How to setup email alerts for when Windows Azure Backup fails

I have started using Windows Azure Backup, I think it's great, but seems
to be lacking one major feature. When a backup fails, by default it
fails silently. I am not aware of a way to get alerts of failed jobs.

I decided to write my own PowerShell script to perform this for me.

Disclaimer: I am not a PowerShell expert. If you wish to use this script in production, then I would look through it with a lot of detail.

The script is very simple it does the following:

Loops through a list of servers and checks the last backup job.
If the job did not complete successfully or is over 24 hours old, it will email you.
It does not support different authentication per server.

I set this as a Scheduled Task within Windows and it runs every few
hours.

Here is the script:

Function GetLatestJob($serverName)
{
    $pw = convertto-securestring -AsPlainText -Force -String <ENTER PASSWORD HERE>
    $cred = new-object -typename System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist "<ENTER USERNAME HERE>",$pw

    $session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $serverName -Credential $cred
    $script = {
        $returnData = @()
        foreach($job in Get-OBJob -Previous 1)
        {
            $returnData += New-Object PSObject -Property @{
                starttime = $job.JobStatus.StartTime
                state = $job.JobStatus.JobState
            }
        }
        $returnData
    }

    $returnList = Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock $script    

    Remove-PSSession $session
    return $returnList
}

function Send-Email($server, $msgBody){

    $smtpServer = "<ENTER SMTP SERVER HERE>"

    $msg = New-Object Net.Mail.MailMessage
    $smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)

    #Email structure 
    $msg.From = "<FROM ADDRESS>"
    $msg.ReplyTo = "<REPLY TO ADDRESS>"
    $msg.To.Add("<TO ADDRESS>")
    $msg.subject = "Backup Failed - $server"
    $msg.body = $msgBody

    #Sending email 
    $smtp.Send($msg)    
}

Try
{

    $backupServers = @("<SERVER1 NAME>", "<SERVER2 NAME>")

    foreach($server in $backupServers)
    {
        $lastBackupJobFailed = $False
        $latestJob = GetLatestJob $server
        $latestJob | ForEach-Object {Write-Host $_.starttime $_.state}

        $timeSpanSinceBackupJob = New-TimeSpan -Start $latestJob.starttime -End (Get-Date)

        if ($timeSpanSinceBackupJob.Days -gt 0)
        {
            Send-Email $server "Error - last backup was over a day ago."
        }

        $latestJobState = $latestJob.state.Value
        $latestJobStartTime = $latestJob.starttime

        if ($latestJobState -ne "Completed")
        {
            Send-Email $server "Error - last backup status: $latestJobState - $latestJobStartTime"
        }
    }
}
Catch [system.exception]
{
    Send-Email "Failed" "The backup script failed $error[0]"
}

As I mentioned, I am not a PowerShell expert, so if anyone has any
improvements they would be greatly appreciated.

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