6.5 e-mail notification

[JeffV]

6.5 is a HUGE improvement over 6.0. Everything I've wanted in RS is now present. After I use it a bit more I may actually be able to recommend it to clients.

 

I've set RS Pro 6.5 to e-mail me notifications. Outgoing server requires authentication except when I am both sender and recipient, so that's how I've configured it, but I've not received a notification after my first scheduled backup successfully completed. There's nothing about e-mail in RS's log.

 

Are e-mail notifications sent for successes?

 

Since RS runs under Local System credentials, it does not have network access, and therefore does not have Internet access. I'd think that would be a problem for e-mail notifications. Do I need to set the Launcher to run under other credentials to get e-mail notifications to work? If so, does it need to be an admin account?

[Mayoff]

In 6.5, you do not modify the launcher service. That is all configured when you tell Retrospect to run as a specific user or under the logged in user.

 

I do not believe you get an email for successful events, only failed events.

 

Create a test script using a Tape Backup Set, and don't insert the tape. You should get a media request notification as soon as the media request happens..

[JeffV]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it worked with the fail event.

 

For the next version...success notification is just as important as failure notification. Without it, you don't know if it ran or not unless you open the UI and check. The RS service could be hung or something and you wouldn't be getting backups at all, but you'd never know it unless you missed success notifications. With a million other system processes to keep tabs on, sys admins need to know when it works the same way they find out there's a problem. Please pass along to the product manager.

 

The e-mail external script still provides success notification, so I guess I'll have to downgrade to that.

[Mayoff]

I have logged a feature request for this issue.

 

If you are worried, "did retrospect even launch"? You can create a "dummy script" to a backup set that you don't use. Turn on Media request timout for 5 minutes. This will give you a media request email when this script attempts to run, and then timeout after 5 minutes allowing other scripts to run successfully.

 

Robin

[JeffV]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Clever idea, but as nice as it is to know that RS started, it's just as important to know it finished successfully. Also, the dummy backup could lead to a false sense of security if something went wrong after it ran.

 

Had Dantz provided the functionality of the e-mail batch file in the UI, they'd have it. But at least they left me a fallback.