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IPSentry - Alert - Pager Notifications


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.

These are as follows:

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

Standard Alert Features
The pager alerting configuration contains various options common to all of the IPSentry alerts.  Items such as Enabled settings and alert schedule perform the same functions as in the rest of the alerts.

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)

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".

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. 

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.

Pager Specific Settings
There are two settings that are unique to the pager alerts and have the same affect on the alert process regardless of the type of paging being used.

Modem Access Options (Direct versus TAPI)
The paging systems make use of a standard modem to both dial a numeric beeper using simple tones as well as connect to an alpha paging terminal for message delivery.

IPSentry provides you with the ability to make use of TAPI in order to avoid conflict with other applications that may be accessing the port (such as fax receipt software).  If another application is running that listens for incoming calls, the communication port may be inaccessible to applications attempting to open the communications port directly.  By using TAPI, IPSentry is allowed to share the port with these other applications thereby increasing the chance that your page will be sent successfully.

Direct to Com refers to IPSentry's use of the com port directly.  In this case, the type of device attached to the com port is unknown and only the most fundamental communication options are used.  The only drawback to using this method is that the port could potentially be locked by another application even though the modem is available.  

One of the drawbacks of using the TAPI compliant option is the potential of the modem to 'break' and be replaced by a different type of modem or device.  In this case, you would need to access each pager in order to reconfigure the settings and specify the new modem device and configuration settings.

While IPSentry will make an attempt to use the new modem device, this may not be successful since different modems make use of different parameters to affect the terminal configuration.

Basic Numeric Beeper
The basic numeric beeper (DTMF) uses only a sequence of dialing tones and delays to send a numeric message to a pager. When using this option, you will not have the capability to send textual information.

The default page that is sent will be the IP Address and port number of the device being monitored.  Unfortunately, when monitoring NT Services, Drive Space, and when using add-ins, this information is not available and you will need to enter a "Custom Code" that should be sent as the pager message.

Use of numeric beepers is not recommended due to the extensive setup time and requirement for complex numeric coding schemes.  The cost of alphanumeric text messaging services is so widely available at a marginal cost difference, that use of numeric beepers should only be used in the most simplistic monitoring configurations or with configurations that primarily check systems with unique IP Address & Port configurations (e.g. Web Server Farms, Mail Servers, etc..)  

See: DTMF Pager Configuration

Alpha Numeric Pager (TAP/SMS)
For alpha numeric pagers, IPSentry makes use of the TAP (Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol) 1.8
(http://www.mot.com/MIMS/MSPG/pcia_protocols/tap_v1p8/tap_v1p8.pdf) for sending textual messages to pagers, cell phones, and other devices available through your paging services.  This protocol is the standard used to receive text messages for distribution to devices by most paging companies in North America.

Some services state that the devices make use of SMS. In many cases, this is the method they use internally to transmit messages received by their TAP dialup terminal to the device and not the method used to send the message from your PC.

See: TAP/SMS Pager Configuration

Email Pager
Email pager alerts are by far the simplest to configure for IPSentry.  Unfortunately, this type of paging will be the least reliable unless you have an internal paging system that does not require internet access.  If one or more of your life-lines to the internet becomes unavailable, the SMTP Email page will never be received because the message will not be able to reach it's destination.

See: Email Pager Configuration


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