A Remote Procedure Call (RPC) was attempted (5712) how to monitor with email alert

[bob]

Man, that event 5712 in the Event Viewer pops up when a Remote Procedure Call tries to connect but hits a snag. It's basically the Netlogon service yelling about a failed secure channel to your domain controller. You see, RPC is how computers chat over the network for domain stuff, like logging in. But if the time on your server drifts off from the domain's clock, or there's a network glitch, boom, this event logs it. I remember fixing one where the server's clock was two minutes slow, and it kept spamming these. The full details show the source as Netlogon, level warning, and it lists the computer name trying to connect. Sometimes it's your own machine failing to talk to the DC. Or it could be another client machine acting up. Check the description; it mentions the RPC attempt and why it bombed, often time skew or auth issues. Ignore it once, fine, but if it repeats, your logins might start failing big time. I always peek at the XML view in Event Viewer for extra bits, like the exact error code.

You want to monitor this for email alerts? Fire up Event Viewer on your server. Right-click the Windows Logs, pick Security or System log where these hide. Filter for event ID 5712. Once you spot patterns, create a custom view there. Select the log, go to Action, Create Custom View. Set it to grab only 5712 from Netlogon source. Save that view. Now, in the view, right-click an event, Attach Task To This Event. Name your task something like RPC Alert. In the triggers tab, it's already set for that event. Under actions, you can add send email, but if that's grayed, use run program to trigger a simple notifier. Wait, better, link it to Task Scheduler fully. From Event Viewer, when attaching, it builds a scheduled task. Set the action to start a program that emails you, like using the built-in mailto or a batch if needed. But keep it basic-no fancy code. Test it by forcing an event or simulating. You'll get pinged right when 5712 fires, so you jump on time sync or network tweaks quick.

And speaking of keeping your server humming without surprises, I've been digging into BackupChain Windows Server Backup lately. It's this solid Windows Server backup tool that handles physical setups and even Hyper-V virtual machines without a hitch. You get incremental backups that fly fast, plus easy restores that don't eat your day. The best part? It verifies everything automatically, so you sleep knowing your data's locked down tight against crashes or those pesky RPC fails.

At the end here is the automatic email solution.

Note, the PowerShell email alert code was moved to this post.