Filtering Email/SMS Alerts

By default, a user receives email/SMS alerts for all issues pertaining to all components assigned to him/her. In some circumstances, the user may not want to receive all of these alarms. For instance, in a large, multi-tier infrastructure, a user may be monitoring all the applications and network devices involved in supporting a business service. However, the user may have primary responsibility only for some of the components supporting the business service (e.g., a network administrator’s primary responsibility is to monitor the network devices). In such cases, while the user may want to view the status of all the components of the business service, he/she may want to receive email or SMS alerts pertaining to specific components of the infrastructure alone (e.g., network devices).

To enable such selective alerting, eG Enterprise provides administrators with the option to configure the eG manager to not send out email/SMS alerts related to specific layers/components/component-types/tests for specific users.

By default, the ability to filter mail/SMS alerts is disabled. To enable it, do the following:

  • Select the Alert Settings option from the Mail Settings menu of the Alerts tile.
  • From the Settings tree in the left panel of the page that appears, select the Filter Mail/SMS Alerts node.
  • When the filter mail/sms alerts section opens in the right panel, set the Allow mail/sms filter configuration flag to Yes.
  • Click the Update button to save the changes.

Once this is done, when adding/modifying a user, an additional mail/sms alerts filtering tab page will appear.

You can filter the email/SMS alerts to be sent out to a user by clicking on this tab page, provided the following are in place:

  • The user in question is configured with a mail ID and/or mobile number;
  • The user is mapped to at least one infrastructure element (i.e., component/zone/segment/service);

If the user profile fulfills the above-stated requirements, then you can proceed to filter the email/SMS alerts of the user, by following the steps given below:

  1. Clicking on the mail/sms alerts filtering tab page will open Figure 1.

    Figure 1 : Selecting component type in the Filter By list box

  2. Choose a filter type from the Filter By list box, based on which the email/SMS alerts to the chosen user are to be filtered. The available filter options are as follows:

    • Component type
    • Component
    • Layers
    • Tests
    • Descriptors

  3. If you choose Component type from the Filter By list box, all the component types that are associated with the selected user will appear in the Component types Included for alerts list as depicted by Figure 1. Now, proceed as follows:

    • From the Component types Included for alertslist of Figure 2, select the component types for which you wish to suppress the mail alerts, and then click on the < button.

    • Clicking on < button will list all the chosen components in the Component types Excluded from alerts list box as depicted by Figure 2. You can even double-click on a component-type in the Component types Included for alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Component types Excluded from alerts list.

      Figure 2 : Excluding the specific component type

    • To include the excluded components, select the components from Component types Excluded from alerts list box and click on the > button. Alternatively, you can double-click on a component-type in the Component types Excluded from alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Component types Included for alerts list.
    • Then, click on the Finish button if you are done with filtering. On the other hand, if you want to proceed with excluding more elements, click on the Assign and Exclude More button.

  4. If you want to make sure that the user does not receive email/SMS alerts for one/more components of a specific type, then, choose Component from the Filter By list box.

    Note:

    If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then this excluded component-type will not be available for selection in the Component type list that appears upon selecting Component from the Filter By list.

  5. Then, proceed as follows:

    • If hundreds of components have been managed in a target environment, then selecting the specific components for which mail/SMS alerts should not be sent could prove to be a tedious task. To minimize the time involved in this exercise, eG Enterprise system allows you to additionally filter the components list on the basis of the option chosen from the View By list. By default, the Component option is chosen from the View By list. In this case therefore, all managed component types will be available for selection in the Component type list (seeFigure 3). On the other hand, if you choose the Segment, Service, or Zone option from the View By list, you will have to pick a particular Segment, Service, or Zone (as the case may be) to which the components for which mail/SMS alert filters are to be defined. In this case, the Component type list will be populated with all the component types that are part of the chosen Segment, Service, or Zone.

      Note: 

      The View By list will appear only when the chosen user is associated with a Service, Segment or Zone.

      Figure 3 : Selecting an option from the ‘View By’ list

    • From the Component type list, choose a component type. Doing so will list all the components of that type in the Components Included for alerts list box. Now, select the components to be excluded from the this list box, and click on the < button. You can even double-click on a component in the Components Included for alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Components Excluded from alerts list. Finally, click on the Finish button. If you want to add more elements for which alerts are to be filtered, click on the Assign and Exclude More button instead (see Figure 3).

      Figure 4 : Excluding mail/SMS alerts for specific components of a chosen type

  6. Likewise, you can suppress email/SMS alerts for specific layers for a user. For this, choose Layers from the Filter By list box. To further narrow-down the Component type list, pick the Component, Segment, Service, or Zone option from the View By list. The Component type list will be populated according to the option chosen from the View By list. Select any component-type from the Component type list (see Figure 5).

    Note:

    If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in the Component type list that appears upon selecting Layers from the Filter By list.

  7. This will list all the layers of the chosen component type in the Layers Included for alerts list box. Now, proceed as follows:

    • If you select All from the Component type list box, then the layers pertaining to all assigned components will be available for selection in the Layers Included for alerts list.

      Note:

      If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then all the layers pertaining to this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in theLayers Included for alerts list, if the Component type is set to All.

    • Next, select the layer to be excluded from the Layers Included for alerts list and click on the < button. Alternatively, you can double-click on a layer in the Layers Included for alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Layers Excluded from alerts list. Click on the Finish button to exit the mail/SMS alert filtering process, or click the Assign and Exclude More button to exclude more elements (see Figure 5).

      Figure 5 : Excluding specific layers of a component type

  8. Similarly, you can suppress email/SMS alerts for specific tests for a chosen user. For this, choose Tests from the Filter By list box, pick any option from the View By list to further filter the Component type list, and then select any component-type from the Component type list (see Figure 6). You can even exclude configuration tests by choosing the Configuration option from the Test type list. By default, Performance option is chosen from the Test type list.

    Note:

    If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in the Component type list that appears upon selecting Tests from the Filter By list.

  9. This will list all the tests of the chosen component type in the Tests Included for alerts list box. Now, proceed as follows:

    • If you select All from the Component type list box, then the tests pertaining to all assigned components will be available for selection in the Tests Included for alerts list.

      Note:

      If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then all the tests pertaining to this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in the Tests Included for alerts list, if the Component type is set to All.

    • Next, select the test to be excluded from the Tests Included for alerts list and click on the < button. Alternatively, you can double-click on a layer in the Tests Included for alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Tests Excluded from alerts list. Click on the Finish button to exit the mail/SMS alert filtering process, or click the Assign and Exclude More button to exclude more elements (see Figure 6).

      Figure 6 : Excluding specific tests of a component type

  10. In the same manner, you can make sure that email/SMS alerts are not sent out for specific descriptors of a test. For this, choose Descriptors from the Filter By list box. To further narrow-down the Component type list, pick the Component, Segment, Service, or Zone option from the View By list. The Component type list will be populated according to the option chosen from the View By list. Select any component-type from the Component type list (see Figure 5).

    Note:

    If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in the Component type list that appears upon selecting Descriptors from the Filter By list.

  11. This will list all the descriptor-based tests associated with the chosen component type in the Test list and all managed components of the chosen type in the Component list (see Figure 7). Pick a Test and a Component from the respective lists. Then, proceed as follows:

    • All the descriptors that are currently active for the chosen Component and Test will be available for selection in the Descriptors Included for alerts list.

      Note:

      If email/SMS alerts for a particular component-type have already been excluded for the chosen user by selecting Component type from the Filter By list box, then all the descriptors pertaining to this excluded component-type will no longer be available for selection in the Descriptors Included for alerts list, if the Component type is set to All.

    • Next, select the descriptor to be excluded from the Descriptors Included for alerts list and click on the < button. Alternatively, you can double-click on a layer in the Descriptors Included for alerts list to immediately transfer it to the Descriptors Excluded from alerts list. Click on the Finish button to exit the mail/SMS alert filtering process, or click the Assign and Exclude More button to exclude more elements (see Figure 5).

      Figure 7 : Excluding specific layers of a component type