Node Description Property Query

terence.lau

Hi,

I'm trying to make our alerts a little more descriptive for the node in the email subject.  At present, its ...

${N=Alerting;M=ObjectType} - ${NodeName} - ${N=SwisEntity;M=Status}

... which gives me the email subject:

Node - ServerName - Down

I would like to add a description of the server like so:

Node - ServerName (Microsoft SQL Server) - Down

Looking at all the available properties of a node via SWQL or Powershell's Get-OrionNode, I can see the following 3 properties related to description:

NodeDescription	Hardware: Intel64 Family 6 Model 85 Stepping 4 AT/AT COMPATIBLE - Software: Windows Version 10.0 (Build 20348 Multiprocessor Free)
Description	Windows 2019 Server
MachineType	Windows 2019 Server

1. Is the property "Description" configurable ... and should I?
2. Whats the difference between the 2 properties "Description" and "MachineType"?

Viewing on the web interface shows "MachineType" and "NodeDescription" under the Node Details so perhaps I shouldn't touch these 2 properties (though NodeDescription is listed as Description in the GUI).  That leaves the property "Description" ... or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks.

m_roberts

For our customers we create alert output that has rich information in them, so that recipients have more information to base immediate response decisions on.

In your situation above, you could include details on any SAM templates you have assigned to the end point server, just the Template name will probably do, with the SAM template status.

An alternative, which I would suggest is better solution, would be to create a Custom Property for each device (may be 2): Device_Service and Device_Type. For Device_Type you store values such as Virtual Server, Router, Firewall etc. and for Device_Service values such as SQL Server, Sharepoint Web Server, Jira Front end Server etc. Then simply include these two values in ALL your alert output.