Alerting routines

Detailed Description

Alerts are a type of datasource message that can be raised by any component within a system. They are captured by the alerter Transformer module which then distributes and/or caches the alerts for use by monitoring software.

An alert consists of the following components:

• title - A short description of the alert
• severity - One of alert.INFO, alert.ERROR or alert.CRITICAL
• errorcode - An errorcode that is used by the alerter module to perform actions on the alert
• component - The component or area that raised the alert (for example normalisation, validation, inactivity etc)
• timestamp - The time at which the alert was raised (if not specified then this defaults to the current machine time)
• description - A longer description of the alert (optional)

Additional parameters may be added into an alert using standard table access methods. Identifiers with a leading underscore are reserved.

Example usage:

require("alert")

alert.sendquick(alert.INFO, "CP30", "Pulse", "The title for an alert", "A long description for an alert")
alert.sendquick(alert.INFO, "CP30", "Pulse", "The title for an alert", nil)
alert.sendquick(alert.INFO, nil, "Pulse", "The title for an alert", "A long description for an alert")
alert.sendquick(alert.INFO, nil, "Pulse", "The title for an alert", nil)

a = alert.new()
alert.set_severity(a,alert.ERROR)
alert.set_errorcode(a,"ED83823X")
alert.set_component(a,"JDBCsource")
alert.set_title(a,"Index Validation Error")
alert.set_description(a,"This error occured because some value went out of range blah blah blah")
alert.send(a)

a2 = alert.new()
alert.set_severity(a2,alert.CRITICAL)
alert.set_component(a2,"Reporter")
alert.set_title(a2,"Some Other Error")
alert.send(a)

Functions
	alert.new ()
	Create an alert object, for example: a = alert.new()
	alert.set_time (var al, var rhs)
	Set the time for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_severity (var al, var rhs)
	Set the severity for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_errorcode (var al, var rhs)
	Set the errorcode for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_component (var al, var rhs)
	Set the component for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_title (var al, var rhs)
	Set the title for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_description (var al, var rhs)
	Set the description for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_command (var al, var rhs)
	Set the command for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_uniqueid (var al, var rhs)
	Set the unqiue identifiers for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_id (var al, var rhs)
	Set the identifier for this alert object. More...
	alert.set_extra (var al, var key, var value)
	Set an extra value on an alert. More...
	alert.send (var al)
	Send this alert. More...
	alert.sendquick (var severity, var errorcode, var component, var id, var title, var description, var extra_fields)
	Convenience function to send an alert in one function call. More...
	alert.cancelquick (var errorcode, var component, var id)
	Convenience function to cancel an alert in one call. More...

Function Documentation

alert.cancelquick	(	var	errorcode,
		var	component,
		var	id
	)

Convenience function to cancel an alert in one call.

Parameters

errorcode	- The errorcode
component	- The component
id	- IdentifierThe component

A unique index will be ructed out of "component"_"errorcode"_"id"

alert.send

(

var

al

)

Send this alert.

Parameters

al	- Alert to send

alert.sendquick	(	var	severity,
		var	errorcode,
		var	component,
		var	id,
		var	title,
		var	description,
		var	extra_fields
	)

Convenience function to send an alert in one function call.

Parameters

severity	- The severity level, alert.INFO, alert.ERROR or alert.CRITICAL
errorcode	- The errorcode
component	- The component
id	- IdentifierThe component
title	- A short title
description	- A long description
extra_fields	- Extra fields for alert

A unique index will be ructed out of "component"_"errorcode"_"id"

alert.set_command	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the command for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The command

The command is optional, and should be "CANCEL" if an alert needs to be cancelled, all other commands have at present no effect

alert.set_component	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the component for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The component

alert.set_description	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the description for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The description

alert.set_errorcode	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the errorcode for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The errorcode

alert.set_extra	(	var	al,
		var	key,
		var	value
	)

Set an extra value on an alert.

Parameters

al	- The alert to modify
key	- The key to enter the value under
value	- The value to store under the key

alert.set_id	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the identifier for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The symbol identifier

alert.set_severity	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the severity for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The severity (alert.INFO, alert.ERROR or alert.CRITICAL)

alert.set_time	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the time for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The time

alert.set_title	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the title for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The title

alert.set_uniqueid	(	var	al,
		var	rhs
	)

Set the unqiue identifiers for this alert object.

Parameters

al	- Alert to modify
rhs	- The unique identifier