LANsurveyor has the ability to alert you to potential problems on your network on a real-time basis. LANsurveyor's alert options can notify you of network problems either locally or remotely, so you can be alerted to signs of network trouble before network users begin complaining. LANsurveyor's extensive alert capabilities are used in conjunction with TCP Port Monitor and Continuous Scan intrusion detection.
LANsurveyor's alerts are what is known as "edge-triggered." This means that when an alert condition occurs, any configured alerts are sent and the alerts will not be sent again until:
| • | the alert condition no longer exists and |
| • | the alert condition then occurs again |
Click on the Alerts toolbar icon or select Alerts from the Edit menu to Set Up Alerts.
The Alerts dialog box is made up of three types of alerts. Any combination of these alerts can be formed into a named alert.
To create a new alert, select one of the existing alert names and click the Duplicate button. After naming the new alert, enable one or more of the alert options and, if desired, the alert message. The "Default" alert configuration will always be present. Click the Rename button to rename an alert configuration. Click the Delete button to delete an alert configuration.
Check this option to receive LANsurveyor alerts via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). After enabling this alert, enter the email address or addresses and subject in the To and Subject edit fields. If you would like to send email to multiple email addresses, separate each email address by a comma. Please make sure to configure the Primary Email Server, the Backup Email Server and Email From Address in the Options dialog box (select Options from the Tools menu).
net send
Use the "net send" command to send text messages across a network to another Windows computer.
Launch app/file
When the alert is triggered, launch the specified application or open the specified file. This allows you to integrate LANsurveyor alerts into other applications or begin trouble-shooting automatically.
SNMP Trap
Send SNMP traps to communicate with another SNMP-based network monitoring system. The trap sent is the contents of the Alert Message.
Play sound file
Plays the specified sound file for an audio alert.
Log message to syslog server
Logs the error message to the syslog server you specify in LANsurveyor's Network Options.
Send SMS message
Send an SMS alert using an attached phone. The phone must be capable of sending SMS messages as a modem through a COM port on the computer running LANsurveyor. For more information on capable phones, visit http://www.solarwinds.com/lansurveyor/SMS.html.
Alert Message
Use the Alert Message edit field to modify the contents of the alert message sent. LANsurveyor recognizes seven keywords within the contents of the alert message: condition, date, time, node name, IP address, switch name, and switch port. Whenever LANsurveyor encounters one of these key words enclosed by square brackets ( [ ] ), LANsurveyor replaces the appropriate text for the keyword. For example, the time keyword will be replaced by the time that the alert condition is detected.
Alert Limits
You can configure alerts to only function within certain timeframes. This feature lets you monitor conditions within specific hours (e.g., only notify if a system is unavailable during the work day) and allows you to have different alerts for nights and weekends.
It's easy to set up: simply configure your primary alert with the correct time frame and days of the week. Then, specify which alert to use if the problem occurs outside the alert limit (or leave un-checked if you want no alert outside the timeframe specified). If an alert is specified, that alert's timeframe is then checked. If the alert occurs outside the second alert's timeframe, the next alert specified is used and so on.
This allows you to have a workday alert, a weekday evening alert, and a weekend alert all configured for the same alert condition.
Test Your Alert Settings
After you have set the desired alert options, use the Test Alert button to have LANsurveyor simulate an alert condition. For example, if you have checked the Send email option, clicking Test Alert will cause LANsurveyor to send an SMTP message to the designated recipients.
Note: if your alert email fails, make sure you have the proper settings established under Network Options in the LANsurveyor application preferences.
Session Log
Alerts are logged in LANsurveyor's Session Log. Select Session Log from the Window menu to view the session log.