How the Alert Manager Works

Alert Manager is a notification system that sends messages to people in your organization using various methods of communication. For example, you can send alerts to the system administrator, or a hardware technician in or out of the office. You can also send alerts to groups of people in different segments of the network.

The Alert Manager does not generate its own messages. You must configure the manager with the information you want to communicate and where you want to send it. Use the Alert options in the Backup Manager or Alert configuration in Server Admin to tell Alert what information you want to communicate. Use the Alert Manager or the Alert options in the Backup Manager to tell Alert how to send information and who to send it to. For more information about how to select methods and specify recipients from within the Backup Manager, see Backing Up Data.

The information you communicate through Alert is called an Event. Events are words or phrases that appear in the Activity Log. You can select predefined job-related events, such as “Job Completed Successfully” and “Job Incomplete.” You can also customize job-related events, such as error, warning, or notification codes. In addition, you can specify non-job related events, such as starting or stopping the Tape Engine.

You can set up alerts from the following Arcserve Backup managers and utilities:

• Backup Manager
• Restore Manager
• Media Assure & Scan Utility
• Compare Utility
• Purge Utility
• Copy Utility
• Merge Utility
• Count Utility

To select job-related events, open these managers or utilities, click the Options toolbar button, and then select the Alert tab on the Options dialog.

Job-related events can also be accessed by selecting the Utilities menu and choosing any of the Utilities menu options. To select non-job related events, in Server Admin click Config, and then the Alert tab.

After you select events and they appear in the Activity Log, Alert generates notification messages and sends them to the appropriate recipients. For more information about selecting the information you want to communicate using Alert, see Backing Up Data for job-related events, and Administering the Backup Server for non-job related events.

Alerts can be sent in the following ways:

• Broadcasts--Sends pop-up messages to specific computers.
• Lotus Notes--Sends email messages using Lotus Notes.
• Microsoft Exchange--Sends email messages using Microsoft Exchange.
• Windows Event Log--Places event information in the Event logs of local and remote computers.
• Pager--Sends alphanumeric pager messages.

• Note: Pager options are not supported on Japanese versions of Arcserve Backup.

• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)--Sends email messages using the standard email protocol on the Internet.
• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)--Sends messages to SNMP managers, such as HP OpenView.
• Trouble Tickets--Sends printed documents to any print queue on your network.
• Note: When defining Trouble Tickets, the values specified for the Printer Name, User Name, and Password must be less than or equal to 48 bytes.