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Setting Alert Actions
Setting Alert Actions For Systems Running Supported Red
Hat Enterprise Linux And SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Operating Systems
When you set alert actions for an event, you can specify the action to display an alert on the server. To
perform this action, Server Administrator sends a message to /dev/console. If the Server Administrator
system is running an X Window System, the messsage is not displayed. To see the alert message on a Red
Hat Enterprise Linux system when the X Window System is running, you must start xconsole or xterm -C
before the event occurs. To see the alert message on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system when the X
Window System is running, you must start a terminal such as xterm -C before the event occurs.
When you set Alert Actions for an event, you can specify the action to Broadcast a message. To perform
this action, Server Administrator executes the wall command, which sends the message to everybody
logged in with their message permission set to Yes. If the Server Administrator system is running an X
Window System, the message is not displayed by default. To see the broadcast message when the X
Window System is running, you must start a terminal such as xterm or gnome-terminal before the event
occurs.
When you set Alert Actions for an event, you can specify the action to Execute application. There are
limitations on the applications that Server Administrator can execute. To ensure proper execution:
• Do not specify X Window System based applications because Server Administrator cannot execute
such applications properly.
• Do not specify applications that require input from the user because Server Administrator cannot
execute such applications properly.
• Redirect stdout and stderr to a file when specifying the application so that you can see any output or
error messages.
• If you want to execute multiple applications (or commands) for an alert, create a script to do that and
insert the full path to the script in the Absolute path to the application box.
Example 1: ps -ef >/tmp/psout.txt 2>&1
The command in Example 1 executes the application ps, redirects stdout to the file /tmp/psout.txt, and
redirects stderr to the same file as stdout.
Example 2: mail -s "Server Alert" admin </tmp/alertmsg.txt>/tmp/mailout.txt 2>&1
The command in Example 2 executes the mail application to send the message contained in the
file /tmp/alertmsg.txtto the Red Hat Enterprise Linux user or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server user, and
Administrator, with the subject Server Alert. The file /tmp/alertmsg.txt must be created by the user before
the event occurs. In addition, stdout and stderr are redirected to the file /tmp/mailout.txt in case an error
occurs.
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