how to notify via sms

[Ian Marlier]

> From: "C. Bensend" <benny at bennyvision.com>
> Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 08:22:10 -0600 (CST)
> To: <nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net>
> Subject: Re: [Nagios-users] how to notify via sms
> 
> 
>> I'm quite certain there are other ways to do this, but most (all?) US cell
>> providers have an e-mail domain to which you can send SMS messages as a
>> standard plain-text e-mail.  Not sure about non-US carriers, but I'd be
>> surprised if it weren't pretty standard.
> 
> That's the easy way out, yes.  But think about it for a second - do
> you want notifications for _network outages_ to be dependant on ..
> wait for it .. the _network_?  :)
> 
> It may work 95% of the time, but that remaining 5% is going to suck.
> 
> Benny

Within the building, a redundant nagios install with each using a seperate
outbound network provider, seperate network hardware, seperate power backup,
etc, makes this a moot point 99.999% of the time.  I can have nagios
installA ping the firewall on network pipeB via pipeA; while nagios installB
pings the firewall on network pipeA via pipeB.  Having two machines that
talk to each other internally, but can both get out without any overlap in
their paths, helps.

Externally, well...at $4/month, it's a lot cheaper (and easier) to have a
script running as a cron job on a generic web hosting company -- run every
minute, page if the external interface of the firewall can't be pinged --
than it would be to get Verizon to run a single copper line into the
building for the sake of Nagios.

With migration to VOIP, this is going to be even more of an issue, since
many companies just aren't going to have any copper available anywhere --
POTS lines are just going to fade from existence, making modems tough to
use.  Yeah, you can take a T-1 and make it act like copper for the sake of a
modem -- but then you run into the same issue as e-mail alerts.

(I'm choosing not to get into the fact that some companies feel that
redundant high-speed connections to the internet are a justifiable cost, but
that a single copper line isn't.  I guess the Accounts Payable paperwork is
less or something.)

Yeah, it's not fancy, and yeah, it does make me reliant on an external
provider.  But it also lets me know if downstream network problems are
making my site inaccessible, when the network itself appears (internally) to
be working.

And at $8/mo, 2 of them are even better :-)

Don't mean to claim that this way is at all preferrable to the other
alternatives; just that it is possible to provide that same security in
other ways.

- Ian



-------------------------------------------------------
SF.Net email is sponsored by:
Tame your development challenges with Apache's Geronimo App Server. Download
it for free - -and be entered to win a 42" plasma tv or your very own
Sony(tm)PSP.  Click here to play: http://sourceforge.net/geronimo.php
_______________________________________________
Nagios-users mailing list
Nagios-users at lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nagios-users
::: Please include Nagios version, plugin version (-v) and OS when reporting any issue. 
::: Messages without supporting info will risk being sent to /dev/null