how to execute a simple vbs script when an Adv alert is triggered

Question

I am having trouble creating a simple bat file that will execute when an Adv Alert is triggered.  the bat file that I want to run is restarting IIS.

All it has is this:

echo off

iisreset

this is what I have done:

this batch file is located in the remote server where I want to run this batch file.  On the SW server, I go to System Manager and edit the alert that I want to configure.  I then go to the "Trigger Actions" tab and click on "Add New Action". I select "Execute an external VB Script".  In the "VB Script" tab I browse to where my batch file is located.  In my case it is located on the remote server.  when the alert is triggered, nothing happens.  What am I doing wrong?  If I run this batch file from the remote server, it works fine.  Please help!!

RogerWong · Answer

Noe,

One of our developers here just pointed out to me that the Microsoft iisreset.exe command-line utility can restart Internet services on a remote computer.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/95826e7a-bac4-4e1f-bcb6-c52d49c9d7f4.mspx?mfr=true

If the iisreset.exe command-line utility is installed on your Orion NPM/APM server,  you should in theory be able to specify this external program command-line to restart your remote Internet services:

iisreset.exe /noforce computerName

Hope this helps!

NoeO · Answer

Thanks Roger

I will do some research on the links you provided me.  Your information gives me a starting point.

Just to clarify what is happening:  I have this website that hangs from time to time.  I am using APM to monitor this particular URL. When this URL goes down, I would like SW to execute an IISrestart command on the webserver.

I will keep you posted on my results.

Noe

RogerWong · Answer

I'll explain what's going on, but first let me suggest an alternative solution:

If you're using APM 2.5, check out the 'restart service' alert action, and activate that for the component monitor that's monitoring your IIS service. This alert action runs a program we wrote that knows how to remotely restart the services of service component monitors. We pass the internal ComponentID number of the down component monitor to the program, and it automatically restarts that component monitor's associated service.

http://www.solarwinds.com/netperfmon/SolarWinds/ApplicationPerformanceMonitorAdministratorGuide.6.86.htm

As to why your batch file isn't restarting IIS on the remote server, two things are going on here:

1. A batch file isn't a Visual Basic (VB) script. Batch files are considered programs, and you would need to use the 'Execute an external program' action instead.

2. External scripts and programs run local on the Orion NPM server, they don't run on the remote server. To make a script or program affect something on a remote server, the script or program has to know how to connect and authenticate with the remote server.

Workaround:

I'm not a big script person either. If I really wanted to run a remote batch file, I would probably install a microsoft utility called 'psexec' on my Orion NPM server. It's a program that knows how to connect to remote servers and run programs (or in your case, your batch file).

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx

If you set up a Orion action to Execute an external program, and use something like this as the parameter, the action should work:  psexec.exe \remoteComputer -u localadmin -p password  "c:\BatchFile1.bat"