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IPSentry - Alert - Launch Application

The Launch App provides you with the ability to launch an external application or utility based on the results of a monitored entry.

In some cases, you may wish to execute a command or procedure that performs very specific tasks that are not available in any of the alert options or currently incorporated into an IPSentry add-in component.

An example might be the use of SHUTDOWN.EXE ( available in the Windows NT Resource Kit ) used to restart an NT machine.

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".

Command Line
Enter the command line of the utility or application you wish to launch.   Unless the application is in your path, you must include the full path information. All IPSentry Key Words used in this field will be translated.  Click the BROWSE button to browse for the application or utility.

You can run EXE's, BAT's, CMD's, as well as select files with the appropriate associated extension (i.e. .htm would launch your browser).

Use of the key word %IPS_M_STAT% can be used as a parameter in the command line allowing the external process to react differently depending on the state of the monitored item.  Because this keyword will be converted to "UP" or "DOWN", the external process can perform specific functions based on this state.

Note: When executing batch files (.BAT or .CMD) files, you may need to precede the entry with appropriate direction to start the NT command interpreter (CMD.EXE) to launch the process.
e.g: C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /Cx:\mypath\myproc.bat %IPS_M_STAT%
The above command causes the command interpreter to be started and the myproc.bat file to be processed.
In the above example, it is assumed that myproc.bat will utilize the %1 batch command line variable and react to the value being set to UP or DOWN

*New to version 4.4*
If you require that IPSentry launch the process and WAIT for the process to complete, simply precede the command line information with "[WAIT##]" (without the quotes, but INCLUDE THE BRACKETS).  Where ## = the number of seconds that IPSentry will wait for completion.

e.g. [WAIT30]C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /Cx:\mypath\myproc.bat %IPS_M_STAT%
The above command line would be executed however IPSentry processing would be suspended until completion or 30 seconds, whichever comes first.

e.g. [WAIT-1]C:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /Cx:\mypath\myproc.bat %IPS_M_STAT%
The above command line would be executed however IPSentry processing would be suspended until completion - this could be days, weeks, months, even more... depending on when MyProc.bat finishes.

Browse (button)
Launches an explorer style file browsing window to select the external application to be launched. The full path and filename will be inserted into the Command Line field.

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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