How to Configure Technical Monitoring Alerts to Send Alerts via Text Message

[jereme_swoboda2]

What happens when a Production System goes down in the middle of the night and Solution Manager sends an alert to a group of recipients? The recipient’s phone makes a single low volume noise and is potentially missed by the recipient if it isn’t loud enough or the phone is on silent mode. This guide offers a solution where you send specific alerts via Text message. Iphone and Android cell phones offer more options to alert the recipient of a message than they do when an email is received. Including alerting the recipient even when the phone is on silent mode and/or ringing continuously until the phone is given attention. Therefore ensuring the most important availability alerts from Solution Manager are given the attention that is needed when a production system is down.

This guide walks you through how to send Technical Monitoring Alerts via text message without a SMS Server. This is especially useful when you want specific alerts to be given more attention by the recipients of the alert. Normally the Availability alerts are the most important alerts that need the additional attention. Once Solution Manager is configured to send an alert via SMS, the Phone can then be setup to have a special ring tone or ring when the phone is in silent mode. This will ensure the alert is given the attention that is required, whether or not the recipient is near their computer.

Process

    1. From SAPGUI - Enter transaction SOLMAN_WORKCENTER

     2. Select Technical Administration Workcenter

     3. Select Notification Management

  

     4. Select the External Tab

     5. Select Add

 

     6. Enter the first and last name of the person that owns the cell phone

     7. Find out which carrier the person uses for their cell phone carrier

     8. Enter their 10 Digit Phone Number and the appropriate Carrier Domain. See the list of most common carrier’s below.

     9. Select Add

1. For the complete list of Carriers go to the website - http://www.emailtextmessages.com
2. AT&T
   1. 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
3. Cingular (Now AT&T)
   1. 10digitphonenumber@txt.att.net
4. Metro PCS
   1. 10digitphonenumber@mymetropcs.com
5. Sprint
   1. 10digitphonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
6. T-Mobile
   1. 10digitphonenumber@tmomail.net
7. Verizon
   1. 10digitphonenumber@vtext.com
8. Virgin Mobile
   1. 10digitphonenumber@vmobl.com

 

     10. Now you will see the new entry listed under External Recipients.

     11. Make sure it is in an active state.

Now you need to assign this recipient to the alerts that you want sent via Text Message. Ensure these alerts are configured properly and do not send regular false alarms. Otherwise they will quickly diminish the effectiveness of the alert.

     1. Enter Transaction SOLMAN_SETUP in SAPGUI

     2. Select Technical Monitoring on the left side of the screen

     3. Select Edit Mode

     4. Select Step 4 Template Maintenance

 

     5. Select Expert Mode

     6. Select the Template that is assigned to the system that needs special attention. All Templates have availability alerts. In this case we will be working           with the database templates. But the same steps apply to the Host and SAP Application Templates.

     7. Select the Custom Template that has been assigned to the managed object (database)

     8. Select the Alerts Tab

     9. As you can see we have a number of alerts in the Availability Category. Review all the alerts and determine which ones need to be sent via text                     message.

     10. Select the alert

 

     11. Select the Notifications Tab within the alert

     12. Select the drop down for Automatic Notifications

     13. Select Active

 

     14. Select the drop down Send Notification For

     15. Select Red Alerts only

1. Depending on the alert, if a yellow threshold exists you may want the Red and Yellow alerts option.

 

     16. Select the drop Down for Notification Mode

     17. Select Email Only

     18. Select Add to add the External recipient we created earlier.

 

     19. Clear Out the SID under System

     20. Enter the name of the External Recipient

     21. Select Apply to search for the recipient

     22. Select the Recipient

     23. Select Add

 

     24. You should see the recipient in the list.

     25. Make the same changes to any other alert in this template

     26. Select Save at the top of the screen

 

     27. The last step is to apply and Activate the changes

     28. Select the Managed Objects Tab

1. Ensure that the systems that are listed are all systems that you want the text alerts sent for. If any of them are Development systems you need to copy this template to a new template and assign these changes to the systems that need these types of alerts. I only recommend using this process on Production systems, you wouldn't want your on call teams alerted in the middle of the night for Development or Quality systems going down.

     29. Select the Apply and Activate Drop down

     30. Select Apply and Activate to all managed Objects.

 

     31. The status of the Managed Object will turn green when successfully activated

 

     32. The last step is to change first and last name and the email address for the system User SOLMAN_BTC. This is the user that sends the emails in                    Solution Manager

.

Now Move on to configuring the recipients phones that are going to receive the alerts.

     1. Create a contact in the Recipients phone for the Solution Manager Name and Email address that you changed for the system user SOLMAN_BTC

     2. Configure the phone to alert the recipient when Solution Manager Sends an alert.

1. Iphone – Set a special ring tone and set the contact as a VIP Contact so that when the phone is sent an email from this contact, the phone will ring even if the phone is on silent.
2. Android – Set a special ring tone for the contact. Then download the app SMS Alert. This app allows you to set the phone to alert endlessly until the phone is silenced.