We needed a way to automate backups on a machine. We knew that robocopy could accomplish the backup task, but we needed to find a way to automate it. In order to do this, we created a powershell script. In the code below, the top portion can be edited, however the bottom portion must stay the same.
Backup Script Below:

## What do you wish to copy?

$source=@("X:\folder1","X:\folder2")</p>

## Where do you want to place the backup?

$destination=@("\\serveraddress\folder1","\\serveraddress\folder2")


## Where do you want to save the log file?

$logDestination="X:\logReport.txt"


## This file is used for the process of checking

## whether or not the backup was successful

$backupReport="X:\report.txt"


## Change as necessary

$successEmailTo="Firstname Lastname "

$successEmailSubject="Subject Goes Here"

$successEmailBody="Body Goes Here"

$successEmailFrom="Firstname Lastname "

$successEmailSMTPServer="mail.domain.com"


$failEmailTo="Firstname Lastname "

$failEmailSubject="Subject Goes Here"

$failEmailBody="Body Goes Here"

$failEmailFrom="Firstname Lastname "

$failEmailSMTPServer="mail.domain.com"


## Depending on how many directories you are checking, you will need to change how many times this for loop will go

for ($i=0; $i -lt 1; $i++) {


## =========================================================

## ======== PLEASE DO NOT EDIT SCRIPT BELOW ================

## =========================================================


Write-Host $i


## robocopy will mirror a directory and log the file, note the log will append

robocopy $source[$i] $destination[$i] /mir /log+:$logDestination


## this will take a snapshot of the source and destination directory

$shot1 = Dir $source[$i]

$shot2 = Dir $destination[$i]


## This will compare the two snapshots and append it to a backup report

Compare-Object $shot1 $shot2 -PassThru > $backupReport


## send a success email

function sendSuccessEmail{

send-mailmessage -from $successEmailFrom -to $successEmailTo -subject $successEmailSubject -body $successEmailBody -Attachments "$logDestination" -priority High -dno onSuccess, onFailure -smtpServer $successEmailSMTPServer

}


## send a failure email

function sendFailEmail{

send-mailmessage -from $failEmailFrom -to $failEmailTo -subject $failEmailSubject -body $failEmailBody -Attachments "$logDestination" -priority High -dno onSuccess, onFailure -smtpServer $failEmailSMTPServer

}


## if the backup report has no feedback (all files were copied successfully) it will send a success email

$File = Get-ChildItem $backupReport

if ($File.Length -eq 0) {sendSuccessEmail}


## if the backup report has feedback (all files were NOT copied successfully) it will send a failure email

$File = Get-ChildItem $backupReport

if ($File.Length -gt 0) {sendFailEmail}


}</pre>

Finally, to make this script run every night at the same time. We used Windows' Task Scheduler. However task scheduler will not take .ps1 files (powershell files). So we needed to make a batch file that pointed to the powershell script.


</p>

Batch File Below:
</p>

powershell -command "& 'X:\RobocopyBackup.ps1' "
</p>

 

The above batch file was put into task scheduler and scheduled to run at a certain time everyday.