Setting up email notifications in PBS

Backups whose failures you never notice are like no backups. PBS can notify you by email when a job goes wrong, a verification finds corruption or a sync doesn’t go through.

Setting up the mail recipient

In the PBS GUI:

1. Configuration → Notifications.
2. You’ll see one or more targets (typically a “default-mailto” entry).
3. Edit on the default, or Add for a new recipient.

In the dialog:

Field	Value
Mail to	Your email address
Mail from	leave empty (uses our default)
Author	optionally a name

Save. The configuration is live.

What you get notified about, and when

PBS sends mails for various events. Per event you can set:

• always
• error (only on failure) — the standard recommendation
• never

Configured under Configuration → Notifications → Notification Matchers:

Event type	Recommendation
Backup (PBS’s own backups)	error
Verification	error
Sync	error
Garbage Collection	error
System (system updates, disk problems)	always

For larger setups or compliance requirements, you can also configure “always” for backup successes — then you get a mail every morning saying “all fine”. Some admins like that.

Testing mail delivery

In the mail target’s dialog you’ll find the Test button. Click it → a test mail is sent immediately. If it arrives, email works.

If not:

• Checked the spam folder?
• Is the recipient address spelled correctly?
• Open a ticket — we’ll help with the mail logs on our side.

Notifications for PVE backup jobs

Important to distinguish: PBS’s own notifications are one thing. But most backups come from your Proxmox VE — and PVE has its own mail setup.

In your PVE:

1. Datacenter → Backup → Job → Edit → General tab.
2. Fill the Send email to field with your address.
3. Set Send email to “On failure only” or “Always”.

PVE then sends the backup reports directly — independently of the PBS.

We recommend enabling both notifications: PVE mail (backup job status) plus PBS mail (verification, sync, GC).

Multiple recipients

If you’re on a team and several people should receive mails:

• Simply create multiple mail targets in PBS, all active.
• Per event matcher, you can choose which targets are notified.

Alternative: use a mailing list or a shared address (backup-alerts@deinverein.de) as the target, which distributes internally to everyone relevant.

What a PBS notification typically contains

Example of a verification failure mail:

Subject: PBS Verification Job 'datastore-12345' failed

Verification of datastore 12345 produced errors.

Failed snapshots:
- vm/100/2026-04-15T02:00:00Z
  Reason: chunk hash mismatch in d5a4...

For details, check the task log in the PBS web interface:
https://pbs01.xaweho.de:8007/...

Best regards,
Proxmox Backup Server

The link takes you straight to the task log, where you see the failed verification and can dig further.

Frequently asked questions

How often are mails sent? Exactly once per event. If a backup job fails, you get a mail. If it fails again on the next run, you get another mail.

Are mails bundled or sent individually? Individually, per event. If you have 10 backups in one night and they all fail, you get 10 mails.

Can I get notifications via Slack, Telegram, webhook? PBS now supports webhook notifications (in PBS 4+). In the notification setup, you can configure a webhook instead of SMTP mail. Slack, Telegram etc. via Zapier or your own webhook endpoint.

What if the mail domain rejects my mails? We send from the mail server pbs01.xaweho.de (or similar). DKIM and SPF are set up so that legitimate mail providers accept the mails. With very strict receiving rules (such as internal company mail servers requiring a whitelist): whitelist our sender domain.

Can I change the email language? PBS mails are currently in English. There is no German localization.

What if I change my email address? Simply update it in the PBS notification setup. It takes effect from the next event.

Do I need my own mail server for the notifications? No. We run an SMTP relay for notifications — you don’t have to set anything up.

What’s next

• Backup verification — what it is and how to enable it
• First login to the PBS — what you see in the GUI
• Performance tuning for slow backups