Executing external program

Has anyone gotten this to work and is using it?

I am running Orion 8.5.1 SP3 and am having no luck with this. The problem first appeared when I was trying to use PSEXEC to play a sound on a remote system. The Alert Log said it worked but nothing played. After doing some testing with tech support I decided to try a different approach....

I have tried to get the External Program alert to simply open Notepad.exe on the Orion server. I have tried this in both basic and advanced and get the same results - the notepad.exe shows up in the task manager (User Name System)processes but not under applications.

I have checked (double and triple check) and restarted the service to make sure the Alert service is set for Local Account/Interact with Desktop. I have even tried a domain service account.

I am at a loss as to what else to check or try. So if you are using this feature please let me know how.

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mark_wiggans

Do you have double quotes around the program name? I know that SP3 addressed the issue so there should not be any required, however you might try adding them to see what happens.

FormerMember

Mark,

I have tried double quotes and single quotes - same thing. In fact I used the elipses next to the command when I built the alert to drill down to the notepad command. I noticed that when I did this it had eveything in capitals so I thought it may be case sensitive - nope.

Still searching.....

FormerMember

Some more testing:

I created a batch program called "test1.bat" in the root of C:. It contained the line

c:\windows\notepad.exe"

I checked to make sure that it opened the notepad by simply typing in "test1" at the command line - it did.
I then created a BASIC alert called 'New Alert' with the action to execute c:\test1.bat.
I then ran the test fire alert ofr 'New Alert' and when I clicked on Test Alert Trigger and Notepad opened up (as an application).
I then added the alert to a node and modified the node ip so it would show down. When it went down the alert kicked off but Notepad showed up in the Task Manager Process list but not under Application - as we have seen before.

So it 'looks' like there is something in the Orion application which kicks this off causing an issue.....

justsomeguy1988

Have you tried changing the alert action to execute c:\test1 (leaving off the .bat). It seems I've run into something like this before. Looking through some notes...

FormerMember

Just tried that - when I hit the Test Alert Trigger with the alert as just c:\test1 nothing happens.... no action at all.

I even went back and put double quotes around the c:\test1 (it looked like "c:\test1") and it didn't run either.

WINNT

Orion and your batch file are working as designed. It is running the batch file under the localsystem account. Processes running under the system account do not appear on the server console. The reason your psexec script doesn't work is because the localsystem account on your Orion server doesn't have access to the remote system. Try adding your Orion server to the local admin group on the remote server you are trying to play the sound. Run this command with your computer names on the remote server you are trying to run psexec against:

net localgroup Administrators YourDomain\OrionServer$ /ADD

FormerMember

So, so close...... I was able to execute the sound on the remote system making the changes suggested BUT only when I clicked on the Test Alert Trigger. When I configured a node to go down and waited for the poll to catch its status change it never kicked off.

Am I missing something?

FormerMember

Hi Sotherls,

I've just been through this whole horrible experience with PSExec within a batch file. I got it working after a bit of time, here's what I did...

the batch file is to remotely using psexec start the "Telnet" service and contains this...

"E:\Program Files\Solarwinds\Orion\Scripts\psexec.exe" \\dcrntsp032 net start "tlntsvr"

the "Execute Program Action" contains this (notice it's in the same folder as psexec)...

E:\Program Files\Solarwinds\Orion\Scripts\test.bat

I added the orion server into the administrators group on the target machine (dcrntsp032)

I ran "mstsc /console" logged into my orion server using the user I used to install orion. I ran the command "at 09:30 /i cmd" (this opens an interactive command prompt at 09:30. I then ran the batch file from within the CMD prompt (a license agreement popped up, I accepted it) and it ran ok. I then logged off and let orion trigger an alert which then successfully ran the batch file and my Telnet server service restarted straight away.

I hope this helps.

Dave

FormerMember

Dave,

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the assistance.

I tried what you said but when I ran the scheduled task part I did not see anything happen so I added another and then another - still nothing. I then checked the scheduled tasks and saw that all three I added were running but I wasn't seeing anything. This is kind of hwat I am seeing when the alarm kicks off - it shows up as a process but not as an application so it never really works.

This is running on Server 2003 if that helps.