How to enable Mac OS X server email alerts

I've come up with my own answers for this in case anyone comes across this question.

1) No, you do not have to enable Apple Push notifications.

2 & 3) You can configure them to go through your ISP's SMTP gateway with the following steps (for 10.7.x and 10.8.x).

• Go to Server.app
• Go Mail
• Check "Relay outgound mail through ISP"
• Click edit to the right of that checkbox
• Specify your ISP's SMTP gateway in the "Outgoing Mail Relay" field.
• Specify SMTP relay authentication if required. Click OK.

4) Use the command line shell to issue this command:

echo hello | mail -s TESTSUBJECT [email protected]