Notifications

Stay informed about your backup operations with notifications. Zerobyte can send alerts when backups start, succeed, fail, or complete with warnings through multiple notification channels.

Notification Channels

Zerobyte supports multiple notification services:

Email - SMTP-based email notifications
Slack - Slack workspace webhooks
Discord - Discord server webhooks
Gotify - Self-hosted notification server
ntfy - Simple HTTP-based notification service
Pushover - Mobile push notifications
Telegram - Telegram bot messages
Generic Webhook - Custom HTTP endpoints
Custom (Shoutrrr) - Any service supported by Shoutrrr

Creating a Notification Destination

Navigate to Notifications

Click Settings in the sidebar, then select the Notifications tab.

Add Destination

Click Add Notification Destination.

Configure Basic Settings

Name: Descriptive name (e.g., “Team Slack Channel”)
Type: Select your notification service
Enabled: Toggle to activate/deactivate

Configure Service Settings

Enter the connection details for your chosen service. See Channel Configuration below.

Test Notification

Click Test to send a test message and verify the configuration.

Save Destination

Click Create Destination to save your notification channel.

Channel Configuration

Email

Send notifications via SMTP email. Configuration:

SMTP Host: Mail server hostname (e.g., smtp.gmail.com)
SMTP Port: Mail server port (usually 587 for TLS, 465 for SSL)
Username: SMTP authentication username
Password: SMTP authentication password
From: Sender email address
From Name: Sender display name (optional)
To: Recipient email addresses (array)
Use TLS: Enable TLS encryption

Example (Gmail):

SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Port: 587
Username: [email protected]
Password: your-app-password
From: [email protected]
From Name: Zerobyte Backups
To: ["[email protected]", "[email protected]"]
Use TLS: Enabled

For Gmail, use an App Password instead of your regular password.

Slack

Send messages to Slack channels via webhooks. Configuration:

Webhook URL: Incoming webhook URL from Slack
Channel: Channel to post to (optional, overrides webhook default)
Username: Bot display name (optional)
Icon Emoji: Bot icon emoji (optional, e.g., :robot_face:)

Example:

Webhook URL: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Channel: #backups
Username: Zerobyte
Icon Emoji: :floppy_disk:

Setup:

Go to your Slack workspace settings
Navigate to Apps > Incoming Webhooks
Click Add to Slack
Select a channel and copy the webhook URL

Discord

Send messages to Discord channels via webhooks. Configuration:

Webhook URL: Discord webhook URL
Username: Bot display name (optional)
Avatar URL: Bot avatar image URL (optional)
Thread ID: Send to specific thread (optional)

Example:

Webhook URL: https://discord.com/api/webhooks/123456789/abcdefghijklmnop
Username: Zerobyte Backup Bot

Setup:

Open Discord server settings
Go to Integrations > Webhooks
Click New Webhook
Configure the webhook and copy the URL

Gotify

Self-hosted notification server. Configuration:

Server URL: Gotify server URL (e.g., https://gotify.example.com)
Token: Application token from Gotify
Path: Custom path prefix (optional)
Priority: Message priority (0-10)

Example:

Server URL: https://gotify.yourdomain.com
Token: AbCdEfGhIjKlMnOp
Priority: 5

ntfy

Simple HTTP-based notification service. Configuration:

Server URL: ntfy server URL (optional, defaults to ntfy.sh)
Topic: Topic name to publish to
Priority: Message priority (max, high, default, low, min)
Username: HTTP basic auth username (optional)
Password: HTTP basic auth password (optional)
Access Token: Bearer token for authentication (optional)

Example (public ntfy.sh):

Server URL: https://ntfy.sh
Topic: zerobyte-backups-abc123
Priority: high

Example (self-hosted with auth):

Server URL: https://ntfy.yourdomain.com
Topic: backups
Priority: default
Username: zerobyte
Password: secure-password

Pushover

Mobile push notifications for iOS and Android. Configuration:

User Key: Your Pushover user key
API Token: Your Pushover application API token
Devices: Specific device names (optional, comma-separated)
Priority: Message priority (-1, 0, or 1)
- -1: Quiet notification
- 0: Normal
- 1: High priority

Example:

User Key: u1234567890abcdef
API Token: a1234567890abcdef
Priority: 1

Setup:

Create a Pushover account
Create an application to get an API token
Find your user key in account settings

Send messages via Telegram bot. Configuration:

Bot Token: Telegram bot token from BotFather
Chat ID: Chat or channel ID to send messages to
Thread ID: Topic/thread ID for group topics (optional)

Example:

Bot Token: 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz
Chat ID: -1001234567890

Setup:

Create a bot via @BotFather
Get the bot token
Add bot to your channel/group
Get chat ID using @getmyid_bot

For private chats, the Chat ID is your user ID. For groups/channels, it’s a negative number starting with -100.

Generic Webhook

Send custom HTTP requests to any endpoint. Configuration:

URL: HTTP endpoint URL
Method: HTTP method (GET or POST)
Content Type: Request content type (optional)
Headers: Custom HTTP headers (optional, array)
Use JSON: Send payload as JSON
Title Key: JSON key for notification title (optional)
Message Key: JSON key for notification message (optional)

Example (JSON POST):

URL: https://api.example.com/notifications
Method: POST
Content Type: application/json
Use JSON: Enabled
Title Key: subject
Message Key: body

This sends:

{
  "subject": "Backup Success",
  "body": "Backup 'Daily Media' completed successfully"
}

Example (Custom Headers):

URL: https://api.example.com/webhooks
Method: POST
Headers: [
  "Authorization: Bearer token123",
  "X-Custom-Header: value"
]

Custom (Shoutrrr)

Use Shoutrrr URL format for any supported service. Configuration:

Shoutrrr URL: Service URL in Shoutrrr format

Examples:

# Slack
slack://token@channel

# Microsoft Teams
teams://group@tenant/altId/groupOwner?host=organization.webhook.office.com

# Matrix
matrix://user:password@homeserver/?rooms=room1,room2

# SMTP
smtp://username:password@host:port/[email protected]&[email protected]

See the Shoutrrr documentation for all supported services and URL formats.

Assigning Notifications to Backup Schedules

Open Backup Schedule

Navigate to Backups and select a backup schedule.

Configure Notifications

Click the Notifications tab.

Add Notification

Click Add Notification and select a destination.

Choose Events

Select which events trigger notifications:

On Start: When backup begins
On Success: When backup completes successfully
On Warning: When backup completes with warnings
On Failure: When backup fails

Save Configuration

Click Save to apply the notification settings.

You can assign multiple notification destinations to a single backup schedule with different event triggers.

Notification Events

Start

Triggered when a backup begins. Use cases:

Monitor backup timing
Verify scheduled jobs are running
Track backup duration

Example message:

Backup Started: Daily Media Backup
Volume: Media Server
Repository: AWS S3 Backups
Time: 2024-03-04 02:00:00

Success

Triggered when a backup completes successfully. Use cases:

Confirm backups are working
Track completion times
Monitor backup health

Example message:

Backup Successful: Daily Media Backup
Volume: Media Server
Repository: AWS S3 Backups
Duration: 15m 32s
Files: 1,234 (5.2 GB)
Time: 2024-03-04 02:15:32

Warning

Triggered when a backup completes but encountered non-fatal issues. Use cases:

Identify partial failures
Track permission issues
Monitor file access problems

Example message:

Backup Warning: Daily Media Backup
Volume: Media Server
Repository: AWS S3 Backups
Warnings: 3 files could not be read (permission denied)
Duration: 15m 32s
Time: 2024-03-04 02:15:32

Failure

Triggered when a backup fails completely. Use cases:

Alert on critical issues
Immediate incident response
Track system problems

Example message:

Backup Failed: Daily Media Backup
Volume: Media Server
Repository: AWS S3 Backups
Error: Failed to connect to repository
Time: 2024-03-04 02:00:15

Notification Best Practices

Configure failure notifications

Always enable failure notifications for critical backup jobs. You need to know immediately when backups aren’t working.

Avoid notification fatigue

For frequent backups (hourly), consider only notifying on failures and warnings. Success notifications can be daily summaries.

Use different channels for different priorities

Critical failures: Pushover, Telegram (immediate)
Daily summaries: Email, Slack
All events: Dedicated logging channel

Test notification channels regularly

Use the Test button to verify notifications are working, especially after configuration changes.

Secure sensitive information

Use secret references for API tokens and passwords instead of storing them directly:

Bot Token: env://TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
API Token: file://pushover_token

Monitor notification delivery

Check that notifications are being delivered. A failed backup notification that isn’t received defeats the purpose.

Notification Templates

Common notification setups:

Critical Production Systems

Events:
- ✅ On Failure (Pushover, Telegram)
- ✅ On Warning (Slack)
- ❌ On Success (too frequent)
- ❌ On Start (not needed)

Development/Test Systems

Events:
- ✅ On Failure (Email)
- ❌ On Warning (not critical)
- ❌ On Success (not needed)
- ❌ On Start (not needed)

Comprehensive Monitoring

Events:
- ✅ On Start (Discord #backup-logs)
- ✅ On Success (Discord #backup-logs)
- ✅ On Warning (Slack #alerts, Email)
- ✅ On Failure (Slack #alerts, Email, Pushover)

Weekly Summary Only

Events:
- ❌ On Start
- ✅ On Success (Email - weekly backup)
- ✅ On Warning (Email)
- ✅ On Failure (Email, Slack)

Troubleshooting

Test notifications succeed but real notifications don't send

Check that the destination is enabled
Verify event triggers are configured on the backup schedule
Review container logs for notification errors
Ensure the destination hasn’t been deleted

Notifications are delayed

Some services have rate limits
Check network connectivity to notification services
Review service status pages for outages

Email notifications marked as spam

Configure SPF/DKIM records for your domain
Use a reputable SMTP provider
Avoid spam trigger words in notification text
Check recipient spam folders

Webhook notifications fail

Verify the webhook URL is correct and accessible
Check for SSL/TLS certificate issues
Review webhook service logs for errors
Test with curl to isolate the issue

Too many notifications

Reduce event triggers (disable On Start/On Success)
Consolidate multiple destinations
Use summary notifications instead of per-event

Managing Notification Destinations

Editing Destinations

Navigate to Settings > Notifications
Click on a destination to edit
Modify settings as needed
Click Test to verify changes
Save the updated configuration

Disabling Destinations

Temporarily disable notifications without deleting the configuration:

Edit the notification destination
Toggle Enabled to off
Save changes

Disabled destinations remain assigned to backup schedules but won’t send notifications.

Deleting Destinations

Deleting a destination removes it from all backup schedules.

Navigate to Settings > Notifications
Click the delete icon next to the destination
Confirm deletion

Next Steps

Backup Jobs

Configure automated backup schedules

Troubleshooting

Resolve common issues and errors

Get Started

Core Concepts

Configuration

Guides

Advanced

Notification Channels

Creating a Notification Destination

Channel Configuration

Email

Slack

Discord

Gotify

ntfy

Pushover

Telegram

Generic Webhook

Custom (Shoutrrr)

Assigning Notifications to Backup Schedules

Notification Events

Start

Success

Warning

Failure

Notification Best Practices

Notification Templates

Critical Production Systems

Development/Test Systems

Comprehensive Monitoring

Weekly Summary Only

Troubleshooting

Managing Notification Destinations

Editing Destinations

Disabling Destinations

Deleting Destinations

Next Steps

Backup Jobs

Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Concepts

Configuration

Guides

Advanced

​Notification Channels

​Creating a Notification Destination

​Channel Configuration

​Email

​Slack

​Discord

​Gotify

​ntfy

​Pushover

​Telegram

​Generic Webhook

​Custom (Shoutrrr)

​Assigning Notifications to Backup Schedules

​Notification Events

​Start

​Success

​Warning

​Failure

​Notification Best Practices

​Notification Templates

​Critical Production Systems

​Development/Test Systems

​Comprehensive Monitoring

​Weekly Summary Only

​Troubleshooting

​Managing Notification Destinations

​Editing Destinations

​Disabling Destinations

​Deleting Destinations

​Next Steps

Backup Jobs

Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Notification Channels

Creating a Notification Destination

Channel Configuration

Email

Slack

Discord

Gotify

ntfy

Pushover

Telegram

Generic Webhook

Custom (Shoutrrr)

Assigning Notifications to Backup Schedules

Notification Events

Start

Success

Warning

Failure

Notification Best Practices

Notification Templates

Critical Production Systems

Development/Test Systems

Comprehensive Monitoring

Weekly Summary Only

Troubleshooting

Managing Notification Destinations

Editing Destinations

Disabling Destinations

Deleting Destinations

Next Steps