Monitoring Alarms


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Alarm Manager

Alarm Manager automatically scans for alarms whenever you run Tivoli Service Desk. When Alarm Manager detects that you have received an alarm, it displays an alarm indicator in the Tivoli Service Desk window. The alarm indicator is displayed until you have deleted all pending alarms from the Alarm Manager dialog box.

Alarm Monitor

You can also scan for alarms when you are not running Tivoli Service Desk by running Alarm Monitor. You can run Alarm Monitor on any client workstation. Each copy of Alarm Monitor scans for alarms specifically for the user who is running it. Alarm Monitor displays Alarm Notification dialog boxes when it detects alarms.

Tip: You may prefer to run Alarm Monitor instead of Tivoli Service Desk when you need additional system resources.

Note: If you are not running either Tivoli Service Desk or Alarm Monitor when alarms are sent to you, you are notified of these alarms the next time you start either of these programs.

Alarm Monitor window

The Alarm Monitor window enables you to scan for and view alarms when you are not running Tivoli Service Desk. For information on accessing the Alarm Monitor window, see Starting the Alarm Monitor.

Alarm Notification dialog box

The Alarm Notification dialog box displays the name of the person who sent you the alarm, a brief description of the alarm, and the date and time it was sent. One Alarm Notification dialog box appears for each alarm. If you have multiple alarms, the separate Alarm Notification dialog boxes appear to be stacked one on top of the other.

You can choose to view the details of the alarm in the Alarm Notification dialog box. For more information, see Viewing alarms.


Tasks

Starting the Alarm Monitor

To run the Alarm Monitor:
  1. Use this table to determine your first action.

  2. If you are using... then...
    Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0
    1. From the Taskbar, choose Start.
    2. Point to Programs, point to Tivoli Service Desk 6.0, choose Monitors, then choose Alarm Monitor.
    OS/2
    1. Choose the Tivoli Service Desk folder.
    2. Choose the Alarm Monitor icon.
    UNIX
    1. Change to the directory where the Alarm Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type monalarm and press Enter.
    any of the above operating systems
    1. Change to the directory where the Alarm Monitor program resides.
    2. At the command line, type kml alrmmntr and press Enter.


  3. In the TSD Log On dialog box, type your user ID and your password, if one is required.
  4. Choose OK.
    Result if you have new alarms: One Alarm Notification dialog box appears for each alarm. If you have multiple alarms, the separate Alarm Notification dialog boxes appear to be stacked one on top of the other.
  5. If you have alarms, do one of the following:

    Result: After you view or close all new alarms displayed in the Alarm Notification dialog boxes, the Alarm Monitor window appears.

Alarm Monitor periodically scans for alarm notifications sent to you and continues to run until you close it.

Configuring the Alarm Monitor

You can change the interval between each scan the Alarm Monitor makes to check for new alarms. However, if you set too long a time period, you may not be notified of important alarms on a timely basis.

Note: Users control polling periods (intervals between scans) when they run Alarm Monitor independently of Tivoli Service Desk. The system administrator controls alarm scanning intervals when Alarm Monitor runs automatically when users are working in Tivoli Service Desk. For information on setting the alarm scan interval for each user, see Maintaining Users.

To configure the Alarm Monitor:

  1. In the Alarm Monitor window, from the Options menu, choose Configuration.
  2. In the Polling Configuration dialog box, from the Alarm Polling Period list, select the appropriate scan interval.
    Result: The selected scan interval is converted to seconds and appears in the Seconds box.
  3. Choose Close.

Scanning for alarms

You can scan for alarms at any time if you do not want to wait for the next regularly scheduled scan.

To scan for alarms:

Note: If you have multiple alarms, the separate Alarm Notification dialog boxes appear to be stacked on top of one another.

Stopping the Alarm Monitor

To stop the Alarm Monitor:
  • In the Alarm Monitor window, from the Actions menu, choose Exit.
    Result: The Alarm Monitor window closes.

Note: If you are not running either Tivoli Service Desk or Alarm Monitor when alarms are sent to you, you are notified of these alarms the next time you start either of these programs.