I have everything configured and working with nagios except the notifications. How can I fully test this? Mail is found in the path and I can send emails manually from the machine to the outside. [root@]# whereis mail mail: /bin/mail This is the contact.cfg define contact{ contact_name admin alias Nagios Admin service_notification_period 24x7 host_notification_period 24x7 service_notification_options w,u,c,r,f,n host_notification_options d,r service_notification_commands notify-by-email host_notification_commands host-notify-by-email email <a href="mailto:myemail@domain.tld">myemail@domain.tld</a> } This is the definition for emails: define command{ command_name notify-by-email command_line /usr/bin/printf "%b" "***** Nagios 2.9 *****\n\nNotification Type: $NOTIFICATIONTYPE$\n\nService: $SERVICEDESC$\nHost: $HOSTALIAS$\nAddress: $HOSTADDRESS$\nState: $SERVICESTATE$\n\nDate/Time: $LONGDATETIME$\n\nAdditional Info:\n\n$SERVICEOUTPUT$" | /bin/mail -s "** $NOTIFICATIONTYPE$ alert - $HOSTALIAS$/$SERVICEDESC$ is $SERVICESTATE$ **" $CONTACTEMAIL$ define service{ name generic-service ; Generic service name active_checks_enabled 1 ; Active service checks are enabled passive_checks_enabled 1 ; Passive service checks are enabled/accepted parallelize_check 1 ; Active service checks should be parallelized (disabling this can lead to major performance problems) obsess_over_service 1 ; We should obsess over this service (if necessary) check_freshness 0 ; Default is to NOT check service 'freshness' notifications_enabled 1 ; Service notifications are enabled event_handler_enabled 1 ; Service event handler is enabled flap_detection_enabled 1 ; Flap detection is enabled process_perf_data 1 ; Process performance data retain_status_information 1 ; Retain status information across program restarts retain_nonstatus_information 1 ; Retain non-status information across program restarts register 0 ; DONT REGISTER THIS DEFINITION - ITS NOT A REAL SERVICE, JUST A TEMPLATE! } This is the first part of my services.cfg: # Generic for all services define service{ use generic-service name basic-service is_volatile 0 check_period 24x7 max_check_attempts 15 normal_check_interval 10 retry_check_interval 2 notification_interval 120 notification_period 24x7 register 0 } define service{ use basic-service name ping-service notification_options n check_command check_ping!1000.0,20%!2000.0,60% register 0 } define service{ use ping-service service_description PING contact_groups admins hostgroup_name myservers } Any inputs?