Alerts - Email notification messages

This is a general question for all.

Our company has decided that it wants to send out e-mail notifications based on alerts. We have started to play with this feature but are overwhelmed with the amount of data that can be sent out. We are looking for some good ideas based on more experienced users. What events do you e-mail about and what data do you send in your emails. Simply stating a node is down doesn't really play well for upper management

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sam12345

email_report

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mharvey

One thing we've tended to use in an instance of node down is something like the following.

${NodeName} became unresponsive at ${AlertTriggerTime} and is now reporting as ${status}. Please try to connect to ${IP_Address} to verify if the device is truly down. Please reach out to ${Department} for further assistance if the device cannot be reached.

These variables will pull the name of the device, time it alerted, it's status, the IP of the device and the department that manages it (the department is a custom property that's setup). That's just one example. For a NOC or Helpdesk, I've setup similar but included a list of steps for troubleshooting, which was emailed to the helpdesk ticketing system.

That would look like:

${NodeName} became unresponsive at ${AlertTriggerTime} and is now reporting as ${status}.

Troubleshooting steps to follow:

Ping ${IP_Address}
1. If pings are not successful, traceroute to ${IP_Address}
2. If pings are successful check back at ${NodeDetailsURL} to see if the system shows the device as back up
Attempt to SSH to ${NodeName} and ensure there may not be an issue with a port
etc
If none of the above work, please reach out to ${Contact} at ${GroupEmail}

This of course also utilized custom properties that had to be filled out.

Regards,

Matthew Harvey

Loop1 Systems

http://www.loop1systems.com

thamizh85

Here is the template we use in our environment:

${node.Device_Function} ${NodeName} was ${Status} at ${DateTime}.
The impacted areas are:
${node.Coverage_Location}
The impacted services are:
${node.Covered_Services}
For urgent escalation, please contact Network duty phone at : +XXXXX
Device details:
Site : ${node.Site}
Property : ${node.Property}
Floor : ${node.Floor}
ELV Room : ${node.ELV_Room}
Miscellaneous : ${node.Comments}

wluther

I am looking for the same thing as well.

I like the responses so far.

Thank you all!

rbonn

Mrjamet/wluther

My recommendation: Requires more thought, but it will save you alot of time later.

Create a Service Line custom property. (ie: email and collaboration, wired network access, wireless network access)
Add your nodes and tag each node with the service line CP that the node supports. (exchange server = Email and collaboration / Switch = wired network access)
Create groups that correspond with your service line CP.
Create dynamic queries based on the service line CP to add nodes to group.
Create alerts for your groups status and provide a link in the email that directs you directly to the groups custom view containing all information about the group members.

When you add a new node it automatically gets alerts applied to it based on the customer property you configure it to. When the status a node changes, it changes the status of the parent group which triggers an alert and provides a link. No more time spent building notification messages.

wluther

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond.

I will get a couple of guys to start working on this option too.

Thanks,

-Will