Scheduling and failure notification is generally achieved via crontab on the host running the backup utilities: https://github.com/github/backup-utils/blob/master/docs/scheduling-backups.md

We have also seen some customers use a CI type system as a job runner.

Can the backup command fail ?
If yes, what are the possible reasons for the backup command to fail and how can we detect that?

Let's say we use crontab and schedule backups, is there a way to know if the cron job is running as expected? and also report failures if any?

@djdefi We were also considering using Azure's backup functionality, do you know if that be used for restoring ?

Yes @singhsarab I'm sure the backup process can fail -- I would recommend checking cron logs if you are using cron to schedule backups.

As an example, you can take advantage of cron emails and pagerduty integration. If the command returns anything, an email will be sent to the MAILTO address. Pagerduty has a decent list of features around email integrations.

Since the below is redirecting standard out to a file, the only time an email will be sent is if something is printed to standard error.

MAILTO="${UNIQUE PAGERDUTY EMAIL ADDRESS}"

# Job Definition
0 */12 * * *  root  /opt/ghe/backup-utils/bin/ghe-backup -v 1>>/opt/ghe/logs/backup.log

Please re-open if you have any other questions related to this.