Action Settings

In the Workflow editor, clicking Workflow action or emitter icon Take action or Write message opens the Action Settings window. Use this function to send a command or universal message to the system. For example, you might want to log information, trigger an audible beep, or stop a job that is using too many resources.

Action Selection

Universal Message, when selected, opens this area:

Category of the message you are defining. Type one of the following categories: critical, warning, or informational.
Severity that you want assigned to the message. Type a severity number (1, 2, and so forth).
Message that is displayed. Type the message text you want to be displayed at the system specified (see Where should the action be run, below).

Universal messages are shown in the Message console icon

Universal Message Console view.

System Command, when selected, opens a text box for entering the command to issue at the system. The command language is that of the application and operating platform you are running (such as a UNIX shell command to run at a UNIX system).

Example: Windows has a command for sending a message to a system: net send computer_name message, as in net send MYPC Disk is 85% full. Delete some files.
Example: UNIX has the mail command for directing messages: mail node userID text.

Attribute

A window is opened for choosing an attribute to include in the universal message or system command. In the Select Attribute window, specify an attribute group and item, then click OK.

The attribute you selected is displayed in the Message field or the System Command field. The attribute name is replaced by the actual value during execution of the action. The attributes available for you to select are based on the situations you have added to the policy preceding the action. If there are no situations in the policy, the Attribute button is disabled.

In the example that follows, the command sends an email that reads, "System: MyServer, Disk: D:, Space Available: 15%":

echo System: &NT_Logical_Disk.Server_Name;, Disk: 
&NT_Logical_Disk.Disk_Name;, Space Available: 
&NT_Logical_Disk.;%_Free%|mail userID.

More Options

If multiple data items are returned: These options determine what action to take if more than one monitored item of data is returned by the situation evaluation:; Only take action on first item issues the universal message or the system command on only the first item of data that meets the situation criteria.; Take action on each item from activity issues the universal message or system command on all items of data generated by the situation specified in the activity selected from the list. The ID for an activity is shown in the Grapher View when you move the mouse pointer over the activity graphic.; The results data returned from each of these individual situation-based activities might originate from the same attribute group on an agent or from attribute groups on different agents. For example, the workflow might be triggered by an OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS situation that monitors for delayed transactions on an CICS monitoring agent, (activity ID WaitOnSituation1) and might then evaluate the state of a situation that monitors threads on an OMEGAMON XE for DB2 monitoring agent, (activity ID EvaluateSituation2).; Some situations can return a single row and others can return multiple rows for each sample. You can control the number of universal messages or system commands to issue when there are multiple situation rows: a message or a command can be sent for the first row only or for every row. As mentioned earlier, though, there can be multiple sets of situation data originating from different activities. Select this radio button to control which set of results data to use.; Referring to the earlier example, send one command for every row returned by the CICS situation by selecting WaitOnSituation1; or send one command for every row returned by the DB2 situation by selecting EvaluateSituation2.; Continue processing rows on failure, when selected, keeps track of both the rows for which the command failed and those for which it succeeded. A policy can be constructed so that one path is taken for the rows that succeeded and another for the rows that failed.; This is a useful feature when, for example, you want to run a script to filter results. In this case, a failed condition does not mean that the activity itself encountered a problem but that a particular row did not satisfy some criteria. When this option is cleared, a system command that returns a non-zero result while processing a series of situation result rows stops further processing of any remaining rows and the activity is terminated with Error, even though some of the commands might have succeeded.
Note: If the situation has a Display Item set and the "Only take action on first item" option is selected, the action is taken once for each unique display item in the rows of data. For example, if there were 100 total rows that qualified and there were 6 unique display items, the situation would fire 6 times. See Formula for more information on display items.
Where should the action be executed: Determines where to perform the action: on the system where the agent resides, the monitoring server to which it is connected, or the system selected from the list.; Execute the action at the agent that returned data for activity issues the universal message or system command on the agent that returned data for the situation in the specified activity (selected from the list). The ID for an activity is shown in the Grapher View when you move the mouse pointer over the activity graphic. Referring to the Take action on each item from activity example, if the action must be executed at the DB2 agent, you would specify EvaluateSituation2 because this is the ID of the activity that evaluates the state of the DB2 situation on the DB2 agent.; Execute the action at the Server issues the universal message or system command at the monitoring server that the agent connects to.; Execute the action at is used to select a specific managed system from the list.