Set up an Activity Alert when you want the system to send a notification to one or more contacts when a unit does not transmit packets, or transmits an unusual number of packets (too few or too many) within a certain number of days.
Complete the following tasks to set up a new activity alert:
To select the unit you want to add an activity alert
- Click Units > Unit Admin.
- Select the unit in the navigation tree of Unit Admin.
- Verify Installed (Notifications ON) is selected in the Service Status field of the Info tab. (See Note 1 below for related information.)
- Click the Alerts tab.
- Add or edit a data alert by entering settings in the Setup, Conditions, Monitoring (optional), Contacts, and Preview tabs as described in the remaining procedures.
Note: Several methods are available for displaying a unit. For additional methods, refer to the topic Units: Alerts Setup Overview.
To add a new activity alert ˆtop of pageˆ
- Click the Add icon (+) in the Alerts navigation tree of the Setup tab.
- Type a name for the alert in the Name field.
- Click the arrow in the Type field and select Activity Alert.
- Type a description for the alert and/or enter template tags in the Subject field.
- If you want a user to acknowledge the alert, complete the following steps:
- Click the Acknowledge check box. (See Note 3 below for related information.)
- Click the arrow in the Tries field and select how many times the system should resend the notification until the alert is acknowledged.
- Type a value or use the arrow buttons in the Retry Interval field to indicate the number of minutes between repeated notifications.
- Click the Enabled check box to turn on (or activate) the alert.
- Click the Notify Only check box if you want the system to place the unit in the Normal status category in Unit System Status instead of the In Alarm status category.
- Define the message format of the notification by entering message template tags in the Message Template fields. Or use the provided default settings.
- Click Save and then continue with the next procedure to setup alert conditions.
To add conditions for a new activity alert ˆtop of pageˆ
- Verify the new activity alert is selected in the Alerts navigation tree.
- Click the Conditions tab.
- Use the Activity Condition fields to set up the alarm conditions that trigger the system to send a notification.
- Click Save and then continue with the next procedure to setup optional event monitoring.
To setup optional event monitoring for a new activity alert ˆtop of pageˆ
- Verify the new activity alert is selected in the Alerts navigation tree.
- Click the Monitoring tab.
- Click the check box Use this alert for Event Monitoring.
- Click the up or down arrows in the Time-Out Hours field to select a time the unit should wait before resetting the event.
Note: Hover the mouse over the field bubble to view a tool-tip description of Time-Out Hours.
- Click the arrow in the Group field to select a unit group.
- Click the arrow in the Before Event, After Event, and After Acknowledge fields to select icons that represent each of these events.
- Click Save and then continue with the next procedure to set up alert contacts.
To setup contacts for a new activity alert ˆtop of pageˆ
- Verify the new activity alert is selected in the Alerts navigation tree.
- Click the check box Add to All Alerts if you want to add contacts and contact groups to all alerts for the current unit.
- If you want the system to send a notification to a user:
- Click the arrow in the Add Contact field and select a user contact name. (See Note 1 below for related information.)
- If you want the system to wait before sending a notification, adjust the Delay time (in minutes) using the up and down arrows.
- Click the add (+) icon. The user name is displayed in the Contacts table, where you can also edit the delay time for this contact or delete this contact.
Note: Delay time is the number of minutes the system waits to send a notification to a contact when an alarm condition still exists after sending a previous notification to a contact or contact group.
- If you want the system to send a notification to a group of users:
- Click the arrow in the Add Contact Group field and select a contact group.
- Click Broadcast if you want the system to send notifications to all users in the contact group at the same time. (See Note 3 below for related information.)
- Click Fall-Over if you want the system to send notifications to a contact group one user at a time. (See Note 3 below for related information.)
- If you want the system to wait before sending a notification, adjust the Delay time using the up and down arrows. (See Note 2 below for related information.)
- Click the add (+) icon.
- To remove the contact from all alerts, click the Remove from all Alerts check box to add a check mark to the box.
To preview the messages that will be sent for a new activity alert ˆtop of pageˆ
- Verify the new activity alert is selected in the Alerts navigation tree.
- Click the Preview tab. The Subject, Long Message, and Short Message for the activity alert are displayed.
- Click the Send Test Alert to send a test alert to all linked contacts.
- Click Yes to send the alert or No to cancel on the Send Test Alert window.
Note 1: Alert and Notification characteristics based on a unit's service status: If a unit's Service Status is set up as Inactive on the Info tab of Unit Admin, the system does not process alerts. A unit's service status must be set up as Installed (Notifications ON) in order for the system to send a notification to one or more contacts.
Note 2: Broadcast and Fall-Over characteristics when using Delay time: When using Delay time with the Broadcast option, the system waits the specified delay time and then sends the notification to the entire contact group. With the Fall-Over option, the system sends a notification to the contact group one user at a time; waiting the specified delay time between one notification and the next.
Note 3: Fall-Over characteristics when a notification is acknowledged: The system automatically enables the Acknowledge check box when an alert is set up with the Fall-Over option. When a user in the Fall-Over contact group acknowledges a notification, the system stops sending notifications to other users in the contact group.