Eric Cobb shows us how to use Powershell to set up database mail and SQL Agent alerts:
As a DBA, you need to know when there’s a problem on your SQL Servers. And while I highly recommend you use a full-fledged monitoring system, there are also some things you can set up on your SQL Servers so that they will tell you when certain things go wrong. This doesn’t replace a full monitoring system, but setting up the below alerts will give you notification when SQL Server encounters things like corruption or resource issues.
Even with a full-fledged monitoring system, there are places where you can still make use of mail and side alerts.