Acknowledging alerts remotely

Question

I'm looking for a way to be able to acknowledge alerts when I don't have direct access to Orion.

I downloaded and configured NotePager to send notifications via TAP if the core switch, internet router, or firewall is down.  I've also configured the alert escalation to send a notification to engineer 1, if the alert isn't acknowledged within 10 minutes then notify engineer 2, etc on down the line.  But, if one of those nodes is down then the responding engineer can't VPN in and acknowledge it to stop the escalation chain so eventually everyone gets called.

The only thing I can think of is a voice response system to handle the notifications and once someone answers and presses "1" or whatever to acknowledge the alert it stops calling people.

Any other ideas on how to accomplish this or suggestions on voice response software packages?  I've looked at a couple and the ones I've found, while inexpensive (<$500), are still way too much tool for the job IMO.

lavelanet · Answer

I would also like this and would suggest something as simple as an email response to acknowledge the alert. This would help you if your router was down but our issue of escalation is simmilar.  But after hours if all i have is my smartphone it's too much to ask to vpn and acknowlege alerts.  It simply takes too long on a smartphone when you're out and about.  So we don't even use escallation because the realities of implimenting it make it worthless. But we would like to.

clucas · Answer

I am also looking for the same solution.