Feature Request - Email Report on Success or Fail

[frakka]

Allow configuration of an SMTP server to send email on either success and or fail

+1

[travisdhahn]

This would be a huge help -

[Mike Resseler]

For all that want email report...

A quick question... Instead of an SMTP server (because that can be a serious issue when travelling a lot or moving the endpoint on different networks...) what if we use the mail client of an enduser to send it. So he or she would basically get an email from itself to see if it worked or not. Saw a couple of minutes a little program that did this... Don't know how they did it, but it worked, and it would save the end-user from configuring the smtp server...

Let me know

Thanks

Mike

[blake.dayton]

For all that want email report...

A quick question... Instead of an SMTP server (because that can be a serious issue when travelling a lot or moving the endpoint on different networks...) what if we use the mail client of an enduser to send it. So he or she would basically get an email from itself to see if it worked or not. Saw a couple of minutes a little program that did this... Don't know how they did it, but it worked, and it would save the end-user from configuring the smtp server...

Let me know

Thanks

Mike

Hi Mike,

I think most home users don't have a need for email alerts. The ones who do, are likely technical enough to type "smtp.gmail.com" into a box.

However, I can imagine enterprise users are the ones demanding SMTP alerts the most. Having VEB on a headless server, I'm having to remote in every day to make sure the job ran. I also think that most enterprise users (myself included) are going to balk at needing to install Outlook or Thunderbird on a server. Aside from the resource usage and increased attack surface, you'd still have to type in "smtp.mycompany.com" in the mail client, so you're not really saving any trouble.

[scidoner]

Hi Mike,

I think most home users don't have a need for email alerts. The ones who do, are likely technical enough to type "smtp.gmail.com" into a box.

However, I can imagine enterprise users are the ones demanding SMTP alerts the most. Having VEB on a headless server, I'm having to remote in every day to make sure the job ran. I also think that most enterprise users (myself included) are going to balk at needing to install Outlook or Thunderbird on a server. Aside from the resource usage and increased attack surface, you'd still have to type in "smtp.mycompany.com" in the mail client, so you're not really saving any trouble.

+1 here.

Also some software I have seen actually have their own SMTP servers on the Internet (PRTG springs to mind) and the software is auto-configured to use those to start with, with the option for the user to specify their own. So this would give the best of both worlds - no configuration needed for non-enterprise, and the option for enterprise users to specify their own SMTP settings.

If you're worried about mail ports being blocked at home (e.g. some ISPs), it would be trivial to set up a web service proxy (secure on SSL, port 443) that VEB would use to transmit messages, which the web service (running at Veeam) would then talk to an SMTP server to send the mail.

[ninjaburn81]

I agree with Blake that it's mostly enterprise users/sysadmins that are requesting email alerts. Tho that is not to say we wouldn't appreciate other options...text msgs, posts to Windows Event Logs, etc. (Those are two examples but both could work regardless of location, a la traveling users.) Most ppl running more than 2-3 servers are running headless so any automated alert system is better than nothing!

Home users really don't need any of that tho. For them, even a pop up from the Veeam icon of the task bar would be sufficient. eBay's app does that when a user is outbid and gives options to bid or dismiss the message. (Yes you have the lil icon change but a lil more info when you hover or right-click would be awesome.)

[Mike Resseler]

thanks for all the feedback Gents,

This is very much appreciated. I know I start to sound like a "broken record" but don't forget we are building this for the end-users for now

But as always, great thoughts, keep em coming

Mike

[scidoner]

thanks for all the feedback Gents,

This is very much appreciated. I know I start to sound like a "broken record" but don't forget we are building this for the end-users for now

But as always, great thoughts, keep em coming

Mike

I disagree, especially if you are making GA able to backup to a Veeam backup repository! That is definitely not an end-user thing and is something that would only be used in the enterprise (just like B&R).
With that, email notifications seem like a no-brainer

[blake.dayton]

I disagree, especially if you are making GA able to backup to a Veeam backup repository! That is definitely not an end-user thing and is something that would only be used in the enterprise (just like B&R).
With that, email notifications seem like a no-brainer

Yep, tying into an B&R repo is the main reason I'm demoing this software.

If there's a home user who is hardcore enough to have a production vCenter cluster at their house, I want to meet them!

[ninjaburn81]

If there's a home user who is hardcore enough to have a production vCenter cluster at their house, I want to meet them!

Well yeah, but really you only need the Veeam Backup Free Edition to create repositories, so the EP should work with those as well...correct? Granted yes, that is still seriously hardcore of a set up, but for a home lab it's perfect. Backup Free for your free ESXi/Hyper-V VMs, and Endpoint for anything physical, all pointing to that off-the-shelf NAS drive you got from NewEgg on Black Friday!

I think it's clear as crystal we are begging for an enterprise (read:paid) version, but we gotta evaluate the version at present and help it cross the v1.0 (or hell 1.5 at this rate) mark.

[blake.dayton]

Well yeah, but really you only need the Veeam Backup Free Edition to create repositories, so the EP should work with those as well...correct? Granted yes, that is still seriously hardcore of a set up, but for a home lab it's perfect. Backup Free for your free ESXi/Hyper-V VMs, and Endpoint for anything physical, all pointing to that off-the-shelf NAS drive you got from NewEgg on Black Friday!

I think it's clear as crystal we are begging for an enterprise (read:paid) version, but we gotta evaluate the version at present and help it cross the v1.0 (or hell 1.5 at this rate) mark.

I'm pretty sure Veeam Free (VeeamZIP) can't talk to repos, and I know it can't back up free ESXi hosts (I tried ) so you'd be looking at well over a kilobuck to run all that at home!

But anyway, porting B&R's smtp mailer should be trivial, and home users who are confused by the settings will be fine looking at the system tray notifications.

[scidoner]

Yep, tying into an B&R repo is the main reason I'm demoing this software.

If there's a home user who is hardcore enough to have a production vCenter cluster at their house, I want to meet them!

Well that would be me, but I think you mean differently "home user"

[ninjaburn81]

*facepalm* you are right about the repositories. I haven't touched VeeamZIP in a loooong time so I forgot. But I said VMs, not hosts to the other point.

Either way my original point is to consider other options rather than an SMTP mail option...sometging that would work best for home use, but play nice at the enterprise level too.

Oh and I'm stopping by scidoner's place...if that's their home lab I wanna see the kit for watching sports!

[joel@redwoodit.com]

Would love to see some SMTP options to send email alerts on backups status/success/fails for endpoints

[VAXman65]

Another vote for email notification of events.

I have been using Norton Ghost across the different clients I support at home (and at my parents' home). That product has an email notification facility that can send an email at backup job start, at the start of backup for each volume, at the end of job and separate notifications as it prunes away the older backups falling out of retention policy. I set up my environment such that I have a single email address that all the notifications go to and I get a de facto backup report each morning to read on my iPad through the mail.

[chrisysebert]

E-mail notifications would be hugely appreciated. I use CheckCentral to handle all of our backup notifications, and getting Veeam Endpoint backup integrated in our dashboard would be fantastic.

[beofsich]

+1 vote for email notification!

[Gostev]

Done!

[patrickl78]

Gostev,

Will this be part of the production release? I don't see it in the RC version I installed.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Gostev]

You should not be seeing anything in UI. Are you getting other B&R email reports?

[patrickl78]

I haven't tried it integrated in B&R because I can't load the hotfix on any of my production Veeam servers. I do get B&R email reports without issue on all my other consoles. I'll load patch 2 on a test system tomorrow to test out the functionality.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Dima P.]

Hello Patrick,

I'll load patch 2 on a test system tomorrow to test out the functionality

Please, make sure you are using a non-production server for testing, since it is RC and we do not plan to provide the RTM update.

[patrickl78]

Can you please provide me the version of the patch that I can load on my production system? I always test mine before deploying to any clients. I have more but here are 3 cases where the patch may apply to Version 8 of Veeam. The most prominent issues I've seen are truncating of logs for Exchange where Exchange isn't even installed on the VM and has never been. We also see significant delays in the replication process along with Freeze errors.

Case #'s
00692723
00689855
00668487

Thanks,
Patrick

[Gostev]

Patrick, we are expecting production version of Patch #2 to be ready in a few weeks from now.

We are providing the pre-release code of Patch #2 solely for people to test VEB integration functionality.
Actual B&R code is incomplete and untested, so there is simply no point of "testing" it on your end at this time.

[patrickl78]

Sorry I thought it was ready for testing. I'll wait until it's released and in the meantime I'll setup a test v8 console with the patch.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Brad.Morris]

Can you please provide me the version of the patch that I can load on my production system? I always test mine before deploying to any clients. I have more but here are 3 cases where the patch may apply to Version 8 of Veeam. The most prominent issues I've seen are truncating of logs for Exchange where Exchange isn't even installed on the VM and has never been. We also see significant delays in the replication process along with Freeze errors.

Case #'s
00692723
00689855
00668487

Thanks,
Patrick

I am seeing similar issues as Patrick. Waiting big time for the patch.

[Gostev]

Please check with support as well, as they might have hot fixes available for these issues.

[patrickl78]

Gostev,

Honestly support has been a mixed bag for us lately. I'll just wait until you guys have Patch 2 released to test. We've had great success with support in the past but here lately it just seems that it's hit or miss. I have to imagine that is due to growth and you guys hiring a lot of new support guys right? I'm hoping it stabilizes and we get back to the support levels we were used to. I'm not sure if others have had this same experience or if we've just been a little unlucky on support.

On a side note a feature request:

I have several NOC personnel at my company. At one point they were all using my Veeam account to submit support calls. As we grew that got out of hand quickly. I now have several engineers registered with their own accounts linked to my company. The issue I have is that I have no visibility into tickets that they put into the Veeam support system. It would be awesome if you guys could add that capability so I can see/review/respond to tickets they have open as a master admin.

Thanks,
Patrick

[Gostev]

We've had great success with support in the past but here lately it just seems that it's hit or miss. I have to imagine that is due to growth and you guys hiring a lot of new support guys right?

Hi, Patrick. Actually, we've been growing our support team pretty linearly for the past 8 years, so this growth is not something new to us that just started lately.

Perhaps you've just been somewhat unlucky with the support cases lately, because overall customer satisfaction ratio with support (according to the survey we send automatically after each support case is closed) has been continuously growing for the past years, keeps growing now and is currently in high 90s.

Don't know if you are using this capability at all, but remember you can always escalate the support case to support management right from the Customer Support Portal, if you are unhappy how particular engineer handles your case.

I will forward your request on Support Portal to our support management.

Thanks!

[patrickl78]

Gostev,

Thanks yes I had a feeling it was just a little bad luck. Overall our support levels have been great so I really can't complain. We moved to Veeam a little over a year ago and I couldn't be happier with the switch. Even on a bad support day it's still light years better than the other guys out there.

Thanks,
Patrick