these features.

• Note that SQL Server Agent must be configured to use Database Mail to send e-mail and pager notifications to operators. For more information, see Assign Alerts to an Operator.

• SQL Server Management Studio provides an easy, graphical way to manage jobs, and is the recommended way to create and manage the job infrastructure.

Security

Permissions

Only members of the sysadmin fixed server role can designate fail-safe operators.

Using SQL Server Management Studio

To designate a fail-safe operator

1. In Object Explorer, click the plus sign to expand the server that contains the SQL Server Agent operator that you want to designate as a fail-safe.

2. Right-click SQL Server Agent and select Properties.

3. In the SQL Server Agent Properties – server_name dialog box, under Select a page, select Alert System.

4. Under Fail-safe operator, select Enable fail-safe operator.

5. In the Operator list, select the operator that you want to make a fail-safe.

6. Select either any or all of the following check boxes to specify how the operator will be notified: E-mail, Pager, or Net send.

7. When finished, click OK.

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