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Get Windows Home Server Backup Reports Via Email

By on July 31, 2010 in Add-in News, Add-ins & Apps, News, Windows Home Server

One of the reasons for checking out WGS Forums regularly is that its a great place to get support on technical problems from the community, learn more about Windows Home Server and share ideas for new add-ins you’d like to see. Ron Levenberg did just that yesterday, with a wish to be able to receive a daily email with a backup status report from his home server. He writes:

I would love to be able to get a daily e-mail that confirms to me that all my PCs connected to my home server have been backed up successfully and, if not, which PCs don’t have current backups. It could be something like the Computers & Backups page data. I don’t want to login to the server to verify this, and I certainly don’t want to View Details for each PC to make sure all of yesterday’s backups are good.
Does anyone know of an add-in that can provide this?

I tried Remote Notification, but it only informs of warnings and errors. Since it doesn’t send messages saying an error condition (like a failed backup) has been cleared, it doesn’t really meet my need.

Thanks, all!
Ron

Unfortunately, there’s no add-in that does this, but in a matter of hours, developer Sam Wood knocked up a quick application which enables this feature:

Hi Ron,

I just whipped this console app up, because I thought it was an interesting problem.

You’ll need to extract both files to C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\ and then edit the config file in Notepad to add your SMTP details. The configuration should be self-explanatory.

Then you can add a Scheduled Task on the server to run WhsClientBackupNotifier.exe once a day (or however often you want), and you’ll get emailed the current backup status of each client (if a backup is running, you’ll see that too).

Output looks like this at the moment (let me know if you want to see other details):

NYARLATHOTEP (192.168.xx.xx)
———————————
Last Good Backup: 31/07/2010 2:58:01 a.m.
Last Backup Status: Complete
Current Health Status: Normal

SULACO (192.168.xx.xx)
———————————
Last Good Backup: 31/07/2010 2:31:10 a.m.
Last Backup Status: Complete
Current Health Status: Normal

CTHULHU (192.168.xx.xx)
———————————
Last Good Backup: 30/07/2010 8:33:03 p.m.
Last Backup Status: Cancelled
Current Health Status: Normal

DEEPONE (192.168..xx.xx)
———————————
Last Good Backup: 30/07/2010 4:35:27 p.m.
Last Backup Status: Complete
Current Health Status: Normal

The power of community in action! Check out the app and jump in on the conversation over at WGS Forums.

More: WGS Forums


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

    Wow he is one lucky guy to get a bespoke piece of software made for him by a seemingly random guy on the internet on his first post. Props to Sam Wood for taking the time out to do it (I suspect a fully featured Vail flavour may be in the pipeline). Also Terry what ever happened to the add-in competition, I thought the add-in would have been developed by now?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      The guys over in Germany did release a couple of tech previews, but I believe it was dropped before a final release….

      • DrewE

        What do you mean 'it was dropped before a final release'?

        Was it too tough for the programmer to solve??
        What about doing the runner up instead?

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

          I don't know the reasons why it wasn't completed. You'd need to pick up the conversation with the guys over at Home Server Blog in Germany who managed the competition.

  • diehard

    This is really cool, it works for me. I also added Brent Friedman's WHSAlert.exe to schedule a task that confirms the email notification has been sent with a message in the connector.

  • Sam

    This is great. I used the WHS Trigger addin to schedule a task from within the WHS Console. http://www.kentdome.com/whstrigger
    So cool

  • http://www.tentaclesoftware.com Sam Wood

    Thanks guys! I've updated the app to support smtp.gmail.com, and have added a few more configuration options. Check the post for the new download location: http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/1553…

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/bjmedich bjmedich

    Very nice! Great Add-in. If you use your WHS for backups, this is a must have!

  • Tim D

    I do this with the "Remote Notification" WHS add-in. I get an email for each system as it powers on with it's last backup, if that backup is old. Have been for a year.

  • Ray

    Awesome post…

    Is there anyway of monitoring the MAC Time Machine backups that HP WHS offers?