Configuring Sentinel3G

From Documentation

Sentinel3G maintains several tables and settings containing supporting information that it used to help define sentries. You can add entries to the initial data contained in the tables to customize Sentinel3G for your site.

The tables and settings described in this chapter are:

• numeric units
• monitoring notes
• notification methods and other settings
• icons

Note

After making any configuration changes on a host, you must restart its host monitor to read the new configuration details.

Maintain List of Numeric Units

An operator can select a sentry and view the variables being returned by its agent. To help operators understand the data, you can add a label after the raw number showing what units are being displayed. This topic shows you how to add to the table of numeric units already defined in Sentinel3G.

1. If the console is not in Host View, select Go > Hosts, then select a host.
2. Select Configure > Host monitor. The ‘All Sentries’ window is displayed.
3. Select Tables > Units.
4. Select Maintain > Add.
5. Enter an Abbreviation to appear after the variable data. Note that when a variable is formatted the abbreviation is appended immediately after the value. If you want a space after the value, like this: "770 MB", enter one at the start of the abbreviation.
6. Enter a unique description in the Full name field.
7. Click Accept to save the new numeric unit.

Add a Monitoring Notes File

A page of explanatory notes can be associated with an agent, sentry, or state, to help operators understand its purpose, diagnose an alert, or follow a prescribed procedure.

You save the notes file to the Sentinel3G doc directory and enter the file location in the sentry or agent details form.

1. Create the notes file using a text editor or word processor.
2. Save the file in ASCII text or HTML format to the Sentinel3G doc directory.

To attach the notes file, simply enter its name (e.g. device.html) in the Notes file field when adding the agent, sentry, or state. All notes files are stored in the Sentinel3G doc directory, so it’s not necessary to enter the path.

Maintain Settings

This section describes how to configure some settings to change how Sentinel3G operates.

Maintain Notification Settings

As well as any sentry-specific alerts, Sentinel3G can send a default notification message to a list of system users when any sentry goes into a state at a particular severity level or higher.

The NotifySeverity parameter sets the severity level at which notification is triggered. The NotifyList parameter contains the list of users to be notified.

You can override these global settings in the Advanced Options details for any individual sentry. For example, NotifySeverity could be set to happen when any sentry changes to state whose severity is critical, but notification could also be triggered for selected sentries when they change to alarm state.

To set sentry-level notification, see Advanced options. To set state-level notification, see Responses.

To view the current notification settings

1. From the console, select Host view, then select a host.
2. Select Configure > Host monitor. The ‘All Sentries’ window is displayed.
3. Select Tables > Settings.

To change the list of users to be notified of an alert

1. From the ‘Sentinel Settings’ window, select NotifyList, then select Setting > Change value.
2. Click to choose the users to be notified. These may include UNIX users and UNIX groups found in the COSmanager user table, and COSmanager roles found in the COSmanager role table. However, they will only be listed here if a notification address has been set up for them (otherwise Sentinel3G would not be able to deliver the notification message).

   To add a user or group to the COSmanager user table, see To Add a Sentinel3G User or Group on page 159.

To set the notification address for a COSmanager user or group, see To Assign a Different Role or Notification Address to a User .

1. To set the notification address for a COSmanager role, see To Assign a Notification Address to a COSmanager Role.

2. Click Accept to save the new notification list.

To change the default severity level

1. From the ‘Global Settings’ window, select NotifySeverity, then select Setting > Change value.
2. The list is in order of increasing severity. If you select severe, notification will happen if any sentry goes into a state whose severity is severe or critical. If you select never, global notification is disabled.
3. Click Accept to save the new severity level.

To add a notification method

Global notification messages are sent to the list of Sentinel3G users specified in the NotifyList setting. Sentry-specific notification messages are sent to the list of Sentinel3G users specified in the Notify field for that sentry. In either case Sentinel3G looks up the preferred notification method and address for each user in the COSmanager user table. The standard notification method is e-mail, but you can add others. In this example we wish to add a notification method that writes a message to the user’s terminal using the write command.

1. From the console, select Configure > Global tables.
2. From the ‘COSmanager global configuration’ menu, select Users. The ‘COSmanager users/groups’ window is displayed.
3. Select Maintain > Notify methods. The ‘Notification Methods’ window is displayed.
4. Select Maintain > Add. The ‘Add Notification Method’ window is displayed.
5. Enter these fields:

   Method

   Enter the name of the method. Example: write.

   Description

   Enter a brief description. This will be used to help administrators select the correct notification method. Example: Write message to user’s terminal.

   Command

   Enter a valid UNIX command that passes specified items of information about an alert to the nominated users. The variables available are:

   $Who

   The recipient of the message. This is the name of a person or group that has been added to the COSmanager users table.

   $Address

   A unique identifier for this person or group that is recognized by the notification method. This is obtained from the Address field in the entry corresponding to $Who in the cos_user or role table.

   $Subject

   A title, header line or short summary of the message.

   $Message

   Details of the sentry and alert.

   $Subject and $Message are generated by Sentinel3G on an alert. $Who is the name of a person or group in the notification list, and is used to look up each recipient’s $Address. Example: {echo “Subject: $Subject” ; echo $Message} | write $Address

6. Click Accept to save the new notification method.

Configuring ‘Polled Hosts’

Two settings, Polled and PolledHosts, control how the Event Manager communicates with a host monitor.

Normally the host monitor initiates the socket connection to the Event Manager.

Once this connection is established, it remains open. In some cases your network infrastructure may disallow this, for example if your Event Manager is inside a firewall and your host monitors are in your DMZ.

Sentinel3G supports having the Event Manager initiate the connection to the host monitor. To configure this, you first tell the host monitor that is polled by clicking the check box on the Polled setting on that host monitor. You then add the host name of that host monitor to the PolledHosts setting on the Event Manager.

Debug Mode

The Debug setting enables you to run the host monitor in debugging mode. While debug mode is enabled, extra debug information will be written to the standard Host log.

To enable debug mode

1. From the ‘Global Settings’ window, select Debug, then select Setting > Change value.
2. Select Debug enabled then click Accept.

Add Icons

Sentinel3G is supplied with many default icons to represent sentries on the console. You can add new icons to represent custom and third-party applications.

1. Create the icon using an icon editor. Save it in xpm format to ~cosmos/GUI/icons.
2. From the console, select Configure > Global tables.
3. From the ‘COSmanager global configuration’ menu, select Other tables. The ‘Maintain COSmanager tables’ window is displayed.
4. Select the Icons table, then select Table > Maintain. The ‘Icons’ window is displayed.
5. Select Maintain > Add. The ‘Add Icon’ form is displayed.
6. Enter these fields:

   Icon

   The name of the icon.

   Description

   A description of the icon’s appearance or of where it should be used.

   Public

   Tick this checkbox to make it available to be used with sentries.

   Size

   The approximate height in pixels. Sentry icons should be 32x32 pixels. Overlay icons (such as the which is displayed next to some sentry icons) are generally 16x16 pixels or smaller.

   Filename

   The name of the file, without the .xpm extension, in the ~cosmos/GUI/icons directory.

   Magic colour

   This is an internal attribute used to support changing the color of overlay icons. Do not tick this checkbox.

7. Click Accept to save the icon. This icon will now be available to be chosen when defining a sentry.

Downloading a new icon to remote Sentinel3G clients

After a new icon has been added it must be downloaded to any remote clients used to access Sentinel3G through its graphical user interface (that is, other Sentinel3G hosts or Windows PCs running the COSmanager PCgui for Windows).

If an icon appears as a grey square with a pale blue question mark on it, then it is probably a new icon that has been added on the Sentinel3G server but has not yet been downloaded to the client.

1. From the console, select Configure > Global tables.
2. From the ‘COSmanager global configuration’ menu, select Other tables. The ‘Maintain COSmanager tables’ window is displayed.
3. Select the Icons table, then select Table > Maintain. The ‘Icons’ window is displayed.
4. Right-click on the new icon, which should be currently displayed as , and select Download. This will download the icon from the Unix/Linux server and in a few seconds the icon should be displayed correctly.