8.0;alarm_server, revision 8.0, 84/03/15
ALARM_SERVER -- Notify user about special events.
usage: ALARM_SERVER [options]
FORMAT
ALARM_SERVER [options]
The alarm server looks for a variety of conditions that may of of interest to
users or system administrators. When one of those conditions arises, the alarm
server pops a window on your display describing the condition and sounds an
audible alarm.
The conditions on which the alarm server can report are:
Potential disk overflow
You are notified when the disk containing your / directory
(diskless users please note) starts to run out of free space.
Severe network problems
You are notified whenever there is a new network hardware
failure message, indicating severe network problems. The
hardware failure message is described in the NETSTAT
documentation.
Observer reports from NETMAIN_SRVR
You are notified whenever one of the observers in the
NETMAIN_SRVR program makes a report on unusual network
conditions. This option is interesting only to the network
system administrator.
Optional software
The ALARM_SERVER is also used with certain optional software
packages. The appropriate software user's manuals give
complete instructions on the use of the ALARM_SERVER with the
optional software packages (see "related topics", below).
Each condition is checked once every four minutes, or at some other interval
set by the -PERIOD option, but alarms may not be posted every time the
condition is checked. See the description of each alarm to find out what that
alarm's scheduling policy is.
Use ALARM_SERVER only through the DM command CPO. Do not use it as a server
process (via CPS). Many people start their alarm servers in their
~USER_DATA/STARTUP_DM command files.
OPTIONS
-DISK[_FULL] [nn]
Notifies you when the disk containing your / directory is
more than <nn> percent full. This alarm does not run unless
you specify the -DISK_FULL option. If you omit <nn>, it is
set to 95 (percent full). If you do not clean off the disk,
or if the disk-full condition recurs, the alarm is posted
again. After notifying you twice, the alarm will not be
posted again for at least an hour.
-HW[_FAIL] Notifies you when some node detects network hardware
problems (as seen in the 'Last ring hardware failure'
section of a NETSTAT -L report). Hardware failures are not
checked unless you specify this option. Only new failure
reports cause alarms.
-NETMAIN [pathname ...]
Enables alarms from NETMAIN observers. The pathname[s], if
specified, represent text files containing lists of node
that run NETMAIN_SRVR. If no pathname is specified, the
file ~user_data/alarm_server.netmain_srvr_list is used. The
files should contain lists of node names or hex node ID
numbers, separated by spaces or on different lines.
Comments in these files start with { or # characters, and
run to the end of the line.
The alarm server reads these files only when it starts up.
If you add or delete node names in these files after the
server is running, your changes will not take effect until
the next time the server starts up.
-NM_SRVR node_spec [...]
Enables alarms from NETMAIN observers. <node_spec>
specifies a node from which you want observer alarms.
<node_spec> may be a hex node ID number or a node name.
-BELL1 Normally, a distinctive tone pattern accompanies each kind
of alarm. If you specify this option, a single short beep
is used for any alarm.
-NOBELL Normally, each kind of alarm is accompanied by an audible
alarm. This option suppresses the audible alarm.
-NONETMAIN This is a default option. It prevents the alarmer from
checking for observer alarms from the NETMAIN_SRVR program.
-P[ERIOD] nnn
Each alarm-detector is checked every <nnn> minutes. By
default, nnn is 4 minutes. It must always be at least one
minute.
-V[ECTOR] dx [dy]
Selects the offset from each alarm window to the next.
-W[INDOW] initx [inity [width [height]]]
Sets the screen position of the first alarm window and the
size of the alarm windows.
EXAMPLES
CPO /com/alarm_server -disk 98 -bell1
CPO /com/sh -c '/com/alarm_server *~user_data/opt_file' -n alarms
This is a very useful form of the command. It lets you
create an options file (in this case ~user_data/opt_file)
and use that file to control the alarm server. The alarm
server's process is named by the -n option. In this case,
the process is called "alarms".
RELATED TOPICS
More information is available. Type:
- HELP CPO
for details on starting background processes.
- HELP NETMAIN_SRVR
for details about collecting network statistics.
- HELP NETMAIN
for details about displaying the data collected by NETMAIN_SRVR.
- HELP LVOLFS
to see how to generate exact figures on a disk's free space.
- HELP NETSTAT
for a more detailed description of the network hardware failure message.
- Additional information is available for using the alarm_server with certain
optional software packages. For example, the DOMAIN Software Engineering
Environment (DSEE) is an optional software package which the alarm_server
supports. Typing HELP DSEE ALARM_SERVER will provide additional information,
if DSEE is installed on your system.