Setting Alert Actions in Linux Operating Systems

When you set Alert Actions for an event on systems running a supported Linux operating system, you can specify the action to "display an alert on the server." To perform this action, Server Administrator writes a message to the console. If the Server Administrator system is running an X Window System, you do not see the message by default. 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 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 system running Server Administrator is running the X Window System, you do not see the message 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.

NOTE: On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, messages sent by wall are displayed by the xterm terminal program but not by the Konsole terminal program.  

When you set Alert Actions for an event, you can specify the action to "execute an application". Limitations are on the applications that Server Administrator can execute. Follow these guidelines to ensure proper execution:

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Setting Alert Actions in Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows Server™ 2003, and Windows Server 2008

When specifying alert actions, Visual Basic scripts are not automatically interpreted by the Execute Application feature, although you can run a .cmd, .com, .bat, or .exe file by only specifying the file as the alert action.

To resolve this issue, first call the command processor cmd.exe to start your script. For example, the alert action value to execute an application can be set as follows:

c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /c d:\example\example1.vbs

where d:\example\example1.vbs is the full path to the script file.

Do not set a path to an interactive application (an application that has a Graphical User Interface or which requires user input) in the Absolute path to the application field. The interactive application may not work as expected on some operating systems.

NOTE: The full path to both the cmd.exe file and your script file should be specified.  

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