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First steps for administrators

First steps for administrators

Configuring the Alert Service

You can configure the Alert Service through TMS.

  1. Login to the Portal as an administrator.
  2. In the Portal menu, navigate to TMS.
  3. In the Servers view, click Alert Service.
  4. Click Alert Service configuration.
  5. In the Config Actions panel, click View/Edit and update the settings.
    Setting Description
    Canister Attempts Number of times the alert service attempts to connect to a processing server for data collection, at one minute intervals, when the service is started. The service continues to try to establish connection with any missing canisters at 10 minute intervals forever.
    Email From Address Sending address for all email alert messages. Addresses can be in the following forms: 
    Jane Smith<janesmith@example.com>
"Jane Smith"<janesmith@example.com>
<janesmith@example.com>
janesmith@example.com
    Event Refresh Interval Interval at which the service attempts to refresh the event/alert definitions. This value should not be set to less than 10 minutes.
    Logfile Verbosity Controls the content of the TLAlertSrv_YYYYMMDD.log file, in the Logs directory. The logging level is set to 2 and should be kept at this level unless an issue requires investigation.
    • For debugging data across multiple days, set this value to 4.
    • For debugging data across hours within a day, set this value to 9.

    After you resolved the issue, reset the logging level to 2.
    Maximum Length of Email Subject Line Maximum number of characters in the Subject line of the generated alert email. The maximum value for this setting is 255.
    Message Attempts Number of times the service attempts to send a single message
    Minutes to Inhibit Alerts If needed, you can apply an emergency shut-down of alert processing for the specified number of minutes. When the shut-down period expires, the Alert Service resumes operations automatically.
    Per Minute SQL Updates When enabled, the Alert Service can selectively insert informational records into a database to track Canister status. These records are inserted every minute and might impact performance in installations with large numbers of Canister servers.
    Portal URL Web address for the Portal. In email alert messages, this address provides user access to the alert details through the Portal.
    Record XML Data When enabled, this setting writes XML data that is read by the Alert Service. In the Tealeaf\Portal directory, the following XML files are written: EventsReadbyAlertService.xml, ReportsReadbyAlertService.xml and TopMoversReadbyAlertService.xml.
    Note: By default, this setting is disabled. This XML data is useful only for debugging purposes when you work with Support.
    SNMP Monitors Comma-separated list of SNMP servers that receive SNMP trap messages
    Service Log File The Alert Service logs errors and debugging information to a file each day. The default value, TLAlertSrv.log yields files of the form TLAlertSrv_YYYYMMDD.log. Use this setting to change the base log file name.

Shutting down alert generation

If needed, you can force a temporary shut-down of the Alert Service, which prevents the generation of new alerts. When a non-zero value is entered for the Minutes to Inhibit Alerts setting and the configuration is saved and applied, the Alert Service prevents the generation of any new alerts for the specified number of minutes, regardless of how individual alerts are defined.

This feature can be helpful in debugging alerts that are firing too frequently due to improper specification of the source event or other misconfiguration in the alert definition.

When the specified period has expired, Alert Service resumes operating normally.

Note: When this value is changed through TMS, the value is applied to the corresponding registry setting, from which Alert Service reads and applies to its behavior. When the shut-down period has expired, Alert Service resets the registry setting to 0, which enables it to resume normal operations, but the setting in TMS is not reset automatically.

If you reload the Alert Service configuration through TMS, it recognizes that there is a difference between the registry setting (0) and the value stored in TMS (20). To resynchronize the values, you should either manually reset the value in TMS or reload the configuration from the local system when prompted.

Configuring SNMP traps

Tealeaf supports the ability to send SNMP traps to SNMP listeners.

Note: Tealeaf does not provide a Management Information Base (MIB) file for monitoring alerts. However, Tealeaf does send a simple text SNMP trap.
  1. To enable SNMP traps, complete the following steps:
    1. In the Alert Service configuration in TMS, click SNMP Monitors.
    2. Enter a comma-separated list of servers to send SNMP traps.
    3. Click Save.
    4. Configure a TMS task to update the configuration of all affected servers.
  2. To monitor SNMP traps, configure your external application to monitor Tealeaf events using the following information:

    The SNMP trap OID structure can be used to determine which alert fired. The Tealeaf company ID is 9147. An alert trap has the following OID:

    
1.3.6.1.4.1.9147.0.1.<Event ID>

    The message in the alert is in the following format:

    
ALERT DETAILS: <Alert Title>

    You can create a filter based on the OID to allow the external receiver to monitor specific events.

Starting, stopping, and restarting the Alert Service

You can start, stop, and restart the Alert Service through TMS.

  1. Login to the Portal as an administrator.
  2. In the Portal menu, navigate to TMS.
  3. In the Servers view, click Alert Service.
  4. In the Component Actions pane, click the Start, Stop, or Restart button.

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