Email parsing of backup reports with M365 backup powered by Veeam


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Description

Here is some information to use email parsing of backup reports you receive for M365 backup powered by Veeam.

Definitions

What is email parsing?

Email parsing is the process of using software to look for and extract specific data in an email to avoid manual data entry. In other words, the purpose of email parsing is to help manage emails for easy monitoring, tracking and reporting.

Details

There is a hidden, Base64-encoded JSON object in the body of the backup report emails you receive for M365 backup powered by Veeam. The JSON object contains information about backup jobs.
 


Get access to the hidden encoded information

  1. Save a backup report into an .HTML file.
     
  2. Open the .HTML file by using your preferred file editor (like Notepad ++) and search for “id=jsondata”. You will then find the encoded text.

    Example:




  3. Copy the encoded text

 

Decode the encoded text

  1. Paste the encoded text in your preferred Base64 format decoder (like https://www.base64decode.org/) and decode the data.

    Example:

    Graphical user interface, text, application, email Description automatically generated


  2. The result should look like this.

    Example:

     {

    "PartnerName":  "Sherweb Internal Use",

    "OrgName":  "M365x23499752",

    "OrgId":  "11119dfe-9585-4054-b4f0-066320416dd7",

    "Type":  "M365 backups powered by Veeam",

    "Jobs":  [

                 {

                     "ID":   "4c9bbe54-0319-40cb-be8e-889d4734493c",

                     "SessionId":  "b4bf8a3e-a9b1-43b6-9d22-f592c4f6e842",

                     "JobType":  "SharePoint and Teams Backup Job",

                     "JobStart":  "02/20/2023 12:00:00",

                     "JobEnd":  "02/20/2023 12:08:57",

                      "JobStatus":   "Success",

                     "LogFilename":  ""

                 },

                 {

                     "ID":   "9c616964-729a-4380-b524-5686c31f085a",

                      "SessionId":   "7e520459-4d98-4e29-ac16-a1551fae5755",

                     "JobType":  "OneDrive Backup Job",

                     "JobStart":  "02/20/2023 03:00:00",

                     "JobEnd":  "02/20/2023 03:00:10",

                      "JobStatus":   "Success",

                      "LogFilename":   ""

                 },

                 {

                     "ID":   "b2daa858-2d61-446d-a4b4-0a8afcce1c9e",

                     "SessionId":   "497b4ce6-01e7-417f-8633-51c14d1124b7",

                     "JobType":   "Exchange Backup Job",

                     "JobStart":  "02/19/2023 09:00:01",

                     "JobEnd":  "02/19/2023 09:01:28",

                     "JobStatus":  "Success",

                      "LogFilename":   ""

                 }

             ]

}


Understand the JSON object

 

For every time a backup job ran since the last report, you will get the following information in the JSON object:

  • "ID":  The job ID ("xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx") refers to the backup job. It may appear multiple times in the current result if the job ran multiple times since the last report.

  • "SessionId": The backup Session ID "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" is unique and is generated every time the backup job runs.

  • "JobType":  There are three (3) possible options here: "Exchange Backup Job", "SharePoint and Teams Backup Job" or "OneDrive Backup Job"

  • "JobStart":  Date and time when the backup job started.

  • "JobEnd":  Date and time when the backup job stopped.

  • "JobStatus":  Possible values for the Job Status are Success, Warning, Failed, Stopped and Running

  • "LogFilename":  This field will be empty if the backup job ran successfully. Otherwise, there will be a reference to the log file attached in the email.

 

 

Next steps


You should now understand the JSON information that hides in the body of backup reports you receive for M365 backup powered by Veeam.
 

From there, you can parse backup reports to properly monitor, report and oversight backup successes or failures. You can use your own custom email parser or integrate with any compatible third-party software.