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Configuring Health Report in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials

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[This post comes to us courtesy of Harshal Charde, Kriti Thakral and Sandeep Biswas from Global Business Support]

In this post we will discuss about configuring Health Report email notification using O365 in Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials.

The Health Report for Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials provides you with consolidated information about the Windows Server Essentials network and enables you to distribute this information to intended recipients via emails. This information can be viewed on the Health Reports tab of the Dashboard on Windows Server 2012R2 Essentials. We can generate a report on demand or on schedule, customize the content of the report and send them through emails.

Reading the Health Reports on the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard may be time consuming. With the email feature, after a report is generated, an email will be sent to a list of specified email addresses with the content of the report. The administrator can easily view this report from any device or any client application, and ensure that the server is running at its best state.

In the following example we have used an Office 365 account to configure Health Report email notifications. You may log in and view the SMTP server details of O365 account as follows:

1. Click Outlook tab, click Settings icon image  and then click Options.

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2. On the next page click account and then click Settings for POP or IMAP access

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3. Make a note of the SMTP setting and then click close.

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To configure the health report on the Window Server 2012 R2 Essentials, open the Windows Server Essentials Dashboard, click the Health Report page on the HOME tab and click Customize Health Report settings.

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Click the Schedule and Email tab, click to select Generate a health report as its scheduled time check box (customize the recurrence as per your preference) and then click Enable.

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Type the email address of your O365 mail account, the SMTP server name and the SMTP port. Click to select This server requires a secure connection (SSL) and This server requires authentication check boxes and type the username & password of your O365 account and click OK.

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On the next page, type the email address of the person that you would like to receive alert notification by email and click OK. If you wish to add multiple email addresses ensure that you separate each email address with a semicolon (;).

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Alternatively, if you prefer commands over the GUI, there are PowerShell commands built-in to the WssCmdlets module to configure the Health Report:

Set-WssReportEmailSetting -Enable -From "healthreport@mysbs.onmicrosoft.com" -SMTPServer "smtp.office365.com" -Port 587 -UseSsl -To MyEssentials@outlook.com -UseAuthentication –Credential (Get-Credential)
Set-WssReportSchedule -Enable -Daily -At 16:00

The above commands would take care of the email account configuration and the schedule of the health report.

There are additional commands to generate a new report (New-WssReport), and send an email with the health report (Send-WssReport) that you can utilize too. You can find a list of all the commands of the WssCmdlets module here.

Once the configuration is completed, you can click Generate a health report which will automatically send an email notification to the external user mailbox. You can also send an existing report by selecting it and clicking Email the health report.

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Here is a sample of the email received:

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You are now ready to receive the Health Report notifications on email. Logon to the subscribed user’s mailbox to verify the receipt of email.

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