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From the Entry Editor, click on the Alerts Tab, click on Pager/Cell Tab

Cell/Pager/Beeper/SMS Mobile Device Notification Configuration
Utilize the Pager/Cell configuration to send notifications via SMS, DTMF, Email. 

IPSentry Cell/SMS/Pager Alert Notification Configuration

The Pager Alert provides notification via various types of pagers when a problem has been encountered on a specific monitored item.

ipSentry natively supports numeric beepers that uses tones, alpha pagers that utilize the TAP protocol, and email paging via standard SMTP.

ipSentry also supports some custom or non-standard paging systems via custom scripts although these paging systems may not be fully supported by ipSentry (e.g. UCP, Manual Terminal, Telenote, etc..)

Due to the specific features of various paging methods, we have divided the pager alert documentation into several sections outlining the basic requirements and configuration options of each.

Cell/Pager Notification Types

SMS Message to Cell Phone / Pager / PDA via TAP

Email Message to Cell / Text Pager / PDA via SMTP/Exchange

Numeric Beeper via modem dial (DTMF)

Custom communications scripts for custom devices, services, and hardware.

Multi Page Settings
This area provides you with a means to have the pager alerts to be sent all at once or systematically based on the amount of time elapsed since the last page sent.

Escalate Time
When this options is checked, you the value entered will represent the number of minutes that must elapse during subsequent failures before the next pager in the list is notified.

After each pager in the list has been notified, ipSentry will begin notifications at the first and continue the cycle.

Keep in mind that the Alert Schedule will also be used and improper settings in this are can cause the alert to stop escalating if the schedule is configured in such a way that the maximum number of alerts is reached before the entire list has been notified.


Page All
Checking this option causes ipSentry to send a page to every pager on the list. If you have 20 pagers configured to be alerted, all 20 pagers, regardless of type will be attempted.

Again, the alert schedule will be used however, this will have no effect on the total number of pagers alerted, rather, the number of times that all pagers are notified.

Sequencing UP/DOWN
After highlighting a specific pager, click on the UP or DOWN arrows to move the paging entry within the list of items. This is most often used in conjunction with the escalation feature to notify specific individuals in a incremental fashion based on the time setting for pager escalation.

Code (recovery)
Unlike other alerts, numeric beepers do can not make use of the words "UP" or "DOWN".

In order to overcome this problem, the UP CODE field is used in conjunction with Recovery alert option. This field should contain a numeric code that will appear on a numeric beeper when the system in question is successful after first being reported down.

For alpha pagers and email pagers however, this actual contents of this field are not used. For these types of pagers, you should make use of the %IPS_M_STAT% keyword (message text) in order to provide the status to the recipient of the page.

Add (button)
Select this button add a new pager definition to the pager list. The entry will be appended to the end of the list and can be re-ordered into the list using the sequencing arrows to the right of the list. (See Pager/Cell Notification Types)

Remove (button)
After highlighting a pager configuration in the Pager List, hit this button to remove the highlighted pager definition from the pager list.

Modify (button)
After highlighting a pager configuration in the Pager List, hit this button to launch the notification configuration editor.(See Pager/Cell Notification Types)

Alert Status
This group represents the status of the selected alert for the device.
Alert Status - Enable, Disable, Use From Template

Enabled
When this option is selected, the configuration details for the alert are active and specific to this entry.  Other entries may reference this entry.

Disabled
When this option is selected, no alerting of this type will be performed by the selected entry when a CRITICAL result is encountered

Use From
When this option is selected, the alert configuration defined in the selected entry (named in the field next to this selected) will be utilized.  You will use this option when you wish to utilize a group or template reference for alerting configurations.  By clicking on the browse button (...), you will be presented with a list of entries from which you may use their configuration for the specified alert.

When selecting this option, all detail entry fields will be disabled.

Trigger  on recovery count
Recovery Alert Specification
When this option is selected, the alert specified will also be triggered when the system recovers from a critical state.  The most common uses for this option are in email messaging and pager/cell/SMS messaging where you specify the %%mach.state%% keyword in the alert messages.   This way, if a system fails and then recovers, the recipient of the notification would be alerted to this fact.

The value that you enter after this option is the number of successful (OK) results that must occur after a failure before the entry is deemed 'recovered'.   If you enter a value of say three (3) in this field, ipSentry will need to monitor this item at least 3 times, with three successful results before any recovery alert would be generated.  This helps avoid constant UP/DOWN/UP/DOWN notifications.
For add-in alerts, this option will be specific and specified within each add-in configuration entry.

Alert Schedule
The alert schedule provides you with the ability to define the failure count requirements and alert/notification quantities that will be generated.  For example, you may want to be alerted immediately upon failure of a device, but from that point on, if the device is still failing, you may only want to be alerted every 5 failures and receive no more than 6 alerts during any constantly failed duration.   This is exactly where you specify this information.
For add-in alerts, this option will be specific and specified within each add-in configuration entry.
IPSentry Alert Schedule Part

First After
This field represents how many failures (sequential) must occur before any failure notifications are triggered.  A value of 1 will cause immediate notification upon the first failure.  A value of 2 or more will require that number of failures before the first alert is generated.  In the example scenario above, you would enter a 1 in this field.

Then Every
This field represents the number of failures that must occur before further alert/notification actions are taken once the first notification has been processed.   In the example scenario above, you would enter a 10 in this field.

No More Than...
This field represents that maximum number of times that the alert will be triggered during a failure.  If you set this value to -1, there is no maximum.  If you set this value to zero - you might as well just disable the alert.   In the example scenario above, you would enter a 6 in this field so that no more than the alert will be triggered no more than 6 times during a failure.

Alerting Frequency Schedule

Load From
Click this button to load the alert configuration data from another entry in the ipSentry system.  This function comes in handy when you have an alert configured that needs only minor changes for the current configuration.   Once you select a device from which to copy the alert, the configuration of that alert will be populated into the appropriate fields.

Copy To
Click this button to copy the current alert configuration being modified to one or more existing entries.  This allows for the bulk duplication of alert configurations via entry selection.  You will be presented with a list of entries to which you wish to apply this alert configuration.

Test Alert
Click this button to test your alert configuration settings and insure that the basic configuration is correct.

You will be presented with a dialogue requesting whether you wish to test as critical or as a recovery type alert.

Test Alert Dialogue

After selecting to test as Critical or Recover, you will be presented with an active display during the test.
 
Alert Test

Note that when testing alerts, many of the keyword will not contain accurate data since there will be no monitoring data available.  For example, if use the %%mach.trimres_fxxxx%% keyword, the result will either be empty or contain the results of the last live monitoring of the current item.

When testing alerts to insure that keyword structures are correct, the result text should not contain the keyword.   The data will either be replaced with nothing (if no data is available) or it will be replaced with the correct data.

For example: If you enter the keyword %%mach.nameX%%, this is an invalid keyword so it will not be replaced and will be included as it is entered.  However, if you enter %%mach.name%%, this will be replaced. Similarly, if you use a keyword such as %%mach.drive.minfree%% and have the alert tied to a service monitor, the value will be unknown since service monitoring does not use this value - but the keyword will NOT exist in the resulting message data.
 




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