This one was mildly annoying...
Problem:
None of the Project Alert emails were being sent from the Team Foundation Server (TFS) we had setup at a client a few months back.
Sniffing Around:
I tried setting the SMTP server on the Share Point Services (SPS) for the TFS server was set to both the local machine and the client's Exchange server, the local SMTP service was up and running just fine, relaying was set correctly, there were no firewall / port issues, etc.
The event log showed the following error from TFS Services:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: TFS Services
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3031
Detailed Message: Unrecognized default notification 'From' address:
So naturally I thought to look in the servers SPS Central Administration and made sure the mail settings were correct. The SMTP server was set properly and the From email address and Reply-to email address were both set properly. They were both valid email accounts and I even checked the TFS database under Globals to make sure I wasn't going crazy.
Nothing worked. Finally I found an article that pointed to the TFS Services web.config. And there was the problem- the From address was blank.
Solution:
I changed the "emailNotificationFromAddress" key in the Services web.config from blank ("") to an email address. Depending on your SMTP server, it may or may not have to be a valid address.
The default installation and location of the services web.config may be found here:
%\Program Files%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Web Services\Services
--Tom Hundley
--Elegant Software Solutions