Case Statement in Alert Email Recipient

Question

Hey folks,

Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere, but if it has I haven't been able to find it!

I am trying to set up a trigger alert email with a variable recipient based on the machine name in the alert. For example, our naming convention means that any server name containing 'APP' should go to the Apps mailing list - this is set up in a Group custom property.

So, in SWQL the following works happily, retuing an email address (or blank if I tweak the CharIndex):

select (case when CharIndex('APP', 'LVPAPP004') > 0 THEN G.CustomProperties.GIB_Email_Alert  ELSE '' END) AS Blah from Orion.Groups G where G.Name = 'Apps_Daytime'

However, when I put this in the Recipients field in an alert action (replacing the name with the machine name variable, I get an error:

${N=SWQL;M=select (case when CharIndex('APP', ${N=SwisEntity;M=Name}) > 0 THEN G.CustomProperties.GIB_Email_Alert  ELSE '' END) AS GIB_Email_Alert from Orion.Groups G where G.Name = 'Apps_Daytime'}

I have tried simplifying this down to the following, but these still fail:

${N=SWQL;M=select (case when 5 > 0 THEN G.CustomProperties.GIB_Email_Alert  ELSE '' END) as GIB_Email_Alert from Orion.Groups G where G.Name = 'Apps_Daytime'}

${N=SWQL;M=select (G.CustomProperties.GIB_Email_Alert) as GIB_Email_Alert from Orion.Groups G where G.Name = 'Apps_Daytime'}

This, however, works:

${N=SWQL;M=select G.CustomProperties.GIB_Email_Alert as GIB_Email_Alert from Orion.Groups G where G.Name = 'Apps_Daytime'}

So, it looks to me like the SWQL code in the receipents list has significant limitations compared to the SWQL available in the message body (where all of the above work happily). Has anyone else found this, and does anyone know of a workaround?

Thanks,

Richard

paget76 · Answer

But that would mean having to have a CP for each server (populated or not according to the logic), which is not practical - especially as the monitoring is via VM, which doesn't require the server to 'exist' in the Orion system.

It does look like a limitation within Orion on the Recipient variables (note that the same SQL/SWQL works happily in the main message body), but it would be nice to know why, and/or find a workaround. I could of course just duplicate al the relevant rules and only alert on the servers that I am interested in, but that is inelegant...

dgsmith80 · Answer

So simply have a second CP as the second email variable. If it's blank then no harm, if it's for a server with a populated second address then both teams get emailed!

paget76 · Answer

Sorry, may have been unclear... The alert needs to always go to one address, but only sometimes (based on object name) to the second. Picking up the custom proerty as a variable in the recipients is fine - it's the case statement that is giving me grief.