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fallback alert service

8 messages in this thread

list Joost van den Broek · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:12:52 +0100 ·
Hi,

Maybe this is already possible, or it's a feature request for the next release. Anyway, I'd like to have some kind of fallback alert method in case the used alert service is down. E.g. if I need to be alerted through a sms2email gateway which is down, it should use the next sms gateway. I figured it would be simple if the same dependency system could used for this purpose.

Thanks,

Joost
list Josh Luthman · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:16:55 -0500 ·
What myself and others do is use things like user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid or
whatever it is for your cell phone.  Just a quick Google =)
quoted from Joost van den Broek

On 11/14/07, Joost van den Broek <user-5bf70bf7662e@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Hi,

Maybe this is already possible, or it's a feature request for the next
release. Anyway, I'd like to have some kind of fallback alert method in
case the used alert service is down. E.g. if I need to be alerted
through a sms2email gateway which is down, it should use the next sms
gateway. I figured it would be simple if the same dependency system
could used for this purpose.

Thanks,

Joost

-- 

Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
--- Henry Spencer
list Joost van den Broek · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:48:08 +0100 ·
Well, that's not my problem. I indeed use the email2sms gateway from my mobile provider, and that's also exactly my problem. I'm monitoring the MX servers of this gateway and they, unfortunately, go down too often. That's why it would be nice if there could be some dependency system on the alerts, so in case these servers are down it will use another address / script. I guess this could be scripted completely (external from Hobbit), but why not use Hobbit's ability to determine which gateway servers are/aren't available for alerting?

Joost

Josh Luthman schreef:
What myself and others do is use things like user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid <mailto:user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid> or whatever it is for your cell phone.  Just a quick Google =)
list Josh Luthman · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:22:19 -0500 ·
I've used the txt.att.com for a couple of years and not once missed any
alerts or notifications of voicemail.  I really can't help you beyond this
point.  Though I would yell at my mobile provider if that was my situation!

Sorry!
quoted from Joost van den Broek

On 11/14/07, Joost van den Broek <user-5bf70bf7662e@xymon.invalid> wrote:
Well, that's not my problem. I indeed use the email2sms gateway from my
mobile provider, and that's also exactly my problem. I'm monitoring the
MX servers of this gateway and they, unfortunately, go down too often.
That's why it would be nice if there could be some dependency system on
the alerts, so in case these servers are down it will use another
address / script. I guess this could be scripted completely (external
from Hobbit), but why not use Hobbit's ability to determine which
gateway servers are/aren't available for alerting?

Joost

Josh Luthman schreef:
What myself and others do is use things like user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid
<mailto:user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid> or whatever it is for your cell
phone.  Just a quick Google =)
-- 
Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
--- Henry Spencer
list Ralph Mitchell · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:49:30 -0600 ·
quoted from Josh Luthman
On Nov 14, 2007 9:22 AM, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid> wrote:
I've used the txt.att.com for a couple of years and not once missed any
alerts or notifications of voicemail.  I really can't help you beyond this
point.  Though I would yell at my mobile provider if that was my situation!
I think what Joost is saying is that, when his email server/gateway
goes down there's no way to send email to his pager to let him know...

Joost - could you get your messages out by posting to a web page??  I
did that some time back by going to the relevant web page, extracting
the form, filling in the message, then posting it back.  Once I had
the method sorted out, I could just post the form without the tedious
prior steps.  Curl is pretty good for that - it handles http, https,
proxies, authentication, etc.

Ralph Mitchell
list Tod Hansmann · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:23:30 -0700 ·
What I would personally do would be to write a script to test the server
with a telnet or something, or even get the status from hobbit, and if
it's ok, send the message, if not, send it somewhere else.  Then the
alert can just call that script with the proper arguments and go from
there.

Tod Hansmann
Network Engineer
quoted from Ralph Mitchell
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:50 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] fallback alert service

On Nov 14, 2007 9:22 AM, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid>
wrote:
I've used the txt.att.com for a couple of years and not once missed
any
alerts or notifications of voicemail.  I really can't help you beyond
this
point.  Though I would yell at my mobile provider if that was my
situation!
I think what Joost is saying is that, when his email server/gateway
goes down there's no way to send email to his pager to let him know...

Joost - could you get your messages out by posting to a web page??  I
did that some time back by going to the relevant web page, extracting
the form, filling in the message, then posting it back.  Once I had
the method sorted out, I could just post the form without the tedious
prior steps.  Curl is pretty good for that - it handles http, https,
proxies, authentication, etc.

Ralph Mitchell
list Josh Luthman · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:44:16 -0500 ·
The real question here is, though, where is the "somewhere else" you would
send it to?

Why can't mobile phone carriers have a decent mail server there and simplify
everything?!
quoted from Tod Hansmann

On 11/14/07, Tod Hansmann <user-b6e28cb93fa4@xymon.invalid> wrote:
What I would personally do would be to write a script to test the server
with a telnet or something, or even get the status from hobbit, and if
it's ok, send the message, if not, send it somewhere else.  Then the
alert can just call that script with the proper arguments and go from
there.

Tod Hansmann
Network Engineer


-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Mitchell [mailto:user-00a5e44c48c0@xymon.invalid]
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:50 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] fallback alert service

On Nov 14, 2007 9:22 AM, Josh Luthman <user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid>
wrote:
I've used the txt.att.com for a couple of years and not once missed
any
alerts or notifications of voicemail.  I really can't help you beyond
this
point.  Though I would yell at my mobile provider if that was my
situation!
I think what Joost is saying is that, when his email server/gateway
goes down there's no way to send email to his pager to let him know...

Joost - could you get your messages out by posting to a web page??  I
did that some time back by going to the relevant web page, extracting
the form, filling in the message, then posting it back.  Once I had
the method sorted out, I could just post the form without the tedious
prior steps.  Curl is pretty good for that - it handles http, https,
proxies, authentication, etc.

Ralph Mitchell

-- 
Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
--- Henry Spencer
list Bruce White · Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:01:27 -0600 ·
Since you can provide your own script for alerts, there is no reason you
can't build the needed fallback logic into that custom script. Something
like:
 
if [ first service down ];then
   use second service to send alert
else
   use first service to send alert.
fi
 
I just finished customizing my alert script to allow a single code as the
person getting an alert and then within the script, redirect the alert to
the person from our help desk who happens to have the 7x24 duty this week.
In this way we don't need to have a single pager which gets passed from
person to person and sometimes gets lost.   The on-call people only need to
run a script on the hobbit server to change the info for who is on-call.
The script they run also sends a notice to the person now getting the
alerts, so they can verify the pages are working to the new person.
 
        ......Bruce
 

From: Josh Luthman [mailto:user-4c45a83f15cb@xymon.invalid] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 9:22 AM
To: user-ae9b8668bcde@xymon.invalid
Subject: Re: [hobbit] fallback alert service


I've used the txt.att.com <http://txt.att.com>;  for a couple of years and
quoted from Josh Luthman
not once missed any alerts or notifications of voicemail.  I really can't
help you beyond this point.  Though I would yell at my mobile provider if
that was my situation! 

Sorry!


On 11/14/07, Joost van den Broek <user-5bf70bf7662e@xymon.invalid
<mailto:user-5bf70bf7662e@xymon.invalid> > wrote: 

Well, that's not my problem. I indeed use the email2sms gateway from my
mobile provider, and that's also exactly my problem. I'm monitoring the
MX servers of this gateway and they, unfortunately, go down too often. 
That's why it would be nice if there could be some dependency system on
the alerts, so in case these servers are down it will use another
address / script. I guess this could be scripted completely (external 
from Hobbit), but why not use Hobbit's ability to determine which
gateway servers are/aren't available for alerting?

Joost

Josh Luthman schreef:
What myself and others do is use things like user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid
<mailto:user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid <mailto:user-ede67799c5ea@xymon.invalid> > or
whatever it is for your cell
phone.  Just a quick Google =) 

-- 
Josh Luthman
Office: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Direct: XXX-XXX-XXXX
XXXX Wayne St
Suite XXXX
Troy, OH XXXXX

Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
--- Henry Spencer 


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