A Send Mail task contains information that lets you send an e-mail as a task. For example, if you want to notify a database administrator regarding the success or failure of a particular task (such as a backup), you can link a Send Mail task with a precedence constraint to the previous task. To use a Send Mail task, the computer needs to have the Microsoft-messaging API installed with a valid user profile.
A Send Mail task can include attached data files. You can point to a location for an attached file and send a dynamically updated file, rather than a static copy of the file fixed when you create the task. This feature is useful for sending attachments such as log files and exception files, which contain information that constantly changes, and for which the file may not exist when the package is created (at design time).
Note If an attachment file doesn't exist when the package is run, you will receive the message: "Error sending mail: Internal MAPI error: the address book has no directories that contain names." This message simply indicates the absence of the file at the specified location, or that access permissions are not granted for the file. To fix the error, either make sure that the file is available at the specified location when the package is run, or that access is granted.
You can add a Send Mail task to the DTS Designer work space by clicking the Send Mail icon, dragging it to the desired location, and configuring its properties.