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IPSentry - Alert - Audible Notification

The Audible Alert provides audible notification that a problem has been encountered on a specific monitored item. You can configure the type of sound (.WAV file or Speaker Beep) as well as select a custom .WAV file for the alert.

This alert is ideal for manned installations where a human will be able to hear and respond to the alert immediately.

Please see the How-To section for additional information on various configurations.

Enabled
This frame provides a tri-state selection regarding the status of the alert which allows you to enable, disable, or use the global state (default)

• Yes
  The YES option signifies that the alert is enabled for this device and should use the settings provided in the remaining configuration fields for this alert.  The settings for the alert will be unique to this specific entry.
   
• No
  The NO option signifies that this alert is disabled, regardless of the default or other configurations, this alert will NOT be generated in case of a failure of the monitored device under which it is defined.
   
• Default
  The DEFAULT option signifies that the alert should be identical to and make use of the settings outlined in the default configuration model.   Any changes made to the default configuration will be applied to all alerts marked "Default" allowing global changes to alert setting through the default configuration. 
  
  Note that if the default configuration has the enabled flag set to "NO", all alerts marked as "default" will be ignored during the triggering of alerts.

Alert Success
All alerts with the exception of paging alerts make use of this setting.  When checked, the alert will be generated both when the system fails an when the the failure is corrected. 

For example, if you are monitoring a web server and it fails, the alert would be triggered noting that there is a failure.  Additional failure notification will be sent according to the alert schedule outlined below.  Once the system is recovered and the failure corrected, another alert will be generated as an "UP" notification.

In using alerts such as Pager or Email, the IPSentry Keyword %IPS_M_STAT% will be converted to the current state of the device making it possible to recognize immediately whether the alert was triggered due to the system going "DOWN" or coming back "UP".

Loop Beeps
When this option is checked, the alert will attempt to make use of the internal PC Speaker to generate an audible alert.  Use this feature if you do not have a sound device installed on the machine.  The sound generated by this feature is horrendous and sure to get someone's attention.

Cycle WAV (n) Times
When playing WAV files for the audible alert, it may be desirable to play the wav several times in a row.  Set this field to the number of times you want to have the specified WAV file played during an alert.

Down WAV
This is the WAV file that will be played when IPSentry detects a failure on the monitor entry.  Click the BROWSE button to select a file.  

Up WAV
This is the WAV file that will be played when IPSentry detects that a failed entry back on-line.  This will only be use if you have the  "Alert Success" option checked.  Click the BROWSE button to select a file.

The UP and DOWN Wave file fields will be run through the keyword processor to convert any IPSentry keywords to their respective values.  This allows you use a keyword such as "%IPS_M_TYPE%" in the file name to play a different wav file depending on the type of monitoring.  

Example: If you are monitoring a Network type interface, you could set the UP/DOWN field file names to something like "C:\waves\UP_%IPS_M_TYPE%.wav".  This would be converted to C:\waves\UP_NETWORK.wav.  Similarly, for NT Service monitoring, the result would be C:\waves\UP_SERVICE.wav .   

Browse (buttons)
These buttons will bring up a file selection dialogue for you to select the WAV file that should be played.  Upon selecting the file, the full path will be inserted into the text field to the left of the button.

Alert Schedule
The alert schedule allows you "fine tune" the alerting functions to avoid unnecessary alerting during an extended failure.  You may not want to be paged every single time a failure is detected after the first alert.  You can use this schedule to set how many failures must be detected before the first alert.  Set how many failures must be detected for each subsequent alert, and the maximum number of alerts you feel are adequate to obtain a response from specified personnel. 

• First After [n] failures
  Represents the number of sequential failures that must occur before the alert notification is processed.  You can increase this value if you notice a large amount of false alerts being processed.  On some systems, response times may not be consistent and a failure may be detected due to overhead at peak times.  If the failure continues for this number of cycles, the alert will be processed.
   
• Every [n] failures
  Once the first alert has been processed, IPSentry will only process the alert notification after this many sequential failures.  In many cases, once a failed entry has triggered an alert, notification during every IPSentry polling cycle is not usually required.
   
• Max of [n] alerts
  Enter the maximum number of times you want IPSentry to process the alert notification.  A value of -1 - infinite.  This counter is based on sequential failures without a single success.
   

Note:  Setting the first-after or every values to any value less than 1 can have unexpected results.

Load Defaults (button)
This button will load the default configuration information into the appropriate fields.  This is a quick way to use a standard configuration with minor variations between entries.

Note: You need NOT use this option when the enabled option is set to "Default" since the replacement of the alert configuration with default configuration values will be done automatically when the alert is triggered.  You need only use this button when the enabled option is set to YES and you wish to slightly modify the default configuration and make the entry specific to the monitored device to which this alert is related.

Test Alert (button)
This option will attempt to process the alert as configured. A message will be displayed regarding failure or success of the alert generation.

Related Topics

• IPSentry - Alert Options

• IPSentry - Information - Keywords

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