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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:
Basic
Numeric Beeper (DTMF)
Details located under: DTMF Pager Configuration
Alpha
Numeric Pager (TAP/SMS)
Details located under: TAP/SMS Pager Configuration
Email Pager
Details located under: Email Pager Configuration
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.
Multi Paging (Pager Escalation)
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.
Up Code
Unlike other alerts, numeric beepers do can not make use of the words
"UP" or "DOWN". Therefore, allowing a simple checkbox
for "Alert Success" would provide no information to the recipient
of a numeric page as to whether the page was caused by a system going down
or a system being corrected.
In order to overcome this problem, the UP CODE field is used in place of the
Alert Success 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 anything more than signaling the fact that you want
an "Alert Success" to be sent. 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. Keep in mind however
that the UP CODE must still contain at least one character for this action
to take place - even if you have no numeric beepers configured.
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
SCREEN SAMPLES
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