Unix messaging or mail to operations support 2

[davidx]

Looking for a way to get messaging to break on the screen for our system operators. I'm developing a number of monitoring scripts that will create email to our operations people. I want the message to break on the screen when its sent so they will act on the problem immediately. The situation now requires them the continue to monitor their mail to get any updated messages.

I would be interested in either a script solution or any products that might offer the mesage break interface solution.


Thanks in advance for your advise.

Dave

 

[MikeLacey]

David,

What do your operations ppl use on their desktops? windows?
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com

 

[davidx]

Operations people have Windows based PC's, could be NT if needed, MS Exchange Mail. They use reflections sessions to access the servers and use the mail to check for any messages they might receive.

As they are usually performing some task within the session I would want the solution to message box them through windows that a new message has arrived or have the mail from my monitoring process break into there unix reflections session with the mail message.

 

[MikeLacey]

If your staff are receiving their email using Outlook it shouldn't be a problem, we do this with alert messages and it works well.

On the PC set up a rule that checks the source and subject of a new email and pops up a window informing the user.

If your staff are not yet receiving their email using Outlook you can arrange for that to happen using the MS SMTP gateway product that would run on your exchange server and pass unix email onto your users.

Or.

It is possible to 'break through' onto a users screen using [tt]write[/tt] but this is *not* pretty and would confuse novice unix users.

If your terminal emulator supports a message line you could write to the botttom line of the terminal using escape codes generated using [tt]tput[/tt] and embedding those into a one-line alert message redirected to the users tty device. This is quite achievable but I suggest that the first solution (using the MS SMTP gateway product) will give you a more robust and better integrated alert mechanism.

Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com

 

[davidx]

Thanks Mike, we are just now working on bring our email in house and will enable the break messaging through outlook. When you mention alert messages are you referring to adviser script for the unix performance tools or another process?

Thanks for your response.

Dave

 

[MikeLacey]

No -- I was using the term generically really. Messages generated by scripts we have written ourselves that check on various bits and bobs.

The Outlook rules are really easy to setup and should suit you fine, especially as you're implmenting it anyway.
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com

 

[gregor weertman]

My way to get messaging to break on the screen of NT users is:
1 install samba on the hp machine!
2 let the monitor scripts write to a file in a special folder in file "tosend".
3 share the folder with MS network using samba.
3 make a script on a nt machine that reads the "tosend" lines and send them to
the users on the NT boxes.


The tosend file:

Harry The MRP is ready 12:34h
michael Michael you can start your job.

The batch file:
net send %*

You need a way to extract lines from the file.
I did that with a bourne-shell for dos (it is free).

In instead of samba you can use ftp.
Ftp writes to your syslog.
When you ftp one's per 3 minutes you have to check the size of your syslog more frequently.

You can have the details if you want.
Gregor.Weertman@mailcity.com