Configure Notifications for Alarms

For supported software information, click here.

When a Versa Operation System^TM (VOS^TM) device generates an alarm, the alarm is sent to the Director and Analytics nodes. On the Director node, you can configure policies and webhooks that send an email or an SMS text message to a user informing them about an alarm.

For Releases 22.1.1 and later, the logo included in the email message is the same as logo used for the Director node. To change the Director logo, in drop-down menu in the upper right of the top menu bar, select Change Logo. For more information, see Director GUI Overview.

To configure email notifications for alarms:

1. In Director view, select the Administration tab in the top menu bar.
2. Select Notification Configuration > Notification Rules in the left menu bar.
   
   
    
3. Click the Add icon. In the Add Notification Rules popup window, enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Rule Name	Enter a name for the rule.
   Alert on Clear	Click to send an email notification when an alarm clears.
   Organizations	Select the organization to which the alarm notification rule applies.

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4. Select the Communication Details tab, select the Email tab, and then enter information for the following fields.
    

   Field	Description
   Subject	For email notifications, enter the subject line to include in the email. You can include variables (tokens) in the subject line, and and then the appropriate text is substituted in place of the variables when the email is sent. You can include the following variables in the subject line: ${device}—Name of the VOS device generating the alarm. ${severity}—Alarm severity. The severity is one of the following: cleared critical indeterminate major minor ${tenant}—Name of the tenant. ${type}—Alarm type, for example, interface down. Default: If you do not enter any text in the Subject field, the email subject line has the following format: Device:device-name, Severity:severity-level, Tenant:tenant-name, Type:alarm-type
   To	For email notifications, click the Add icon, and enter one or more email recipients.
   CC	For email notifications, click the Add icon, and enter one or more recipients to copy on the email.
   Message	For email notifications, enter the text of the email message. For Releases 21.2.2 and earlier, the title text in the message is "Alarm Alert", and you cannot include any variables in the message content. For Releases 22.1.1 and later, the title text in the message is the text that you configure in the Subject field, and you can include the following variables in the message content: ${alarmKind}—Type of VOS alarm. The kind is one of the following: root-cause—Alarm is the root cause of the problem. symptom unknown ${alarmOwner}—Owner of the alarm. ${alarmText} or ${lastAlarmText}—Alarm description, if any. ${alarmTime}—Time at which the alarm occurred, in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss (year, month, date, hour, minute, second). The timezone is always UTC. ${alarmTimeInMsecs}—Time at which the alarm occurred, in milliseconds that have elapsed since UNIX epoch time, in UTC. You can use epoch time to perform your own date and time processing and transformation. ${alarmTimestamp} or ${lastStatusChangeTimeStamp}—Timestamp of the alarm event, in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.SSS+HHMM (year, month, date, hour, minute, second, millisecond; HHMM represents the timezone). Because all alarm times are standardized to the UTC timezone, HHMM is always +0000. ${device} or ${deviceName)—Name of the VOS device generating the alarm. ${deviceGroup)—Name of a group on the Director node to which the VOS device belongs. This field may not be defined for all device. This field is not set by a VOS alarm. ${isCleared}—Whether the alarm is cleared: false—Alarm is not cleared. true—Alarm is cleared (same as a severity of cleared) ${lastPerceivedSeverity} or ${severity}—Alarm severity. The severity is one of the following: cleared critical indeterminate major minor ${lastStatusChange}—Date and time at which the alarm occurred, in local time format and language. For a U.S. location, the format is similar to "Tue Apr 09 16:00:40 UTC 2024". ${managedObject}—Component from which the alarm was generated. ${org} or ${tenant}—Name of an organization (a tenant). ${serial}—Serial number of VOS device. ${specificProblem}—Cause of the alarm. ${type}—Alarm type, for example, interface down. For Releases 22.1.1 and later, you can include some HTML tags in the email message, including <i>, <b>, <p>, <a> (hyperlink), and <font>.

5. Select the Communication Details tab, select the SMS tab, and then enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Phone	For an SMS text message, enter the contact phone number of the recipient.
   SMS Text	Enter the text of the SMS message. For Releases 21.2.2 and earlier, no variables are available. For Releases 22.1.1 and later, you can include the following variables in the SMS text content, which are described in the Subject field, above: ${alarmText} ${alarmTime} ${alarmTimeInMsecs} ${alarmTimestamp} ${device} ${severity} ${tenant} ${type} For Releases 22.1.1 and later, you can include a limited number of HTML tabs in the email message, including <i>, <b>, <p>, and <font>.

6. Select the Communication Details tab, select the Webhook tab, and then enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Webhooks Profile	Click the Add icon, and select one or more webhook profiles to associate with the notification rule. You can configure both email and one or more webhook profiles in a single alarm rule. To configure webhook profiles, see Configure Webhook Notifications for Alarms.

7. Select the Condition Sets tab, and then click the Add icon.
   
   
8. In the Add Conditions popup window, enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Condition Set	Displays the name for the match conditions set. The name is automatically generated and is based on the name of the notification rule.
   Conditions (Group of Fields)	Select one or more conditions to match. If you select more than one, all conditions must match for the rule to take effect. That is, the conditions are an AND operation. Note that in a single condition, you can specify only one of each attribute type (that is, only one alarm text, only one device name, and so forth).
   Attributes	Select the criteria to use to determine when to send an email notification: Alarm Text—Send a notification based on the text in an alarm message. Alarm Type—Send a notification based on the alarm type. For a description of the supported alarm types and alarm severities, see Configure VOS Device Alarms. Count, Wait—Send a notification based on the number of alarms that occur within a wait time window. In the Count field, specify the number of alarms that occur in the wait time window, in minutes. In the Wait field, specify the length of the time window in which to count alarms, in minutes. The window is not a fixed period of time, but rather is a sliding window. As it slides, alarms that are too old fall out of the window and are no longer counted. If the number of alarms does not reach the configured count value within the wait window, no email is sent. You must define values for both the Count and Wait parameters. If you configure the Count and Wait parameters, you cannot also configure a value in the Soak Time fields. These fields are mutually exclusive. Device Name—Send a notification based on the device name that appears in an alarm. Severity—Send a notification based on the alarm message severity. The alarm severity can be one of the following: Cleared Critical Indeterminate Major Minor Warning Soak Time—(For Releases 22.1.1 and later.) Do not send a notification unless the conditions that trigger the rule are still present after the specified amount of time, in seconds. Configure a soak time to damp the sending of repetitive notifications. If you configure the Soak Time parameter, you cannot also configure Count and Wait parameters. These fields are mutually exclusive.
   Operator	Select the operator to use to match the attribute. Note that not all operators are available for all attributes. Contains—String that you specify in the Value field is present in the attribute type. Equals—String that you specify in the Value field exactly matches the string in the attribute type. Note that for the Soak Time and Wait attributes, Equals is the only operator that is available. Like—String that you specify in the Value field is contained in the attribute type. Use an asterisk (*) as the wildcard character. For example, for a value of a*, the Like operator matches all strings that begin with "a", and for a value of *a*, it matches all strings that contain "a". Not Like—String that you specify in the Value field is not contained in the attribute type. Use an asterisk (*) as the wildcard character. For example, for a value of a*, the Not Like operator matches all strings that do not begin with "a", and for a value of *a*, it matches all strings that do not contain "a". Not Equals—String that you specify in the Value field exactly matches any string except the string in the attribute type.
   Value	Enter a value for the type of attribute that you selected in the Attributes field: Alarm Text—Enter a text string. Alarm Type—Select a VOS alarm type. For a description of the supported alarm types and alarm severities, see Configure VOS Device Alarms. Count—Enter a number. Device Name—Select a device from the list of those being managed by the Director node. Severity—Select an alarm severity. For a description of the severity of each alarm types, see Configure VOS Device Alarms. Soak Time—(For Releases 22.1.1 and later.) Enter a time, in seconds. Wait—Enter the time to wait, in minutes.

9. Click the Add icon to add the condition.
10. Click OK to save the condition rule.
11. Click OK to save the notification rule.