Active Monitoring Module
The Active Monitoring Module is used to ensure that errors in specific business processes get acknowledged and fixed by IT staff or escalated when nobody has acknowledged the problem in a specific time-frame. Alerting revolves around the operator message system. When an alert is raised, an operator message is created. This operator message must be replied to in order to acknowledge the alert.
Alerts themselves are children of operator messages, and can be monitored via the operator message monitor. An operator message that has alerts attached to it will have a [+] next to it in the monitor.
There are two ways operators and managers can get informed:
- operator messages
- email/SMS
The key features of the module are:
- Operator message integration - all alerts are raised as operator messages and are visible in the operator message console.
- Acknowledgment - alerts must be acknowledged by replying to the operator message in order to clear them.
- Alert escalations - unanswered alerts can be escalated through shared escalation pathways (email/SMS).
- Rule based configuration - alerts can be defined as rules separate from the objects that cause the alert to be raised.
Alerts can be defined for the following objects:
- Process servers - any status change. Rules are defined based on a process server name pattern.
- Processes - any status change. Rules are defined based on a process definition name pattern and the parameters.
- Monitors - any change in severity. Rules are defined based on a monitor.
note
The Active Monitoring Module requires the Module.Alerting license key
The alerting system consists of three types of object:
- Alert Sources - object specific rules that are defined for when alerts should be created, see below.
- Process Server Alert Sources - used when a process server loses the connection to a remote system.
- Process Alert Sources - used when processes, steps, or chains reach an undesired status.
- Ad Hoc Alert Sources - used in chains to fire alerts with the System_Alert_Send process definition.
- Monitor Alert Sources - used when a monitor reaches a certain severity.
- Alert Escalations - rules detailing who to send the alert to, how long to wait for acknowledgment, and which alert to escalate to should the alert remain unacknowledged.
- Alert Gateways - rules determining how messages are formatted and sent.
An alert is raised by an alert source, creating an operator message that needs to be responded to. The alert source specifies the first alert escalation to use. From then on the alerting escalation system decides how long to wait for acknowledgment, and what the next alert is. While the alert is being escalated, messages are sent via the alert gateways to elicit a response. As soon as the operator message is replied to, the alert is acknowledged and no further automatic action is taken.
Alerting CAR File
An alerting CAR file is available in "Configuration > Software" under Download CAR Files; it contains a number of Active Monitoring Module objects:
GLOBAL.DelayedProcesses- process definition alert source that fires for delayed processesGLOBAL.ErroneousProcesses- process definition alert source that fires for processes that have reached status Error, Killed, or Unknown.GLOBAL.NotConnectedProcessServers- process server alert source that fires for process servers that have reached status Connecting, PartiallyRunning, or Shutdown for more than 2 minutes.