Now that ipMonitor 10.0 allows tags to work properly within SmartGroups, this opens up all sorts of possibilities. One thing that I've been wanting to do for a while is use tags and SmartGroups to make alerting work the way I want it. Basically I've wanted to have a generic email alert that operates over all monitors, but then for some special groups of monitors I want to do something different, like send a GSM text message when an important host can't be pinged, when the data centre aircon stops, or when the POP3 user experience monitor can't get an email out to Gmail and back. Sure, you can architect this in other ways, but tags and SmartGroups make it so easy and tidy. Here's how:
1. Add a tag to any monitors you want handled differently. I've called my tag "usage" and assigned it values that reflect the usage scenarios mentioned above (eg. "Critical Host", "Environmental Trap", "External Email Roundtrip").
2. Create SmartGroups that enumerate to the monitors containing these tag values. Following on from one of the above examples:
Name: Environmental Trap Monitors
SmartGroup contains: Monitors
Start with: No monitors
Add monitors where tag is "usage"
Matches regular expression: ^Environmental Trap$
3. Create a SmartGroup that will enumerate to all the "average Joe" monitors that aren't being given special treatment (ie. that don't have a "usage" tag):
Name: Generic Monitors
SmartGroup contains: Monitors
Start with: All monitors
Remove monitors where tag is "usage"
Matches regular expression: .*
4. Create alerts for each of the usage scenarios you want handled differently from the norm. Have these alerts only operate on the SmartGroups you created in # 2. For example:
Alert Name: Environmental Trap Alert
Action Control: Alert for Groups and Monitors that are listed
Actions: Environmental Trap SMS Action
Groups and Monitors to Alert for: Environmental Trap Monitors
5. Create a generic alert for the remaining "average Joe" monitors:
Alert Name: Generic Email Alert
Action Control: Alert for Groups and Monitors that are listed
Actions: Email Auto Report on Failure/Recovery; Email Information Notifications
Groups and Monitors to Alert for: Generic Monitors
Once you've got this all set up, you can easily change the way a monitor is handled simply by adding/removing a tag.
HTH. Please post any improvements or great alternatives you may have.
Rgds, Simon
