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How to Add Failure Email Alerts to MongoDB Backup Using Amazon SES

Catch silent backup failures before they cost you data — wire Amazon SES into your MongoDB backup script for instant email alerts.

3 min readUpdated April 24, 2026

In the previous post we set up an automated MongoDB → S3 backup on Ubuntu. But backups without monitoring are dangerous: if a backup quietly fails and nobody notices, the whole data-protection strategy fails silently with it.

This guide bolts Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) onto that backup script so you get an instant email whenever a backup breaks.

Architecture

MongoDB
   ↓
mongodump
   ↓
Upload to S3
   ↓
If failure occurs → Send email alert via Amazon SES

Step 1: Set up Amazon SES

  1. Log in to the AWS Console
  2. Open Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)
  3. Go to Verified identities
  4. Click Create identity
  5. Choose Email Address
  6. Enter the sender email (e.g. alerts@yourdomain.com)
  7. Click Create
  8. Verify the email from your inbox

Important: If SES is in Sandbox mode you must also verify the recipient email. For production, request Production Access inside SES.

Step 2: Add SES permission to the IAM user

Go to IAM → Users → select your backup IAM user → Attach policy and attach:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["ses:SendEmail", "ses:SendRawEmail"],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

This lets the server send emails through SES.

Step 3: Test SES from the Ubuntu server

aws ses send-email \
  --from alerts@yourdomain.com \
  --destination ToAddresses=your@email.com \
  --message "Subject={Data=SES Test Email},Body={Text={Data=Amazon SES is working successfully}}" \
  --region ap-south-1

If configured correctly, you should receive the test email. If you see an error, check:

  • Verified email identities
  • IAM permissions
  • The correct AWS region

Step 4: Update the MongoDB backup script

Edit the script from the previous post:

nano /home/ubuntu/mongo-backup.sh

Replace its contents with:

#!/bin/bash
 
MONGO_URI="mongodb://localhost:27017/mydatabase"
BACKUP_DIR="/home/ubuntu/bkp"
DATE=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
S3_BUCKET="s3://your-bucket-name"
BACKUP_NAME="backup-$DATE.gz"
RETENTION_DAYS=7
 
SES_FROM="alerts@yourdomain.com"
SES_TO="your@email.com"
AWS_REGION="ap-south-1"
 
LOG_FILE="/home/ubuntu/mongo-backup.log"
 
send_failure_email() {
  aws ses send-email \
    --from "$SES_FROM" \
    --destination ToAddresses="$SES_TO" \
    --message "Subject={Data=Mongo Backup FAILED},Body={Text={Data=Backup failed on $(hostname) at $DATE. Check logs at $LOG_FILE}}" \
    --region "$AWS_REGION"
}
 
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
 
echo "Starting backup: $DATE" >> "$LOG_FILE"
 
# Run mongodump
/usr/bin/mongodump --uri="$MONGO_URI" \
  --archive="$BACKUP_DIR/$BACKUP_NAME" --gzip >> "$LOG_FILE" 2>&1
 
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "Mongo dump failed" >> "$LOG_FILE"
  send_failure_email
  exit 1
fi
 
# Upload to S3
/snap/bin/aws s3 cp "$BACKUP_DIR/$BACKUP_NAME" "$S3_BUCKET/" >> "$LOG_FILE" 2>&1
 
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo "S3 upload failed" >> "$LOG_FILE"
  send_failure_email
  exit 1
fi
 
# Cleanup old local backups
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -type f -mtime +$RETENTION_DAYS -delete
 
echo "Backup completed successfully: $BACKUP_NAME" >> "$LOG_FILE"

Step 5: Make the script executable

chmod +x /home/ubuntu/mongo-backup.sh

How it works

  • If mongodump fails → email is sent
  • If S3 upload fails → email is sent
  • If everything succeeds → no email is sent

You only hear from the script when something is wrong, which is exactly what you want from monitoring.

Production best practices

  • Use an IAM role instead of access keys if running on EC2
  • Restrict SES permissions to specific verified identities
  • Add an S3 lifecycle rule for automatic cleanup
  • Periodically test the restore process — a backup you've never restored is not a backup
  • Review backup logs weekly

Final result

You now have:

  • Automated MongoDB backup
  • Cloud storage in S3
  • Automatic failure detection
  • Email alert system
  • Production-ready monitoring