Setting Up Weekly Email Reports for SQL Agent Job Failures: The Proactive DBA's Guide

Introduction: Why Job Failure Reporting Matters

SQL Server Agent jobs form the backbone of database automation, handling everything from nightly backups to critical ETL processes. When these jobs fail silently, problems can snowball before anyone notices. This guide will walk you through setting up a comprehensive weekly email report that gives you complete visibility into job failures across your SQL Server environment.



What You'll Get from This Solution

  • Consolidated view of all failed jobs across multiple servers

  • Actionable details about each failure (error messages, duration, etc.)

  • Trend analysis to spot recurring problems

  • Professional HTML formatting that looks great in email clients

  • Customizable thresholds to focus on what matters most

Step 1: Create the Centralized Monitoring Database

-- Create a dedicated database to store job history
CREATE DATABASE JobMonitoring;
GO

USE JobMonitoring;
GO

-- Table to store job failure details
CREATE TABLE dbo.JobFailureHistory (
    FailureID INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
    ServerName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
    JobName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
    StepName NVARCHAR(128) NULL,
    RunDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
    RunDuration INT NULL,
    ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(MAX) NULL,
    AlertSent BIT DEFAULT 0,
    RecordCreated DATETIME DEFAULT GETDATE(),
    INDEX IX_JobName (JobName),
    INDEX IX_RunDate (RunDate)
);
GO

-- Table to track which servers we're monitoring
CREATE TABLE dbo.MonitoredServers (
    ServerID INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
    ServerName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
    IsActive BIT DEFAULT 1,
    LastChecked DATETIME NULL
);
GO

Step 2: Create the Data Collection Procedure

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.usp_CollectJobFailures
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @ServerName NVARCHAR(128) = @@SERVERNAME;

    UPDATE dbo.MonitoredServers
    SET LastChecked = GETDATE()
    WHERE ServerName = @ServerName;

    INSERT INTO dbo.JobFailureHistory (
        ServerName,
        JobName,
        StepName,
        RunDate,
        RunDuration,
        ErrorMessage
    )
    SELECT 
        @ServerName,
        j.name,
        h.step_name,
        msdb.dbo.agent_datetime(h.run_date, h.run_time),
        ((h.run_duration/10000*3600) + ((h.run_duration%10000)/100*60) + (h.run_duration%100)),
        h.message
    FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs j
    INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory h ON j.job_id = h.job_id
    WHERE h.run_status = 0
    AND msdb.dbo.agent_datetime(h.run_date, h.run_time) >= DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE())
    AND NOT EXISTS (
        SELECT 1 FROM dbo.JobFailureHistory f
        WHERE f.ServerName = @ServerName
        AND f.JobName = j.name
        AND f.RunDate = msdb.dbo.agent_datetime(h.run_date, h.run_time)
    );

    SELECT @@ROWCOUNT AS NewFailuresFound;
END
GO

Step 3: Create the Email Reporting Procedure

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.usp_SendWeeklyJobFailureReport
    @RecipientEmail NVARCHAR(255) = 'dba-team@yourcompany.com'
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @HTML NVARCHAR(MAX);
    DECLARE @Subject NVARCHAR(255);
    DECLARE @FailureCount INT;

    SELECT @FailureCount = COUNT(*)
    FROM dbo.JobFailureHistory
    WHERE RunDate >= DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE());

    SET @Subject = CONCAT(
        'SQL Agent Job Failure Report - ', 
        FORMAT(GETDATE(), 'yyyy-MM-dd'),
        ' (', @FailureCount, ' failures)'
    );

    SET @HTML = CONCAT(
        N'<!DOCTYPE html>
        <html>
        <head>
            <style>
                body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; }
                h1 { color: #2a5885; }
                table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; }
                th { background-color: #2a5885; color: white; text-align: left; padding: 8px; }
                td { border: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 8px; }
                tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: #f2f2f2; }
                .critical { background-color: #ffcccc; }
                .warning { background-color: #ffffcc; }
            </style>
        </head>
        <body>
            <h1>SQL Agent Job Failure Report</h1>
            <p>Reporting period: ', FORMAT(DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE()), 'yyyy-MM-dd'), ' to ', FORMAT(GETDATE(), 'yyyy-MM-dd'), '</p>
            <p>Total failures: <strong>', @FailureCount, '</strong></p>',
            
            CASE WHEN @FailureCount > 0 THEN
                N'<table>
                    <tr>
                        <th>Server</th>
                        <th>Job Name</th>
                        <th>Step</th>
                        <th>Failure Time</th>
                        <th>Duration</th>
                        <th>Error Message</th>
                    </tr>' +
                (SELECT 
                    CONCAT(
                        N'<tr class="', 
                        CASE 
                            WHEN CHARINDEX('timeout', ErrorMessage) > 0 THEN 'warning'
                            WHEN CHARINDEX('deadlock', ErrorMessage) > 0 THEN 'critical'
                            ELSE ''
                        END,
                        '"><td>', ServerName, '</td>
                        <td>', JobName, '</td>
                        <td>', ISNULL(StepName, ''), '</td>
                        <td>', FORMAT(RunDate, 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'), '</td>
                        <td>', 
                            CASE 
                                WHEN RunDuration IS NULL THEN ''
                                ELSE CONCAT(
                                    FLOOR(RunDuration/3600), 'h ',
                                    FLOOR((RunDuration%3600)/60), 'm ',
                                    RunDuration%60, 's'
                                )
                            END,
                        '</td>
                        <td>', LEFT(REPLACE(ErrorMessage, '<', '&lt;'), 300), '</td></tr>'
                    )
                FROM dbo.JobFailureHistory
                WHERE RunDate >= DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE())
                ORDER BY RunDate DESC
                FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)') +
                N'</table>'
            ELSE
                N'<p>No job failures detected in the reporting period.</p>'
            END +
            N'<p>Report generated: ', FORMAT(GETDATE(), 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'), '</p>
        </body>
        </html>'
    );

    EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
        @profile_name = 'DBA_Notifications',
        @recipients = @RecipientEmail,
        @subject = @Subject,
        @body = @HTML,
        @body_format = 'HTML';

    UPDATE dbo.JobFailureHistory
    SET AlertSent = 1
    WHERE AlertSent = 0
    AND RunDate >= DATEADD(DAY, -7, GETDATE());
END
GO

Step 4: Set Up the Collection and Reporting Jobs

1. Central Collection Job (Run Daily)

-- Job name: Collect_Job_Failures_From_All_Servers
-- Subsystem: PowerShell
-- Command:
$servers = Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "SELECT ServerName FROM JobMonitoring.dbo.MonitoredServers WHERE IsActive = 1" -ServerInstance "YourCentralServer"

foreach ($server in $servers) {
    try {
        $result = Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "EXEC JobMonitoring.dbo.usp_CollectJobFailures" -ServerInstance $server.ServerName
        Write-Output ("Collected " + $result.NewFailuresFound + " new failures from " + $server.ServerName)
    }
    catch {
        Write-Output ("Failed to collect from " + $server.ServerName + ": " + $_.Exception.Message)
    }
}

2. Weekly Reporting Job (Run Monday Mornings)

-- Job name: Send_Weekly_Job_Failure_Report
-- Step: EXEC JobMonitoring.dbo.usp_SendWeeklyJobFailureReport
-- Schedule: Weekly, Mondays at 6:00 AM

Advanced Customization Options

1. Add Server Importance Weighting

ALTER TABLE dbo.MonitoredServers
ADD Importance TINYINT DEFAULT 5 CHECK (Importance BETWEEN 1 AND 10);

Update the HTML generation logic to emphasize high-importance servers.

2. Failure Trend Analysis

Add a section in your report to compare job failures over two weeks:

SELECT JobName, 
       COUNT(*) AS FailureCount, 
       DATEPART(WEEK, RunDate) AS WeekNum
FROM dbo.JobFailureHistory
WHERE RunDate >= DATEADD(DAY, -14, GETDATE())
GROUP BY JobName, DATEPART(WEEK, RunDate);

3. Automatic Ticket Creation

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM dbo.JobFailureHistory 
           WHERE AlertSent = 0 AND CHARINDEX('critical', ErrorMessage) > 0)
BEGIN
    EXEC dbo.usp_CreateTicketFromFailure @FailureID = ...
END

Best Practices for Job Failure Reporting

  1. Start simple – Implement basic reporting first, then add enhancements

  2. Test thoroughly – Verify email formatting and delivery

  3. Review regularly – Actually read the reports and take action

  4. Refine over time – Adjust thresholds and filters based on what matters

  5. Document procedures – Ensure team knows how to respond to common failures

  6. Archive reports – Store historical data for compliance and analysis

Conclusion: From Reactive to Proactive Monitoring

Implementing this weekly job failure reporting solution transforms how your team manages SQL Server automation:

  • Gain visibility into issues before they become critical

  • Spot patterns in failures that indicate systemic problems

  • Document reliability for compliance and SLA reporting

  • Reduce stress with organized, actionable notifications

The complete solution takes about an hour to set up but pays dividends in reduced downtime and improved system reliability. Start with the basic version today, then enhance it over time to match your organization's specific needs.

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