How to page someone from unix server?

[Rashid Ali]

I am using K250 & K260 servers and each of them got both internal and external modem. How can I make use of it to write a script and page someone when something went wrong with the system? Or Maybe someone knows there is similar product available to perform such functions?

Thanks for any inputs.

[Patrick Wallek]

It depends on the type of pagers that you have. If you have alphanumeric pagers that you can e-mail to, then you can always e-mail something to the pager. But that assumes you have network access. If the network or sendmail is down, then you are out of luck.

If you have a plain numeric pager, then you can probably write a script that will dial the modem, and send the appropriate numeric string. If have alphanumeric pagers, you might still be able to write a script to do what you want, but there are 3rd party products available.

A product that I use to send pages, and it integrates with Openview NNM and ITO, is call TelAlert. It is produced by a company called Telamon. Their web site is: http://www.telamon.com/

There are other products out there as well, but I don't remember the names of any of the others.

[Steven Sim Kok Leong]

Hi,

If you wish to interface with a script, you can make use of kermit. As long as you have the alphanumeric representation table eg. *1 for A etc, you will be able to page by redirecting a file containing the set of kermit commands into kermit itself.

Hope this helps. Regards.

Steven Sim Kok Leong
Brainbench MVP for Unix Admin
http://www.brainbench.com

[Steve Post]

I don't have the unixscript on me. BUT I used to have a numeric pager with no email address I could call from unix. I would connect to it using the cu command. In the phone number I called, I added digits based on the problem.
I would call 1-800-555-1234 9801 to send the digits 9801. Taped to the back of the pager would be a sheet of paper with all of the codes.
9801 - file system full
9801 - database down
9803 - processor load to high
....you get the idea.
Try it with your normal phone. Then try it with the cu command. I think I also put in a 5 second delay between the real number and the code I was send (but I don't remember).
Hope this helps. Steve

[Dave Wherry]

I've had TelAlert suggested to me by HP.
I've also used a package called Spatch. I can't remember where we got it. You can probably find it by searching on the web.

[Greg OBarr]

QuickPage (qpage) is available free from http://www.qpage.org. This is a great package. I have used it before on SUN platforms and it can be compiled quite easily for any platform with the instructions provided in the readme files. Qpage can be easily integrated into your UNIX email so you can send email to the pager address on your UNIX system and it will send the page via modem.

[Jason VanDerMark]

Take a look at ipMonitor. It can monitor your servers and you can setup complex checking to help you determine what is the root cause of the problem before the page or email is sent to your pager. You can check it out at the following URL:

http://www.ipmonitor.com

Check it out, it needs to be installed onto a stand-alone workstation, but it does a great job at monitoring things. Hope this helps.

Good Luck,
Jason V.

[Madhu Sudhan_1]

Hi there !

Visit http://www.qpage.org. It is free. I have used this product. It is it to configure and use. Try it out.

...Madhu

[eric stewart]

Steve,
I used to do the same thing but ran into a problem with the local police.
The code I used for a system problem was 911 and for other not so critical problems was 411.
If there was a timeing problem with the phone network, the emergency police in the US got the 911 call and could not figure out who was calling. Good point not to use these numbers as part of the message.

[Steve Post]

Eric. What a hoot. Good point to NOT use 911 and 411. I don't use this method anymore because I have a text pager that takes email. I just wanted to provide help that did not require installing anything on the HP. All of the codes I sent began with 980. My only problem was one of the "critical errors" caused a page every 15 minutes....forever. The error was not solvable (or critical). But that's a different (and humorous) story.
Steve ^_^

[mike worrell]

Epage software is good. We run it on our
server and have ITO set up to page our pager
with the system name and message.
You can add 3 pagers in epage. To execute
all you have to do is this set up the pager
number and pager service in epage.
JDoe has pager 757555555 and it's alphanumeric
once set up in epage execute this command
/epage/bin/epage JDoe "Call Data Center asap"
His pager will show "Call Data Center asap"
In a script if a desired result is found you
can have it page you the same way.
/epage/bin/epage JDoe "File system is > 90%
Hope this helps. It's real easy to set up
and use.

[Ern Bauti]

There is another software that allows you to page/email with scheduling, time management, and easy to use. You can download the eval version at:
(http://www.atlantissoftware.com/downloads.shtml)

This works great and this is what we use.

Thanks,