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Defining Notifications

You define the different types of notifications using the Notifications Library. To access the Notifications Library:

Note: Any notifications you define are stored in the Notification subdirectory where WhatsUp Gold is installed.

Defining Sound Notifications

A sound notification sounds an alarm when a device or service goes down.

Note: To play the alarm sounds, you must have a sound card and speakers installed on your system. Also, do not enable sounds if you plan to run WhatsUp Gold as an NT service. If WUG is run as a service and has a sound notification configured as "continuous" then you will not have the WUG console available to silence the alarm.

To define a sound notification:

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Sound.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name for the notification.
  3. In the Filename text box, Browse to the desired .wav file. There is a "Sound Recorder" button you can click to hear the sound you just selected. The suggested default setting for recording is: PCM 8,000 Hz, 16 bit, monaural.
  4. Optionally, select the Continuous Play check box to play the sound continuously until it is manually turned off (by clicking the Quiet button on the main toolbar).
  5. Click OK.

Defining WinPopup Notification

A WinPopup notification displays a message in the WinPopup window on a Windows NT or Windows 2000 system. You define one notification for each Windows host on which you want to display the message.

To define a WinPopup notification:

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select WinPopup.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name for the notification.
  3. In the Destination list box, specify the Windows NT host or domain that you want to receive this notification. Note that a domain is marked with an asterisk (*).
  4. In the Message text box, enter a text message plus any of the notification variables. For more information on notification variables, see "Notification Message Variables".
  5. Click OK.

Defining Pager Notifications

You can define a pager notification to send a message to a pager when a device or service goes down. WhatsUp Gold supports PageNet and other TAP (Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol) pager services, and SMS-TAP, UCP-SMS (British Telecom), and NTT pager services.

To define a pager notification action:

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Pager.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the pager notification, for example "Page Bob."
  3. In the Terminal Number text box, enter the phone number to dial. If required, enter the pager password in the Terminal Password box.
  4. In the Pager ID box, enter the pager identification number.
  5. In the Message String text box, enter a text message plus any of the notification variables). For more information on notification variables, see "Notification Message Variables".
  6. In the Modem Setup list box, select either Primary, or one of the Alternate setups. Click Port Settings to further define your selection. Modem Setup is used specifically to support different service providers in the event you use more than one provider for sending your pager notifications. There could also be times you wish to change your settings to meet a specific service provider's requirements for a specific notification (for example: a lower baud rate). To do this, you can set up an alternate Modem Setup and associate this to the notification instead of using your Primary setting.

Note: Changing the Port Settings for the desired Modem Setup will affect ALL uses of that setting.

  1. Protocol. Select the type of protocol used by your pager service.
  2. Click the Port Settings button and note the following settings:
    • Modem Initialization String. The default string is ATE0Q0V1X4F1. What is expected in this string are the modem commands for "Command Echo Off" (EO), "Result Codes On" (QO), "Verbal Results" (V1), and "Extended Status" (X4).
    • Baud Rate. Select the speed (measured in bits per second) at which the serial port will communicate with the modem.

Note: Newer modems (e.g. 56K versions) may be utilized if their rate of transfer can be stepped down to a maximum of 2400 bps (TAP specification). However, some newer modems cannot be made to transfer below 9600 bps even though you may use an initialization string that specifies a lower rate of transfer

  1. Click OK until you get back to the "Notifications Library" dialog box.

Note: Your pager should appear in the "Notifications Library" dialog box.

  1. Click Close to exit this dialog box.

Note: Note: If you want to edit or delete this, select it and click on either the Edit or Delete button.

Defining Beeper Notifications

You can define beeper notifications to activate a beeper when the device does not respond to polling.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Beeper.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the beeper notification, for example, "Beep Bob."

    In the Beeper Number box, enter the phone number to dial.

  3. In the Dial String box, the default is: ATDT%s,,,,%s#. WhatsUp replaces the first %s with the phone number and the second %s with the beeper code. Most modems and beepers support the use of `#' to terminate the message and `*' to print out a dash. You may find a need to increase the number of commas in the dial string if it dials the code too soon or decrease the number of commas if it waits too long.
  4. In the Modem Setup list box, select either Primary, or one of the Alternate setups. Click Port Settings to further define your selection. Modem Setup is used specifically to support different service providers in the event you use more than one provider for sending your beeper notifications. There could also be times you wish to change your settings to meet a specific service provider's requirements for a specific notification (for example: a lower baud rate). To do this, you can set up an alternate Modem Setup and associate this to the notification instead of using your Primary setting.

Note: Changing the Port Settings for the desired Modem Setup will affect ALL uses of that setting.

  1. In the Signal Codes section, the Up Code specifies the characters sent to the beeper to indicate that the device has come back up after being down (the default value is 0*). The Down Code specifies the code sent to indicate the device is down (the default value is 9*). The SNMP Trap Code specifies the code sent to indicate that an SNMP trap has been received for the device. (You can use the asterisk (*) character to separate codes from a subsequent message).

    When sent to the beeper, the up or down code will be followed by the Item digital code that tells you which device the notification is for. (The Item digital code is specified in the Add/Edit Notifications dialog box.) For more information, see "Assigning Alerts to Devices"

  2. Click Port Settings to set the beeper communications.
    • Dial String. This is the default dial string used for beeper notifications.
    • Baud Rate. Select the speed (measured in bits per second) at which the serial port will communicate with the modem.

Note: Newer modems (e.g. 56K versions) may be utilized if their rate of transfer can be stepped down to a maximum of 2400 bps (TAP specification). However, some newer modems cannot be made to transfer below 9600 bps even though you may use an initialization string that specifies a lower rate of transfer.

  1. Click OK after you are satisfied with your Port Settings.
  2. In the Beeper properties, click OK to save the new notification.

To test a notification, select it and click the Test button. WhatsUp Gold will run a test and respond with a Success or Fail message. You can view the "conversation" in the Debug log window.

Note: Since Beepers are "one way" devices (they provide no feedback to WhatsUp Gold), the Test button can return a "Success" message, even though one might not actually get the message on the beeper.

To edit a notification, select it in the list box and click Edit, and then enter your changes to the properties. Click OK to save your changes.

To delete a notification, select it in the list box and click Delete.

Defining E-mail Notifications

You can send a message to an e-mail address when a device does not respond to polling.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select SMTP Mail.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the e-mail notification, for example "Mail to Netadmin."
  3. In the Mail Server box, enter the IP address of your e-mail server (SMTP mail host).
  4. In the To box, enter one or more e-mail addresses that are accepted by the SMTP server. (This can be a simple name.) Separate each address with a comma. The addresses should not contain brackets, braces, quotes, or parentheses.
  5. The From address defines the sender of an e-mail notification as: <whatsup@%1>, where %1 is converted by WhatsUp Gold to the local hostname. If you change the default address, be sure to keep the angle brackets (< >) in place. Your e-mail server may require this to be a valid e-mail user.

Note: Some mail servers may fail a test message because they are looking for a "valid" e-mail address here. If this occurs, try removing the < whatsup@%1>, and replacing it with a "valid" e-mail address. To test this, open the Debug log (Logs->Debug Log) and watch what is transpiring between the WhatsUp Gold machine and the mail server.

  1. In the Subject box, enter a text message or any of the notification variables.
  2. In the Message box, enter a text message plus any of the notification variables. For more information on notification variables, see "Notification Message Variables".
  3. Click OK to save the new notification.

To test a notification, select it and click the Test button. WhatsUp Gold will run a test and respond with a Success or Fail message. You can view the "conversation" in the Debug log window.

To edit a notification, select it in the list box and click Edit, and then enter your changes to the properties. Click OK to save your changes.

To delete a notification, select it in the list box and click Delete.

Defining Text to Speech Notifications

Once you install the Text to Speech Plug-In, you can send a text speech notification when a device does not respond to polling.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select TextSpeech.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the TextSpeech notification.
  3. Adjust the Speak Rate to the desired speed you want the text repeated.
  4. Adjust the Volume to the desired audible level.
  5. In the Message box, notification message variables are in by default. You can enter any text message you want audibly repeated. Your own text can be used in addition to the message variables, or you can remove the message variables and ONLY use text. For more information on Message Variables, see: "Notification Message Variables". For example "WhatsUp Gold has detected a device that is no longer responding to polls."
  6. Click OK to save the new notification.

    To test the notification, select it and click the Test button. WhatsUp Gold will run an audible test and respond with a Success or Fail message.

    To edit a notification, select it in the list box and click Edit, and then enter your changes to the properties. Click OK to save your changes.

    To delete a notification, select it in the list box and click Delete.

Note: You can edit the voice (male or female voice) from the Windows Control Panel. Within the control panel, double-click on "Speech". In the Text to Speech tab, select the desired Voice Selection. After the voice is selected, an audible preview plays. Additional information is available from the About tab.

Defining Group Notifications

A group notification includes multiple pager, beeper, group, sound, WinPopup, e-mail, or voice notifications. Each group notification can be set up to "Notify All" (send to all member notifications at once) or "Notify First" (send one member notification at a time until one is successfully sent.)

To define a group notification:

  1. Select Configure->Notifications Library and then select Group.
  2. Click the Add button and enter a Group Name.
  3. Add each member notification to the group by clicking the Add button to display the Add Group Member dialog box. Select from the existing notifications. Repeat until all the notification members are added.

    Auto send UP alert after sending DOWN alert. When selected, the notification is sent when the device or service comes back up after a down notification. (Valid for all notifications except sound notifications.)

    Send alert even if console response. When selected, any active notifications for the device will be sent even if the alarm has been turned off on the WhatsUp Gold console (by clicking Monitor->Acknowledge in the main toolbar).

    On SNMP Trap. When this option is enabled, and the edit box to the right of it is empty, the specified notification will be sent when any SNMP trap is received for the device. If the edit box contains a trap number or numbers, the notification is sent only if a trap with the specified number is received. Separate multiple entries in the text box with a comma.

    You can enter a number for one of the six standard traps. If you are unsure of a trap number, you can view the Events Log (after enabling traps) to see what number is associated with a particular trap.

  4. To send the member notifications one at a time until one of them is sent successfully (for example: An SMTP notification is delivered to a mail server), make sure Notify First Member is selected, and then use the Up and Down buttons to sequence the list of members. If you want to send all member notifications at once, select Notify All Members.

Example A. One group notification might be named SeriousProblem and it might include the following three pager notifications:

Example B. A group notification could try a series of beeper and e-mail notifications until one is successfully sent. For example, suppose you have a group notification named Operations; its members are:

In this case, WhatsUp Gold would try to beep Tara first, but if this beeper message is not sent successfully, it then tries to e-mail Tara. If the e-mail to Tara is also not successfully sent, WhatsUp Gold next tries to beep Heidi. Now, lets suppose the beeper message to Heidi is sent successfully; in this case, WhatsUp Gold will not attempt to send any more notifications in the Operations group.

  1. Click OK.

Notification Message Variables

In notification messages, you can use the following variables to encode information about a device.
Device
Variable case sensitive
Returns
 Notifications in which it is recommended
Mail WinPopup Pager Beeper
%1
 Info line 1 (from General of device properties)

3

3

3

%2
 Info line 2 (from General of device properties))

3

3

3

%a
 IP Address (from General of device properties))

3

3

3

%C
 Item parameter code (set in the Alert setup - extra parameter for notifications)

3

%c
 Same as %T, returns the device type. Use %T; %c was used in previous versions.
3
3
3
%h
 Display Name (from General of device properties)

3

3

3

%m
 SNMP trap text. (If the event is an SNMP trap, the full SNMP trap text is included).

3

3

3

3

%M
 SNMP Community

3

3

%n
 Display Name (from General of device properties)

3

3

3

%N
 Notes.(Notes are from the device properties Notes.

3

3

%O
SNMP Object identifier. (This is the word "unknown" if SNMP Object box is blank.)

3

3

%p
 Item parameter code from Add/Edit dialog box

3

3

3

%R
 SNMP Read Community (from SNMP of device properties))

3

3

%S
 WhatsUp Gold status (such as "timed out" or "did not respond")

3

3

3

%s
 Winsock error code

3

3

3

%T
 Device Type (from General of device properties))

3

3

%u
 Can result in the word "UP", "DOWN", "TRAP", "SVCUP", or "SVCDOWN".

3

3

3

%V
 Names of down services or monitors, followed by the word "Services"

3

3

%v
 Names of down services or monitors

3

3

3

%W
 SNMP Write Community (from SNMP of device properties))

3

3

SystemVariable case sensitive
Returns
 Notifications in which it is recommended
Mail WinPopup Pager Beeper
%A
 Names of devices with down services

3

3

3

%d
 Date format is (mm/dd/yyyy)

3

3

3

%D
 # of Down Hosts

3

3

3

%e
 Down Host display Names

3

3

3

%L
 The Event Log file, EV-yyyy-mm-dd.tab (or %Lnn where nn = last nn lines of the log file)

3

3

3

%Ln
 Last n lines of the log file (n can go up to 99)

3

3

3

%l
 Display Name from General of device properties

3

3

3

%o
 # of Down Services

3

3

3

%P
 Up Host display Names

3

3

3

%t
 Current time (hh:mm:ss)

3

3

3

%U
 # of Up Hosts

3

3

3

Testing Notifications

To test a notification, select it in the Notification Editor and click the Test button. WhatsUp Gold runs a test and responds with a Succeeded or Failed message.

You can open the Debug Log (Logs->Debug Log) to see the conversation.

Defining Program Notifications

You can define Program notifications to launch an external application when a device goes down or comes back up.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Program.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the program notification.
  3. In the Program Filename box, enter the executable name of the external application you want to launch. Use the browse button to help you do this.
  4. In the Working Path, specify a directory where the working files for the application are stored. Use the browse button to help you do this.
  5. In the Program Arguments box, enter any program variables you want to pass to the specified program. For more information on notification variables, see "Notification Message Variables".
  6. Click OK to save the new notification.

To edit a notification, select it in the list box and click Edit, then enter your changes to the properties. Click OK to save your changes.

To delete a notification, select it in the list box and click Delete.

Defining Syslog Notifications

You can send a Syslog message to a host that is running a Syslog server when a device does not respond to polling.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Syslog.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the Syslog notification, for example "Server1 Syslog."
  3. In the Syslog Port box, enter the UDP port that the Syslog server is listening on. The default port is 514.
  4. In the Syslog Server Address box, enter the IP address of the machine that is running the Syslog server.
  5. In the Syslog Message box, enter a text message to be sent to the Syslog server. This message may include notification variables. For more information, see "Notification Message Variables". The Syslog message box will limit input to 511 characters. If notification variables are used, then the message that actually gets sent will be limited to 1023 bytes, in order to comply with the Syslog protocol. Non-visible ASCII characters such as tabs and linefeeds will be replaced by space characters.
  6. Click OK to save the new notification.

Note: What happens to the SysLog when both WhatsUp Gold and IMail are installed on the same box and both are running their syslog servers? Syslog will prompt you with an error: "Unable To Open Socket"

The Syslog runs on Port 514 by default. This port can be configured through the registry at the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch\WhatsUp\LogSettings\SyslogPort

Setting Up a Voice Modem

To use voice notifications, you must install a supported voice modem and the Unimodem/V drivers on the system on which WhatsUp Gold is installed. WhatsUp Gold has been tested with the 3COM/US Robotics Sportster Voice56K Faxmodem with Personal Voice Mail, and the older 33.6K modem.

Note: At the time this manual was published, the Unimodem/V drivers were supported on Windows 98 and Windows ME only. Therefore, you cannot use voice notifications on Windows NT, or Windows 2000.

To install the driver and voice modem:

  1. Download the Unimodem/V driver, unimodv.exe, from Microsoft. Copy it to an empty directory and run it to extract several files. See the readme.txt for installation instructions.
  2. If your voice modem is not directly supported by Unimodem/V, go to your modem manufacturer's web site and locate the Unimodem/V support files and .wav driver. Copy the proper .inf files into your \windows\inf directory, open the Windows Explorer to the directory, select the files, and select Install from the right mouse menu (or read the vendor's instructions).

Note: Newer modems (56K) will probably already have this driver.

  1. If the WhatsUp Gold .wav files are compatible with your modem, you can use them. If they're not compatible, or you want to change the message, you can record new files. The suggested default setting for recording is: PCM 8,000 Hz, 16 bit, Mono.

    Wave files needed for voice notifications are:
    Default .wav file Message
    isdown.wav "... is down."
    isup.wav "... is now reachable."
    svcdown.wav "a service is down on ..."
    svcup.wav "the service is now up on ..."
    ahost.wav "a host ..."
    pressone.wav "WhatsUp has a message for you. Press 1 for the message."

  2. Set the .wav files on the Voice dialog box to point to the .wav files that you create.

    For more information, see the following section, "Defining Voice Notifications."

  3. Make sure your serial port has a COM driver.

    You can check this in the Control Panel by selecting System -> Device Manager -> Ports -> (modem's COM port).

Note: If you do not have all of the above installed (voice modem, Unimodem/V drivers, and a COM driver), you will not see the Voice icon in the "Notifications Library" dialog box.

Defining Voice Notifications

After setting up the voice modem (see previous section), you can define voice notifications to send a voice message to a telephone or answering machine when a device goes down or comes back up.

You can use the default .wav files included with WhatsUp Gold to send a message, or you can record your own .wav files.

When a voice notification is triggered, WhatsUp calls the specified telephone number and plays the initial message.

The default initial message (pressone.wav) is "WhatsUp has a message for you. Press one for the message." When you press 1 on the phone, one of the up or down messages will play, such as "A host is down."

If you want to include the device name in the message (for
example, "Gyro is down"), you can record a .wav file of a
particular device name and enter the .wav file name in the "Add Notifications" dialog box when you add the voice notification to
that device.

For more information, see "Assigning Alerts to Devices".

To create a voice notification:

Note: The Voice dialog box is displayed only if the system has a voice modem and the Unimodem/V driver installed.

  1. From the Configure menu, select Notifications Library, and then select Voice.
  2. Click Add and enter a unique Display Name to identify the voice notification.
  3. In the Phone number box, enter the phone number to dial
  4. In the Repeat Msg box, enter or select the sound (.wav) file that will be played as the initial voice message to tell the recipient that they have received a message from WhatsUp Gold. Click the Invoke Sound Recorder button to open the .wav file in the Sound Recorder. You can play the sound file or edit it to create a different sound.
  5. In the Count box, enter the number of times to play the initial message (if the message is not acknowledged).
  6. In the Button box, enter the number on the telephone that the recipient presses to get the status message.

The default message tells the recipient to press 1 to receive the status message. You can set this number to 99 to make it accept any number pressed on the telephone.

Note: If a voice mail or an answering machine answers the phone, the voice notification will not get beyond the initial .wav file (specified in the Repeat Msg box).

Optionally, enter the sound (.wav) file that will be played for any of the status messages or WhatsUp Gold will use the default status messages.

Note: Click the Invoke Sound Recorder button to open the .wav file in the Sound Recorder. You can play the sound file or edit it to create a different sound.

The default status messages are:.
Property Default .wav file Message
Item Down isdown.wav "... is down."
Item Up isup.wav "... is now reachable."
Svc Down svcdown.wav "a service is down on ..."
Svc Up svcup.wav "the service is now up on ..."
Wave file (in Alerts) ahost.wav "a host ..."

  1. Click OK.

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