Provided by: xymon_4.3.30-1build3_amd64 bug

NAME

       alerts.cfg - Configuration for for xymond_alert module

SYNOPSIS

       ~xymon/server/etc/alerts.cfg

DESCRIPTION

       The  alerts.cfg  file  controls  the  sending of alerts by Xymon when monitoring detects a
       failure.

FILE FORMAT

       The configuration file consists of rules, that may have one or more recipients associated.
       A  recipient  specification may include additional rules that limit the circumstances when
       this recipient is eligible for receiving an alert.

       Blank lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are treated as comments  and  ignored.
       Long  lines  can be broken up by putting a backslash at the end of the line and continuing
       the entry on the next line.

RULES

       A rule consists of one of more filters using these keywords:

       PAGE=targetstring Rule matching an alert by the name of the page in  Xymon.  This  is  the
       path of the page as defined in the hosts.cfg file. E.g. if you have this setup:

              page servers All Servers
              subpage web Webservers
              10.0.0.1 www1.foo.com
              subpage db Database servers
              10.0.0.2 db1.foo.com

       Then  the  "All  servers"  page  is  found  with  PAGE=servers,  the  "Webservers" page is
       PAGE=servers/web and the "Database servers" page is PAGE=servers/db.  Note  that  you  can
       also  use  regular  expressions  to specify the page name, e.g. PAGE=%.*/db would find the
       "Database servers" page regardless of where this page was placed in the hierarchy.

       The PAGE name of top-level page is an empty string. To match this, use PAGE=%^$  to  match
       the empty string.

       EXPAGE=targetstring Rule excluding an alert if the pagename matches.

       DISPLAYGROUP=groupstring  Rule  matching  an  alert by the text of the display-group (text
       following  the  group,  group-only,  group-except  heading)   in   the   hosts.cfg   file.
       "groupstring"  is the text for the group, stripped of any HTML tags. E.g. if you have this
       setup:

              group Web
              10.0.0.1 www1.foo.com
              10.0.0.2 www2.foo.com
              group Production databases
              10.0.1.1 db1.foo.com

       Then the hosts in the Web-group can be matched with  DISPLAYGROUP=Web,  and  the  database
       servers  can  be matched with DISPLAYGROUP="Production databases".  Note that you can also
       use regular expressions, e.g. DISPLAYGROUP=%database.  If there is  no  group-setting  for
       the host, use "DISPLAYGROUP=NONE".

       EXDISPLAYGROUP=groupstring Rule excluding a group by matching the display-group string.

       HOST=targetstring Rule matching an alert by the hostname.

       EXHOST=targetstring Rule excluding an alert by matching the hostname.

       SERVICE=targetstring Rule matching an alert by the service name.

       EXSERVICE=targetstring Rule excluding an alert by matching the service name.

       GROUP=groupname  Rule  matching  an  alert by the group name. Groupnames are assigned to a
       status via the GROUP setting in the analysis.cfg file.

       EXGROUP=groupname Rule excluding an alert by the group name. Groupnames are assigned to  a
       status via the GROUP setting in the analysis.cfg file.

       CLASS=classname  Rule matching an alert by the class that the host belongs to. By default,
       the classname is  the  operating  system  name;  you  can  set  another  class  either  in
       hosts.cfg(5) using the CLASS tag, or a client running on the server can set the class (via
       a parameter to the client startup-script).

       EXCLASS=classname Rule excluding an alert by the class name.

       COLOR=color[,color] Rule matching an alert by color. Can be "red", "yellow", or  "purple".
       The  forms  "!red",  "!yellow"  and "!purple" can also be used to NOT send an alert if the
       color is the specified one.

       TIME=timespecification Rule matching an alert by the time-of-day. This is specified as the
       DOWNTIME timespecification in the hosts.cfg file.

       EXTIME=timespecification  Rule excluding an alert by the time-of-day. This is specified as
       the DOWNTIME timespecification in the hosts.cfg file.

       DURATION>time, DURATION<time Rule matching an alert if the event has lasted longer/shorter
       than the given duration. E.g. DURATION>1h (lasted longer than 1 hour) or DURATION<30 (only
       sends alerts the first 30 minutes). The duration is  specified  as  a  number,  optionally
       followed by 'm' (minutes, default), 'h' (hours) or 'd' (days).

       RECOVERED Rule matches if the alert has recovered from an alert state.

       NOTICE  Rule  matches  if  the message is a "notify" message. This type of message is sent
       when a host or test is disabled or enabled.

       The "targetstring" is either a simple pagename, hostname or servicename, OR a '%' followed
       by a Perl-compatible regular expression. E.g. "HOST=%www(.*)" will match any hostname that
       begins with "www". The same for the "groupname" setting.

RECIPIENTS

       The recipients are listed after the initial rule. The following keywords can  be  used  to
       define recipients:

       MAIL  address[,address]  Recipient who receives an e-mail alert. This takes one parameter,
       the e-mail address.  The strings "&host&", "&service&" and "&color&" in an address will be
       replaced with the hostname, service and color of the alert, respectively.

       SCRIPT  /path/to/script  recipientID  Recipient  that  invokes  a  script.  This takes two
       parameters: The script filename, and the recipient that gets passed to  the  script.   The
       strings  "&host&",  "&service&" and "&color&" in the recipientID will be replaced with the
       hostname, service and color of the alert, respectively.

       IGNORE This is used to define a recipient that does  NOT  trigger  any  alerts,  and  also
       terminates  the  search  for more recipients. It is useful if you have a rule that handles
       most alerts, but there is just that one particular server where you don't want cpu  alerts
       on  Monday  morning.   Note that the IGNORE recipient always has the STOP flag defined, so
       when the IGNORE recipient is matched, no  more  recipients  will  be  considered.  So  the
       location of this recipient in your set of recipients is important.

       FORMAT=formatstring Format of the text message with the alert. Default is "TEXT" (suitable
       for e-mail alerts). "PLAIN" is the same as text, but without the URL link  to  the  status
       webpage.  "SMS"  is  a  short  message with no subject for SMS alerts. "SCRIPT" is a brief
       message template for scripts.

       REPEAT=time How often an  alert  gets  repeated.  As  with  DURATION,  time  is  a  number
       optionally followed by 'm', 'h' or 'd'.

       UNMATCHED  The  alert  is  sent  to this recipient ONLY if no other recipients received an
       alert for this event.

       STOP Stop looking for more recipients after this one matches. This is implicit  on  IGNORE
       recipients.

       Rules  You  can  specify  rules  for a recipient also. This limits the alerts sent to this
       particular recipient.

MACROS

       It is possible to use macros in the configuration file. To define a macro:

            $MYMACRO=text extending to end of line

       After the definition of a macro, it can be used throughout the  file.  Wherever  the  text
       $MYMACRO  appears, it will be substituted with the text of the macro before any processing
       of rules and recipients.

       It is possible to nest macros, as long as the macro is defined before it is used.

ALERT SCRIPTS

       Alerts can go out via custom scripts, by using the SCRIPT keyword for a  recipient.   Such
       scripts have access to the following environment variables:

       BBALPHAMSG The full text of the status log triggering the alert

       ACKCODE The "cookie" that can be used to acknowledge the alert

       RCPT The recipientID from the SCRIPT entry

       BBHOSTNAME The name of the host that the alert is about

       MACHIP The IP-address of the host that has a problem

       BBSVCNAME The name of the service that the alert is about

       BBSVCNUM The numeric code for the service. From the SVCCODES definition.

       BBHOSTSVC HOSTNAME.SERVICE that the alert is about.

       BBHOSTSVCCOMMAS As BBHOSTSVC, but dots in the hostname replaced with commas

       BBNUMERIC A 22-digit number made by BBSVCNUM, MACHIP and ACKCODE.

       RECOVERED  Is "0" if the service is alerting, "1" if the service has recovered, "2" if the
       service was disabled.

       EVENTSTART Timestamp when the current status (color) began.

       SECS Number of seconds the service has been down.

       DOWNSECSMSG When recovered, holds the text "Event duration : N" where N  is  the  DOWNSECS
       value.

       CFID  Line-number  in  the  alerts.cfg  file that caused the script to be invoked.  Can be
       useful when troubleshooting alert configuration rules.

SEE ALSO

       xymond_alert(8), xymond(8), xymon(7), the "Configuring Xymon Alerts" guide in  the  Online
       documentation.