Alerts and Notifications - Online Help

The following sections provide context-sensitive help information related to this feature.

Alerts

Use this dialog box to view, add, modify, disable and delete user alerts.  Note that if a CommCell user does not have Alert Management capability with CommCell level association and is not a member of the View All user group, that user can only view those alerts in this window for which that user has created or is designated to receive.  The following information is displayed:

• Name

  The name of the alert. This field can be modified without changing any configurations of the alert.

• Alert Category

  The category to which the alert belongs to.

• Alert Type

  The type of alert, based on the alert category.

• Creator

  The name of the CommCell user that created the alert.

Add

Click to configure an alert from the Add Alert Wizard.

Modify

Click to modify an alert from the Modify Alert Wizard.

Delete

Click to delete an alert.

Refresh

Click to update the windowpane with the latest alert configurations.

Disable/Enable

Click to disable or enable an alert.

Test

Click to send a test message to the recipients of the configured alert. (The Test button is a right-click option for an alert in the alerts windowpane.)

Alert Summary

Displays the options selected for an alert.

Summary

Displays selected options such as Alert Category, Alert Type, and Alert Criteria.  It also displays selected configuration options such as Reporting Criteria, Notification Types, and the users and/or user groups who will receive the alert.

Monitored Nodes

Displays the specific entities that are associated with the alert.

General Information

When adding or editing an alert, use this page to select the name and the category and type of the alert/threshold.

Display Name

A name defined by the user for the alert/threshold.

If the notification type for the alert is Save to Disk, do not use special characters in the Display Name box because the name of the alert is used in the file path when the alert is saved to the disk. For Windows file naming conventions, go to the Windows Dev Center - Desktop website, Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces - Naming Conventions.

Category

The category of alerts/threshold.

Type

The type of alert/threshold. Only the types of alerts/threshold that pertain to the selected alert/threshold category will be displayed.

Subscription based alert*

Select this option to display the selected alert in the Web Console. Alerts configured with this option are automatically associated to all clients in the CommCell as well as to their client owners. Users managing their data from the Web Console will be able to use the alert configured in this wizard.

*This option is available for Job Management - Data Protection and Job Management - Data Recovery alerts only.

Entities Selection

Use this page to select the entities associated with the alert. The entities selected are used as the criteria for the alert.

Some alert types cannot be associated with an entity and not all entities are available for all alert types. The available entities are:

• CommCell computer
• Client Group
• Client
• Agent
• Backup Set
• Instance
• Subclient
• MediaAgent
• Library
• Storage Policy
• Storage Policy Copy

When an entity is selected, all entities nested under that entity are selected by default. You can exclude nested entities that should not be associated with the alert. If the Client Group entity is selected and a nested client group is excluded, then all clients and entities under that excluded client group are also excluded from the alert. Once an entity is excluded from an alert, it is always excluded even if it is included in another path.

If an entity is uninstalled or deconfigured after the entity is associated with a configured alert, this entity is subsequently removed from this tab.

Threshold and Notification Criteria Selection

Use this page to select or modify the alert threshold and notification criteria.

Alert Criteria

Select the criteria that will initiate the alert. The available criteria depend on the type of alert selected on the General Information page of the wizard. For information on the alert criteria available for each alert type, see Available Alert Criteria.

Send Individual Notification for this alert

Enable this option to send an individual alert notification, instead of multiple alerts within a single alert notification, for the criteria selected.

Send Individual notification for each backed up Discovered Virtual machine

This option applies to data protection alerts for VSA backup jobs for virtual machines that were identified based on a discovery rule. Enable this option to send an individual alert notification, instead of multiple alerts within a single alert notification, for the criteria selected.

Notification Criteria

Note that the following options are not available for all alert types.

• Repeat notification every n hr(s) n min(s)*

  Select this option to send the alert notification to its intended recipients more than one time. Specify in the hr(s) and min(s) boxes the frequency at which the alert must notify the recipients.

• Notify when the condition clears*

  Select this option to send the notification only when the alert condition clears.

• Notify only when jobs qualify for extended retention**

  Select this option when configuring a Job Management Data Protection alert. If selected, when a data protection job meets the thresholds of the configured alert criteria, users will only be notified of those jobs that are set for extended retention.

• Notify only when job contains failed objects**

  Select this option when configuring a Job Management Data Protection alert. If selected, when a data protection job meets the thresholds of the configured alert criteria, users will only be notified of those jobs that contain failed objects.

• Notify only if job is DDB job**

  Select this option when configuring a Job Management Data Protection alert. If selected, when a data protection job meets the thresholds of the configured alert criteria, users will be notified only if the job is deduplication database backup job.

Escalate Notification Criteria*

Select this option to configure an alert to escalate its notification criteria and specify the time at which the escalated alert notification should be sent. You can also use the following options to further configure the escalation:

• Repeat notification every n hr(s) n min(s)

  Select this option to send the alert notification to its intended recipients more than one time. Specify in the hr(s) and min(s) boxes the frequency at which the alert must notify the recipients.

• Notify when the condition clears

  Select this option to send the notification only when the alert condition clears.

*This notification option is applicable for Configuration - MediaAgents, Media Management - Device Status, and Media Management - Library Management alerts only.

**This notification option is applicable for Job Management - Data Protection alerts only.

Advanced Criteria Options

Use this dialog box to refine the values you enter as the alert criteria or the log monitoring criteria.

Regular Expression

This option recognizes regular expressions in the values you enter as the alert criteria. For example, a pipe (|) is treated as an "or" operator.

Case Sensitive

This option applies case sensitivity to the values you enter as the alert criteria. For example, "Workflow [ABC] completed" and "Workflow [abc] completed" are treated as two different strings.

Match whole word

This option does not consider partial words when comparing the values you enter as the alert criteria to the CommCell events. For example, if you enter "Manager" as the program, "MediaManager" and "JobManager" will not match.

Inclusive

This option is available when you select between as the operator in the Create Criteria dialog box. This option includes the start and end values as part of the criterion. For example, you select between for a date field and enter Jan 1 as the start date and Jan 31 as the end date. Selecting Inclusive includes the January start and end dates as part of the criterion. Clearing Inclusive excludes the January start and end dates and only January 2 through January 30 are part of the criterion.

Notification Type(s) Selection

Use this page to select or modify the methods that will be used to send an alert to the intended recipients.

Choose Locale

Select the language in which the alert should be displayed.

Severity

Select the level of severity for the alert. Choose Auto Pick to automatically determine the level of severity for the alert based on the alert criteria, otherwise choose from Critical, Warning, or Information to set the level of severity.

• E-Mail

  Use this tab to select e-mail as the notification method for an alert. The email can be in HTML or TEXT format. You can use the Add Token option to customize the subject and body of the e-mail message.

• SNMP

  Use this tab to select SNMP as the notification method for an alert.  When the alert is sent, it is trapped by the trap receiver software.  You can use the Add Token option to customize the subject and body of the alert.  Note that once an alert is sent as an SNMP Trap it cannot be resent.

• Event Viewer

  Use this tab to select the Windows System Event Viewer on the CommServe as the notification method for the alert. The alerts will be located in the Application log of the Windows System Event Viewer dialog box.

• SCOM

  Use this tab to select the SCOM Server as the notification method for an alert. The alerts will be displayed in the monitoring console of the SCOM Server. You can use the Add Token option to customize the subject and body of the alert.

• Workflow

  Use this tab to execute a workflow as the notification method when an alert is generated. Select a workflow from the Workflow to run list. You can customize the value of the inputs defined in the selected workflow, by selecting an alert token from the drop down list, or by typing a value for an input. Select a workflow engine on which to run the workflow from the Run workflow on list.

• Run Command

  Use this tab to select the Run Command as the notification method for an alert. The Run Command can be located on the CommServe or remote machines, but is executed only on the CommServe machine. The command can be configured with arguments; multiple arguments should be separated by spaces, which the system allows for this command. Use the Change option to change the account information to access the network share.

• Save to Disk

  Use this tab to select the Save to Disk as the notification method for an alert. The alert notification messages can be sent in the form of a text file to a designated directory either locally or on a network share. Enter the path in the Location field.

• RSS Feeds

  Use this tab to select the RSS Feeds as the notification method for an alert. The alert notification messages can be sent in the form of an RSS feed, which can be automatically integrated with your Web Browser. Enter or select the URL in the Select/Enter the Feed Location field.

• Console Alerts

  Use this tab to select Console alerts as the notification method. Alert notifications can be sent in the form of an e-mail message to the CommCell Console. The notification message can be in HTML or TEXT format. You can use the Add Token option to customize the subject and body of the message.

User(s) and User Group(s) Selection

Use this page to select the CommCell users and CommCell user groups who will receive the alert.

Notification Recipients

Use this pane to select the CommCell users and CommCell user groups who will receive the alert.

You can configure e-mail alert notifications to be received by CommCell user groups and also by external domain user groups (if they have logged on to the CommCell previously).

• Available

  Displays the available user and user groups for alert notification. Select Add > or Add All >> to add the user or user group to the selected list.

• Selected

  Displays the selected user and user groups for alert notification. Select < Remove or << Remove All to remove the user or user group from the selected list.

• Email to Recipients (comma separated)
  Enter the e-mail address of the recipients. If entering multiple addresses, separate each entry with a comma (,). 

Summary

Use this page to view the options that were selected for the alert.

Summary

Displays selected options such as the alert category and type, alert criteria, reporting criteria selected for the alert, the type of notification method, and the users and/or user groups that will receive the alert.

Monitored Nodes

Displays the specific entities that are associated with the alert.

Alert

Use this tab to configure a new alert.

Refer to Alerts and Notifications for comprehensive information on setting up Alerts.

Configure Alert

• Alert

  The currently configured alert.

• Add/Modify Alert

  When clicked, opens the Alert Wizard to configure alerts for this operation.

• Delete Alert

  When clicked, deletes any existing alerts that are already configured.

Console Alerts

Use this window to view the details of all Console alerts configured in the CommCell.

• ...

  Allows you to mark the alerts that are important as well as setting them as Read or Unread.

• Client Name

  The name of the client computer associated with the corresponding alert.

• Job ID

  The job ID of the CommCell activity that triggered the alert.

• Alert Name

  The name of the alert.

• Alert Type

  The type of alert, based on the alert category. For example, Operation - Event Viewer Events.

• Alert Criteria

  The threshold and notification criteria that triggered the alert.

• Detected Time

  The date and time at which the alert threshold and notification criteria was detected on the client.

Active Alert Detail Dialog

Use this dialog box to review the details of a Console alert.

This dialog box also allows you to:

• mark the alert as important by clicking the pin at the bottom of the dialog box
• delete the alert by clicking the 'X' at the bottom of the dialog box

Change User Account

Use this dialog box to provide the user credentials of a CommCell user.

Use This Account

Click to change the user account.

User Name

The user account that will be used to access the network path for Run Command and Save To Disk notification types.

Password

Use the space to type the password for the User Account.

Confirm Password

Use the space to re-type the password for confirmation.