HOBBITD_ALERT(8)					      System Manager's Manual						  HOBBITD_ALERT(8)

NAME

       hobbitd_alert - hobbitd worker module for sending out alerts

SYNOPSIS

       hobbitd_channel --channel=page hobbitd_alert [options]

DESCRIPTION

       hobbitd_alert  is a worker module for hobbitd, and as such it is normally run via the hobbitd_channel(8) program. It receives hobbitd page-
       and ack-messages from the "page" channel via stdin, and uses these to send out alerts about failed and recovered hosts and services.

       The operation of this module is controlled by the hobbit-alerts.cfg(5) file. This file holds the definition of rules and  recipients,  that
       determine who gets alerts, how often, for what servers etc.

OPTIONS

       --config=FILENAME
	      Sets the filename for the hobbit-alerts.cfg file. The default value is "etc/hobbit-alerts.cfg" below the Xymon server directory.

       --dump-config
	      Dumps the configuration after parsing it. May be useful to track down problems with configuration file errors.

       --checkpoint-file=FILENAME
	      File  where  the	current  state	of the hobbitd_alert module is saved.  When starting up, hobbitd_alert will also read this file to
	      restore the previous state.

       --checkpoint-interval=N
	      Defines how often (in seconds) the checkpoint-file is saved.

       --cfid If this option is present, alert messages will include a line with "cfid:N" where N is the linenumber in the hobbit-alerts.cfg  file
	      that caused this message to be sent. This can be useful to track down problems with duplicate alerts.

       --test HOST SERVICE [options]
	      Shows  which alert rules matches the given HOST/SERVICE combination.  Useful to debug configuration problems, and see what rules are
	      used for an alert.

	      The possible options are:
	      --color=COLORNAME The COLORNAME parameter is the color of the alert: red, yellow or purple.
	      --duration=SECONDS The SECONDS parameter is the duration of the alert in seconds.
	      --group=GROUPNAME The GROUPNAME paramater is a groupid string from the hobbit-clients.cfg file.
	      --time=TIMESTRING The TIMESTRING parameter is the time-of-day for the alert, expressed as an absolute time in the epoch format (sec-
	      onds since Jan 1 1970). This is easily obtained with the GNU date utility using the "+%s" output format.

       --debug
	      Enable debugging output.

HOW HOBBIT DECIDES WHEN TO SEND ALERTS

       The  hobbitd_alert  module is responsible for sending out all alerts.  When a status first goes to one of the ALERTCOLORS, hobbitd_alert is
       notified of this change. It notes that the status is now in an alert state, and records the timestamp when this event started, and adds the
       alert to the list statuses that may potentially trigger one or more alert messages.

       This  list  is  then  matched against the hobbit-alerts.cfg configuration.  This happens at least once a minute, but may happen more often.
       E.g.  when status first goes into an alert state, this will always trigger the matching to happen.

       When scanning the configuration, hobbitd_alert looks at all of the configuration rules. It also checks the  DURATION  setting  against  how
       long time has elapsed since the event started - i.e. against the timestamp logged when hobbitd_alert first heard of this event.

       When  an alert recipient is found, the alert is sent and it is recorded when this recipient is due for his next alert message, based on the
       REPEAT setting defined for this recipient. The next time hobbitd_alert scans the configuration for what alerts to send, it will still  find
       this  recipient	because all of the configuration rules are fulfilled, but an alert message will not be generated until the repeat interval
       has elapsed.

       It can happen that a status first goes yellow and triggers an alert, and later it goes red - e.g. a disk filling up.  In  that  case,  hob-
       bitd_alert  clears  the internal timer for when the next (repeat) alert is due for all recipients. You generally want to be told when some-
       thing that has been in a warning state becomes critical, so in that case the REPEAT setting is ignored and the alert  is  sent.	This  only
       happens	the first time such a change occurs - if the status switches between yellow and red multiple times, only the first transition from
       yellow->red causes this override.

       When an status recovers, a recovery message may be sent - depending on the configuration - and then hobbitd_alert forgets everything  about
       this status. So the next time it goes into an alert state, the entire process starts all over again.

ENVIRONMENT

       MAIL   The first part of a command line used to send out an e-mail with a subject, typically set to "/usr/bin/mail -s" . hobbitd_alert will
	      add the subject and the mail recipients to form the command line used for sending out email alerts.

       MAILC  The first part of a command line used to send out an e-mail without a subject. Typically this will be "/usr/bin/mail". hobbitd_alert
	      will add the mail recipients to form the command line used for sending out email alerts.

FILES

       ~xymon/server/etc/hobbit-alerts.cfg

SEE ALSO

       hobbit-alerts.cfg(5), hobbitd(8), hobbitd_channel(8), xymon(7)

Xymon							    Version 4.2.3:  4 Feb 2009						  HOBBITD_ALERT(8)