Cognos Jobs/Report - Stalled when sending to email

[adam_mc]

Firstly, I apologize if I have already posted this issue, I have lost track!

Periodically, I am getting the following scenario when either a job (with multiple reports) or a single report that is distributing via e-mail will seem to have produced the output, but will hang/stall on distributing the output.  This then causes any subsequent reports in the job to sit and wait until (if) the issue resolves itself.

Currently, I have the situation below (copied from the View Run History):

November 20, 2015 8:50:38 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:50:39 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:51:47 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:51:48 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:53:06 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:53:07 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:54:12 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:54:13 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:55:26 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:55:26 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:56:42 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:56:46 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:58:20 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.
November 20, 2015 8:58:21 AM    CNC-SDS-0409 The email messages were sent to 1 recipients.
November 20, 2015 8:59:29 AM    CNC-SDS-0408 There are email messages waiting to be sent.

It is now 11:08am and this has just been sitting here waiting to be sent.
In this case, this is not a sizing issue, as each distribution is a single PDF page output.

I have also had other cases, where the "report pages" icon appears next to the run history of a report (so I presume report is complete), but again the distribution does not complete.
Then, sometimes after I cancel the report, the distribution goes thru.

If anyone has any thoughts, I would greatly appreciate them.
Thanks in advance,
Adam.

[bdbits]

This is likely one of two things: email configuration or the recipient list.

Cognos will be sending email via a "relay host". Typically relays are locked down and often require two things. First, the originating host (your Cognos server) has to be recognized as authorized to send email through the server. Second, the sender's email address must be recognized (configured in Cognos). If email out of Cognos normally works, these are probably not an issue. In that case, if you are emailing to specific individuals, you may want to check the email recipients address and ensure they are all valid. If this is the issue, if possible I would change the recipient lists to point to groups rather than individuals to avoid this problem in the future.

If none of this applies, you may need to enable a trace on the email service to nail down the problem. I have not done this myself, but there are instructions at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21340148. Make sure you reverse the changes you make when finished as the trace will generate a lot more output in the logs, and could adversely affect performance.