Working with Notifications, Notification Policies, and Thresholds

The first step when beginning to work within Alert Center is to populate the Notification library with individual notifications. These notifications can then be used to build notification policies which, in turn, are applied to and triggered by user-defined thresholds in WhatsUp Gold. Access the WhatsUp Gold Alert Center interface by selecting Actions & Alerts > Alert Center Libraries from the SETTINGS main menu option.

Create a notification

1. Ensure the Notification tab is selected.
2. Click the Add icon to launch the Select Notification Type dialog.
3. Use the drop-down menu provided to choose the notification you’d like to create, then click OK. Currently, the available options are E-mail, SMS, and SMS Direct.
4. Configure the notification as needed. Please refer to the following action-specific help content for additional configuration information:
   1. E-mail
   2. SMS
   3. SMS Direct
5. Click OK.

Now, select the Notification Policies tab, then use the next set of procedure steps to build a notification policy using one or more of the individual notifications you've just added to the Notification library.

Build a notification policy

1. Click the Add icon to launch the New Alert Center Notification Policy dialog.
2. Enter a Name and Description for your notification policy. The name you provide will be displayed in the Alert Center Libraries interface after your new notification policy has been saved.
3. Click the Browse button (…) to launch the Alert Center Notification Library dialog.
4. Select a notification displayed to add to your notification policy. This dialog also allows you to create a new notification, edit an existing notification, create a copy of an existing notification, or remove a notification from Alert Center entirely.
5. Click Close to return to the New Alert Center Notification Policy dialog.
6. Repeat the previous steps as needed to add additional notifications to your notification policy.
7. For each notification you've added to the policy, use the controls provided to indicate the order in which the notifications should be triggered and if a blackout policy should be applied. A single notification can be configured to fire more than once and up to three times by enabling any combination of the Step 1, 2, and/or 3 checkboxes provided. Additionally, multiple notifications can be enabled for a single step in the policy.
8. Specify the time intervals at which Steps 2 and 3 should be triggered relative to Step 1 using the controls provided under Escalation Steps. This section of the N configuration dialog also contains an option to enable if you'd like the notification(s) configured to fire for Step 3 to repeat until stopped manually.
9. Click OK.

Finally, you'll need to set a threshold which, when breached, will activate the notification policy assigned to it.

Set a threshold

1. Click the Add icon to launch the Select Threshold Type dialog.
2. Choose the type of threshold you’d like to set, then click Select.
3. Enter a Name for your threshold. The name you provide will be displayed in the Threshold Library interface after your new threshold has been saved.
4. Use the applicable drop-down menu to choose the Notification Policy to apply to your new threshold.
5. Specify how often the applicable groups/devices will be checked for threshold compliance using the Threshold check interval control.
6. Configure any additional threshold-specific details as needed. Please refer to the applicable help content in the Thresholds Library for additional configuration information depending on your selection.
7. Select the Applied Devices tab.
8. Enable the desired option to either Apply this threshold to ALL applicable devices or Apply this threshold to specific devices.
   1. If you choose to Apply this threshold to ALL applicable devices, you still have the option to enable Exclude devices and use the controls provided to navigate to and select specific groups and/or devices to remain exempt from the threshold and associated notification policy.
   2. If you choose to Apply this threshold to specific devices, use the controls provided to navigate to and select specific groups and/or devices for which the threshold will be applied.
9. Click Save.

See Also Alert Center Libraries About Alert Center