Send SMS messages from Zenoss
If you wish to further improve the features of
Zenoss to protect your system, you can adopt SMS technology to the corporate
IT environment. This solution allows to send SMS messages such as SMS
notifications or alerts to the mobile phones of the IT staff. Therefore,
continuous availability can be provided while the performance is also
ensured. To implement SMS solutions you just need to install an SMS
gateway such as Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, which has
a unique capacity on the market.
Then SMS messaging ensures efficiency and safer IT infrastructure to
satisfy the needs of the IT staff, the management and customers, as well.
You can learn more about this solution in this article.
How to use SMS technology in Zenoss
System and network monitoring applications such as
Zenoss are essential parts of a corporate IT system to provide a better
IT operation and ensure right performance. Though the effectiveness of
IT infrastructures still can be further increased if you want to operate
at the highest level.
If you wish to make a system that is able to notify you or the IT staff
in case of system malfunctions, then implement SMS technology in your IT
system. SMS functionality allows you to send SMS notifications or SMS
alerts to the mobile phones of the IT staff or other intended people.
With these SMS notifications you can prevent several further cases and
avoid work stoppages as the intended person can intervene in real time.
Moreover, multiple messages can be sent out, so not only the IT staff but
the management can also be informed instantly. Therefore, all the staff
can be up-to-date and well-informed about the condition of the IT system
even if you are on the move.
To achieve these features you need to download and install a stable SMS
gateway such as Ozeki NG SMS Gateway.
It will provide SMS functionality right after its installation and you can
start to build your SMS system. It forwards SMS messages to the mobile
network either with the help of a GSM modem attached to the PC; or it
connects directly to the SMS center of the mobile service provider. This
solution helps you improve your monitoring application and saves
considerable time and money.
Benefits of SMS messaging
- Allows real-time SMS notifications and SMS alerts if there is an
error in the system
- Cost and time effective
- Offers unique capacity on the market
- Improves effectiveness
- Increases availability
- Improves corporate communications
- Not requires Internet connection (in case of GSM modem connection)
Prerequisites
In order to setup this solution you need to find a way
to connect your system to the mobile network. You can do this
by using an Internet connection or you can
setup a wireless connection by attaching a GSM phone/GSM modem to your computer. To help you make a
decision, we have prepared a webpage for you:
Internet based SMS connections vs. GSM modem based (wireless) SMS connections.
Depending
on what you select, you need the following prerequisites.
Prerequisites for Internet based connection to the Mobile network
If you wish to connect your system to an SMS service
provider over the Internet you need the following components:
Figure 1/a - Prerequisites for Ozeki NG SMS
Gateway IP SMS connection
In this case you need to find an SMS service
provider who can reach the mobile phones in your area. This SMS
service provider should be able to provide SMS service through
the Internet. To find such a provider, you can check our
website where we list some of them:
SMPP SMS Service providers.
Once you have found such a provider, you need to sign up for
their service to get the connection parameters. You can use these parameters
to configure your Ozeki NG SMS Gateway software.
Prerequisites for wireless (GSM modem) connection to the Mobile network
If you wish to connect your system to the mobile
network wirelessly, you need a GSM modem or GSM phone, that you
can attach to your computer with a data cable. In this case your Ozeki
NG SMS Gateway software will operate this phone and will send and receive
SMS messages wirelessly. To setup this connection method, you need the following
components:
Figure 1/b - Prerequisites for Ozeki NG SMS
Gateway GSM modem connection
Your checklist (for GSM modem connection):
*The SIM card will come with a plan, that will
determine how much money you will spend on each SMS.
System architecture
If you make sure that you meet all the above mentioned
requirements, you can start to build your SMS system that will work as
follows: If an error occurs in the IT system, Zenoss detects this malfunction
and generates a report about it. This report will be forwarded to Ozeki NG
SMS Gateway through a HTTP request. Finally, the SMS gateway processes it,
and send out the SMS message to predefined phone numbers. This process can
be examined on Figure 2.
Figure 2 - Ozeki NG SMS Gateway - solution
for how to send SMS from Zenoss
How to configure this solution
To send SMS messages from Zenoss you need to configure your
system. Please follow our step-by-step installation guide and watch the video
tutorials to be successful in configuration.
First enter Linux, start Terminal, and login as Administrator.
Then stop your default mail service and with "checkconfig" you can make sure
that it will not start again. Finally, start Ozeki NG SMS Gateway
service (Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Stop mail service
Log into Ozeki NG SMS Gateway with your username and password,
and click on "Server Preferences" in "Edit" menu (Figure 4).
Figure 4 - Edit server preferences
Click on "Client Connectivity" tab and enable the built-in
SMTP server (Figure 5).
Figure 5 - Enable built-in SMTP server
Start Zenoss with typing the follows into the web browser
(Figure 6):
http://localhost:8080/
Figure 6 - Load Zenoss
Enter Zenoss and click on "Preferences" menu item (Figure 7).
Figure 7 - User's preferences
Then enter an email address in the following form:
recipient@computer name. The recipient needs to be the phone number
of the recipient; the computer name will be the IP address or DNS name
of the computer to which Ozeki NG SMS Gateway has been installed. If
it is done, type your password at the bottom of the form and click
on "Save" to save the changes (Figure 8).
Figure 8 - Provide e-mail address and save
If you saved the changes, a "Test" button appears next
to email field (Figure 9).
Figure 9 - Test e-mail address
If you click on "Test" button, it will send a test
message to the defined phone number. This sent message appears in Ozeki
NG SMS Gateway (Figure 10).
Figure 10 - Sent test message
Then click on "Alerting Rules" in Zenoss (Figure 11).
Figure 11 - Edit alerting rules
Click on the dropdown menu and select "Add Alerting
Rule" menu item (Figure 12).
Figure 12 - Add alerting rule
Provide a name for this rule, in our example it is
"Ozeki SMS Alert", and click on "OK" (Figure 13).
Figure 13 - Rule name
Then click on the created alert and set the "Enabled"
value to "True" and "Severity" value to "Critical" and click on "Save"
(Figure 14).
Figure 14 - Edit rule properties
Next, click on "Message" tab (Figure 15).
Figure 15 - Edit message
Compose the body of your message and click on
"Save" (Figure 16).
Figure 16 - Edit message data
I click on "Device" menu item on the right side and
it can be seen that there is an error on the monitored computer
(Figure 17).
Figure 17 - Alert on monitored computer
If you take a look at Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, you can see
that it sends out an SMS alert (Figure 18).
Figure 18 - Sent message from Ozeki NG
SMS Gateway
Conclusion
To summarize the above mentioned, Ozeki NG SMS Gateway is
the best solution to further increase the performance of your monitoring
application like Zenoss. With our solution you will be able to build a
stable and well-functioning SMS system at the highest quality to give a
helpful and efficient assistance to the IT staff and let the management
be well-informed and up-to-date on all the happenings of the corporate
IT environment. Improve your business and attract more customers and
business partners with a competitive solution.
Request more information
If you are interested in this solution, let us know, so we can send you
more relevant information and quotation with prices. Please fill in the
following form:
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