Sms Modem Based Paging Example

by Dec 14, 2006

This example makes use of up.time's custom 'Script Alert' option within an alert profile. This custom script uses a Windows tool named ActiveXperts SMS paging ToolKit to send out SMS text message alerts via a modem installed on the monitoring station. Unfortunately the SMS ToolKit isn't free but a number of other tools can be used ranging from freeware to corporate messaging engines.

How it works.

First, install the SMS Toolkit from ActiveXperts here

Now to setup this custom alert script simply create a new alert profile and enter the path to the attached 'alert.bat' script within the 'Script Alert' section. For example create a new alert profile with these settings:

Name of Alert Profile: Send SMS Pager Alert
Script Alert: Checked
Script Path: c:scriptsalert.bat
Available Notification Group: NotifySysAdmins (or whatever groups you like)

When up.time triggers this alert profile it will run the 'alert.bat' script one time for each user within the various notification groups you have selected. It will pass the service monitor message and the target users 'Pager Number' to the script via the environment variables 'UPTIME_MESSAGE' and 'UPTIME_MOBILE'. The alert.bat script will then run the commands specific to the SMS Pager toolkit binaries in order to send the page to your users.

Attached Files
smsexample.zip contains:
alert.bat: a simple wrapper batch file to execute the vbs script that sends the SMS message. up.time executes the batch file directly and the batch worries about the specifics of launching the vbs script.
sendsms.vbs: the core logic to send off the SMS message using the SMS ToolKit resources.

alert.bat may need to be updated if you use different paths to the included files.

sendsms.vbs may need to be updated to the specifics of your installed modem, it includes some commenting to point you in the right direction. It also includes a debugging option to direct testing messages to a log file.

Please note that debugging of this file is not supported directly by uptime.