How to troubleshoot body of email is blank in Powershell emailing?

Question

This is my code. The email comes through but the body is blank. If I do sendMail("This is a test") it does come through with that text in the body though.

$servers = @("Server1","Server2","Server1","Server3")


##### Function to send mail #####
function sendMail([string]$msgbody) {
    $smtpServer = "SMTP.myDomain.com" 
    $mailer = new-object Net.Mail.SMTPclient($smtpserver)
    $From = "noreply@myDomain.com"
    $To = "myName@myDomain.com" 
    $subject = "SSL Certificate Expiring Soon" 
    $msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage($from,$to,$subject,$msgbody)   
    $msg.IsBodyHTML = $true 
    $mailer.send($msg)
}


##### Loop through all servers in the server array #####
foreach($server in $servers) {

    try{
    
        $expiredCert += Invoke-Command -ComputerName $server -ScriptBlock {Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\localmachine\my | ?{$_.NotAfter -lt (get-date).AddDays(30)} | Select Thumbprint,FriendlyName,NotAfter, NotBefore}

    } catch {
        $ErrorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        $currentTime = Get-Date
        sendMail("There was a problem connecting to and/or querying "+ $server +" for the failed Server login attempts. Specific error:`n`n" + $ErrorMessage + "`n`n Timestamp: " + $currentTime + "")
    }

}

if ($expiredCert){
    sendMail($expiredCert)
    Write-Output $expiredCert
}

The Write-Output $expiredCert shows the following in Windows PowerShell IISE.

The issue is sendMail of that variable just not coming through to my email.

Answer 1

Is $expiredCert an array or does it hold a single object? If it's a single object, it appears to be either a PSObject or a certificate.

In your sendMail function you cast the value passed to the parameter $msgbody as a string. If you try to do this: $expiredCert.ToString() the results probably don't look like what you expect.

I think what you want is to pass the results of this: $expiredCert | Out-String to the sendMail function.

You might also try using the Send-MailMessage cmdlet instead of the Net.Mail.SMTPclient.

function sendMail([string]$msgbody) {
    $props = @{
        Server = "SMTP.myDomain.com"
        From = "noreply@myDomain.com"
        To = "myName@myDomain.com"
        Subject = "SSL Certificate Expiring Soon" 
        Body = $msgbody
        BodyAsHTML = $true
    }
    # Note: assumes port 25 is used,
    #       the connection is anonymous, and
    #       TLS (SSL) is not used.
    Send-MailMessage @props
}

Answer 2

Hi @CharlieLor ,

can you consider send the mail without your function but using that powershell comand :

$body="There was a problem connecting to and/or querying "+ $server +" for the failed Server login attempts. Specific error:`n`n" + $ErrorMessage + "`n`n Timestamp: " + $currentTime + ""
Send-MailMessage -To “myName@myDomain.com” -From “noreply@myDomain.com”  -Subject “SSL Certificate Expiring Soon” -Body $body -SmtpServer “SMTP.myDomain.com” -Port 25 

Hope I was Help you

My regards

Paolo