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How PageAlert Notifications Are Triggered
Notifications may be triggered in PageAlert through the use of either a client program
sending a message to the PageAlert server or through SNMP traps. For messages coming
from clients, there are two data structures that PageAlert uses to determine when
to start a notification and who, or what devices, to notify. These two structures
are Notification Masters and Device Profiles. Notifications originating from SNMP
traps use the SNMP Trap Master and the Device Profiles. This discussion concerns
itself with notifications triggered by client programs. SNMP traps are not discussed
here.
Device Profiles
The Device Profiles are simply entries containing the information necessary to send
information to a particular device. Information such as the type of the device,
how it is communicated with and what messaging to display on it or send to it. Device
Profiles are given names, such as “John’s Cell Phone”, “Mary Jones PDA”, or “IT
Pager”. Once a Device Profile has been defined, it is referenced from then on by
its name.
Notification Master
The Notification Master structure consists of pattern matching fields and associated
Device Profiles. The pattern matching fields are used to match a message that a
PageAlert client program sends to the PageAlert server software. The client could
be a monitor program of some sort, an OpenView integration, or some other application
that integrates the PageAlert client. When a PageAlert client sends a message to
the PageAlert server, the server tries to match the pattern information on a Notification
Master entry. If a match is found, then a notification sequence is started, using
the device names listed on the entry’s Device Profile list. Notification Masters
are given descriptions like “OpenView Messaging”, “Oracle has a problem” or “Critical
Job Aborts”.
Pattern Matching Fields
The pattern matching fields on the Notification Master entries are matched using
simple wildcard pattern matching. This type of pattern matching utilizes the # and
? characters. An asterisk (*) matches one or more alphanumeric characters. The octothorpe
(#) matches a single numeric character. The question-mark (?) matches a single alphanumeric
character.
There are four fields available for pattern matching incoming messages. They are:
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Hostname |
The hostname of the machine sending the message |
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Text1 |
The first arbitrary text matching field |
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Text2 |
The second arbitrary text matching field |
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Text3 |
The third arbitrary text matching field |
The Notification Master entry can be required to match any one of the values, or
forced to match all the values. Case-sensitivity is selectable. When multiple Notification
Master entries exist, the first one in the table that matches is the one selected.
If no patterns match the incoming message, then the message is ignored and no notification
sequence is started.
OpenView Example
Using the PageAlert integration policy for OpenView Operations for Windows, when
a major or critical message is logged by OpenView, the policy’s integration script
is run. This script sends these message values to the PageAlert server.
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Hostname |
The OpenView server’s hostname |
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Text1 |
The value “HPOVOW” |
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Text2 |
The value “matchval2” |
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Text3 |
The value “matchval3” |
Also sent (although not used for pattern matching) is the actual logged major or
critical message that triggered this event.
The Notification Master that PageAlert would employ could look like this:
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Hostname |
The value “*” |
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Text1 |
The value “HPOVOW” |
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Text2 |
The value “*” |
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Text3 |
The value “*” |
When the message is received, the Notification Master matches on all the wildcarded
values as well as the Text1 value of “HPOVOW”, and the notification sequence is
begun using the devices associated with this Notification Master entry.
If multiple applications are monitored by OpenView, the policy script may be changed
to pass along the application name in the Text2 field. The Notification Master would
then also name the application in the Text2 pattern field. Done this way, multiple
Notification Master entries could be used, one for each application, that would
allow for notifying different personnel based upon the application involved.
For more detailed information about integrating PageAlert and HP OpenView Operations
for Windows, click here.
 Back to PageAlert product page
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