Configuring Notification Methods


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Notifications

Tivoli Service Desk users can send messages to each other using TSD notifications. Also, certain events, such as the escalation of a problem, can generate automatic messages to Tivoli Problem Management users. These messages are called notifications. For more information, see Notifications and Alarms.

The system administrator is responsible for configuring the Notification Monitor to use the appropriate messaging systems to deliver messages to individual users and groups.

Notification methods

Notification methods define how a notification is sent to a user. There are two ways notifications are delivered in Tivoli Service Desk: alarms and non-alarm notifications. For more information on notifications, see Notifications and Alarms.

Available non-alarm notification methods

Tivoli Service Desk ships with some common non-alarm notification methods already configured. A non-alarm notification method defines the way a notification is passed from TSD to an external system such as Microsoft Mail. The notification methods that are already configured for you include:
  • Digital pager
  • Netware Send
  • Microsoft Mail
  • Lotus cc:Mail
  • Internet Mail

You can add other non-alarm notification methods, and edit or delete the existing ones.

Note: Before a non-alarm notification method can work, you must:

  • Customize one or more of the Tivoli Script routines in the ntfyfunc.kb file
  • Configure the non-alarm notification method
  • Assign a default non-alarm notification method to each user who may receive a non-alarm notification
  • Assign a default non-alarm notification method to each group of users who can receive a non-alarm notification

Add Notification Method dialog box

Use the Add Notification Method dialog box to make a notification method available for sending notifications to users and groups. For more information, see Adding non-alarm notification methods.

To access the Add Notification Method dialog box:

  1. In the Notification Options dialog box, choose the Methods tab.
  2. Choose Add.
    Result: The Add Notification Method dialog box appears.

Edit Notification Method dialog box

Use the Edit Notification Method dialog box to make changes to an existing notification method.

To access the Edit Notification Method dialog box:

  1. In the Notification Options dialog box, choose the Methods tab.
  2. From the Method List, select a notification method.
  3. Below the Method List, choose Edit.
    Result: The Edit Notification Method dialog box appears.

Tasks

Configuring alarms

There is very little that you must do to configure alarms. Alarms are ready to use when Tivoli Service Desk is installed.

The only thing you need to do is supply an alarm scan interval for each Tivoli Service Desk user. The scan interval is the frequency at which Tivoli Service Desk checks for alarms for a specific user. You can set this frequency at intervals ranging from every fifteen seconds to every four hours. For information on setting the alarm scan interval, see Maintaining Users.

Note: You control the alarm scanning intervals inside Tivoli Service Desk. Users control scan intervals only when they run Alarm Monitor as an independent program. For more information, see Configuring the Alarm Monitor.

Customizing ntfyfunc.kb

If you want to use a non-alarm notification method other than those shipped with Tivoli Service Desk, you must customize one of the notification routines in the ntfyfunc.kb file to activate the external messaging system.

Caution: Do not open or modify the ntfyfunc.kbc file. Perform all Tivoli Script customizations in the ntfyfunc.kb file. Also, make a backup copy of any file that you plan to modify.

Note: For more information on Tivoli Script and customizing the ntfyfunc.kb file, see Tivoli Service Desk 6.0 Developer's Toolkit Document Set.

The notification routines available in ntfyfunc.kb are:

Notification Routine Description
Netware_Send This routine is used to send notifications using a SEND command over a Novell Netware network. You must supply a logon ID and the send-to address for the message.

Note: The SEND program must be in your path.

PagerNotification This routine is used to send a digital pager notification by means of WinBeep, which is an application marketed by Integra Technologies International.
WinBeep notification messages are saved in a .wba file (WinBeep message queue file) in the directory defined as the sai_root directory.
VIM_Interface This routine is used to send notification messages to messaging systems that are VIM-compliant (for instance, Lotus cc:Mail).

Note: The VIP_Interface, MAPI_Interface, and xxxx routines use e-mail systems to send notifications created in Tivoli Problem Management. They are send-only functions. When you run the Notification Monitor to pass along notifications created by any of these methods, you must supply mail logon information so that the Notification Monitor has access to the appropriate mail system or the mail server and Internet gateway.

MAPI_Interface This routine is used to send notification messages to MAPI-compliant mail systems (for instance, Microsoft Mail).

Note: If you want to use the VIM or MAPI interfaces in the ntfyfunc.kb file, you must insert the path to the directory where messages are stored on your system. See also the note in the description of the VIM_Interface routine.

SMTP_Interface This routine is used to send notification messages by means of the Internet, using the SMTP/POP protocol.

Note: See the note in the description of the VIM_Interface routine.

Adding non-alarm notification methods

Before you add a non-alarm notification method, you must customize a Tivoli Script routine in the ntfyfunc.kb file to activate the messaging system. See Customizing ntfyfunc.kb

To add a non-alarm notification method:

  1. In the Add Notification Method dialog box, in the Notification Method box, type a descriptive name for the external messaging system. You use this name to assign this notification method to users and groups.
  2. In the Description box, type a brief description of the external messaging system.
  3. In the Function box, type the name of the Tivoli Script function that calls the external messaging system to deliver a notification.
    Example: cc:Mail uses ntfyfunc:VIM_Interface(), where ntfyfunc is the name of the file containing the function and VIM_Interface() is the name of the function.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • Select the Allow Group Notifications check box to allow the notification method to be used for both individual users and groups of users.
    • Clear the Allow Group Notifications check box to restrict the notification method to individual users.
  5. Choose OK.
    Result: The new notification method appears in the Method List in the Methods tab of the Notification Options dialog box.
  6. Choose Close.
  7. Stop and restart the Notification Monitor to make the new notification method take effect.
    Note: The Notification Monitor does not process non-alarm notifications sent by a new method until it is restarted. However, you can assign non-alarm notification methods to users and groups before you restart the Notification Monitor.

Editing non-alarm notification methods

You can make changes to an existing non-alarm notification method by editing it.

To edit a non-alarm notification method:

  1. In the Edit Notification Method dialog box, make any necessary changes. For further instructions, see Adding non-alarm notification methods.
  2. Choose OK.
    Result: The updated notification method appears in the Method List in the Methods tab of the Notification Options dialog box.
  3. Choose Close.
  4. Stop and restart the Notification Monitor for your changes to take effect.
    Note: The Notification Monitor is not affected by changes to non-alarm notification methods until it is restarted.

Deleting non-alarm notification methods

You can delete a notification method that is no longer used for users or groups.

To delete a non-alarm notification method:

  1. Choose the Methods tab in the Notification Options dialog box.
  2. From the Methods tab, from the Method List, select the notification method to delete.
  3. Choose Delete.
  4. When the Warning message appears to confirm that you want to delete the method, choose Yes.
    Result: The selected notification method no longer appears in the Method List in the Methods tab of the Notification Options dialog box.
  5. Choose Close.
  6. Stop and restart the Notification Monitor for the changes to take effect.
    Note: The Notification Monitor is not affected by the deletion of a non-alarm notification method until it is restarted.