Use the Settings icon –> Notifications –> System Settings page to set defaults for notification delivery methods, using three groups of settings: Email System Settings, Syslog System Settings and SNMP System Settings. These settings determine how and where notifications are sent to recipients, and what those notifications look like. All four notification types (Issue, Change, Job and Alert) support HTML and plain text emails.

Note: Individual notification settings supersede default settings.

Defining Global Notification Email Settings

In the Email System Settings tab, you specify SMTP server details, sender authorizations, "from" name and address, subject, message format and message content. (Also see Notification Content and Formatting for more information on defining content for the Subject and Message fields.)
The primary element of any Email notification is a template of HTML/CSS code that draws upon a series of NetMRI notification variables (described in the topic Notification Variables) to show the correct information in the email. Infoblox recommends using the default email formatting and customizing the actual output after evaluating the results from emails generated from the factory-defined template.
To define email settings, do the following:

1. Go to the Settings icon –> Notifications –> System Settings page. The Email System Settings tab appears by default.
2. Enter the From Name and From Address values that will identify the sender of the notification. The default shows a "no reply" email address which is standard form when sending notifications that are not intended to be replied to.
3. Select the Format which will be either HTML (the default) or Text. In both cases, NetMRI uses the notification variables to help format the message block for the email. If electing to use HTML, you can edit the HTML coding information provided in the standard email; or choose not to edit at all. The message is given in each email, including values presented through notification variables to identify the system phenomenon generating the notification. You can edit the sample HTML in place, copy and paste the sample HTML into a dedicated editor (pasting the results back into the Message field), or paste in a completely different HTML form letter. Always keep notification variables in mind when editing this field, and exercise caution when removing or editing variables in the message block.
4. Enter the Username and Password for the server's standard admin account.
5. Choose the Category to which the current email settings will be applied.

Note: Depending on the selected category, the default contents of the Subject and Message fields will change. The Subject field formats differently based on the notification type. Issue, for example, uses three separate variables ($SeverityName; $Title and $Identifier) to structure the content of the subject line. You do not need to edit variables directly in the subject line.

6. If selecting System Alert as the Category, enter the subject line for the default email message settings.

7. Choose whether to format the Message as plain text or HTML.

8. (For Issue notifications only) Use the Details field to include the issue name (using the $Name variable) and value at the time the issue is raised (using the $Value variable). These variables are only valid in the Details field.

9. Click Save when finished.

If you make a mistake or want to remove all notification settings for another reason, click Restore Defaults. The Notification –> System Settings are erased—configured Notifications and subscriptions are preserved.

Note: The Category list and Format option control the information shown in the e-mail Subject, Message and Details fields. Eight combinations of Category and Format are possible, so be sure to review/change the formatted content for all combinations.

Typical usage:

• For an HTML message, data is included as a row within a table, for example:

<TR><TD> optional_cell_style$Name</TD><TD> optional_cell_style$Value</TD></TR>.

• For a plain text message, this field would contain just the variables: $Name, $Value.

A valid SMTP server name or IP address must be entered in this tab before e-mail notifications can be created via the Subscriptions page. The SMTP server must be configured to accept incoming e-mail messages from NetMRI to be relayed to the appropriate destinations.

Defining Global Notification Syslog Settings

Note: Syslog does not provide acknowledgment of message delivery.

To define notification settings for Syslog servers, do the following:

1. Go to the Settings icon –> Notifications –> System Settings page.
2. Click the Syslog System Settings tab.
3. Enter the Syslog server DNS name or IP address in the Syslog Server field. Use commas between each entry if entering more than one default destination IP or host name. These settings are unrelated to the Syslog Forwarding settings under the Settings icon –> Setup –> Syslog Forwarding page in NetMRI.
   When you create a new notification subscription, this server value auto-populates the Server field for all SNMP trap subscriptions.
4. If necessary, enter the TCP Port over which the Syslog server is running. The default standard value is 514.
5. Choose the service Facility over which notifications will be sent. In many cases the default, Local Use 0, may be used. You can use different facilities based on the urgency of the notification. This may change the network service over which the notification message is relayed.
6. If necessary, select the Severity level for Errors (Severity:Error), Warnings (Severity:Warning) and Informational messages (Severity:Info) or retain the defaults.
7. Choose the Category for which the current syslog message settings will be applied.
8. In the Message field, enter the text message that will apply to each notification. Do so for each of the four categories if necessary. The Category list controls the data appearing in the Message field.
9. Click Save when finished.

If you make a mistake or want to remove all notification settings for another reason, click Restore Defaults. Clicking Restore Defaults restores all settings (including currently hidden settings) in all three tabs in this page.

Changing the Syslog Facility

You can change the Syslog facility to which NetMRI automatically forwards log messages. The default is 16–Local Use 0 and can be changed to any Syslog-compliant value. To do so, do the following:

1. Go to the Settings icon –> General Settings –> Advanced Settings page.
2. Click the right arrow once, and click the Edit icon for the Syslog Facility setting under Notification. Syslog System Settings tab.
3. From the Syslog Facility dropdown, select the new facility value.
4. Click OK to save changes.

Defining Global Notification SNMP Trap Settings

Some event monitoring systems accept SNMP traps as input for reporting. NetMRI can send notifications as SNMP Traps to other monitoring systems that use them as an event reporting mechanism.
To define NetMRI notification SNMP settings, do the following:

1. Go to the Settings icon –> Notifications –> System Settings page.
2. Click the SNMP System Settings tab.
3. Enter the SNMP server DNS name or IP address in the Syslog Server field. Use commas between each entry if entering more than one default destination IP or host name.
   • When you create a new notification subscription, this server value auto-populates the Server field for all SNMP trap subscriptions.
4. If necessary, enter the TCP Port over which the SNMP server is running. The default standard value is 162.
5. Enter the SNMP Community string.
6. Choose the TrapT ype: v1Trap, V2cTrap, or V2c Inform.
7. Click Save when finished.
   • If you make a mistake or want to remove all notification settings for another reason, click Restore Defaults. Clicking Restore Defaults restores all settings (including currently hidden settings) in all three tabs in this page.