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Notification Variables

Use notification variables to build the Subject line and message body of all notification types; email notifications are a prominent example. Notification variables consist of the following:

Variable

Description

Message Type

$Country

Country for which NetMRI unit is configured.

Summary, Non-Summary

$DeviceLimit

Maximum number of devices the current NetMRI appliance is licensed to monitor.

Summary, Non-Summary

$EventDetails

For summary:
HTML: a formatted table for each issue or change type, listing individual instances of that issue or change type.
Plain Text: a comma separated list of individual instances grouped by issue or change type.
For non-summary: name/value pairs of additional information. This data derives from the original issue definition and take its data from the table of information previously defined for the issue.

Summary, Non-Summary

$EventSummary

HTML: an event summary table.

Plain Text: a comma separated list.

For issues: lists severity, issue type, number of instances, and date/time.

For changes: lists change type, number of instances, and date/time.

Summary

$Identifier

Object that triggered the event (see additional information below).

Summary, Non-Summary

$InterfaceLimit

Maximum number of interfaces this NetMRI instance is licensed to monitor.

Summary, Non-Summary

$JobName

Name assigned to a job definition.

Non-Summary

$JobDescription

Descriptive text (if any) given to the job definition (so it may not match what is shown in NetMRI).

Non-Summary

$JobDevices

List of devices selected by job author. Shown by device name if non-blank, then by device IP address. If job author has not selected any devices, the text "No individual devices selected" appears.

Non-Summary

$JobDeviceGroups

List of devices, selected by job author, where the job runs. If the job author has not selected any device groups, the text "No device groups selected" appears.

Non-Summary

$JobScriptName

Script that the job will run.

Non-Summary

$JobScriptLevel

Level of script specified in $JobScriptName.

Non-Summary

$JobMessage

Message provided by job notification (internally built by NetMRI):

"Job completed successfully."
"Job canceled by user."
"Job competed with skipped devices."
(No message shown on not-yet-approved messages, because that information is already available)

Non-Summary

$JobStatus

The job status at notification time. (This can change if the job reruns, either per schedule or rerun by the user.)

Non-Summary

$Model

NetMRI appliance model number.

Summary, Non-Summary

$NetworkName

Name of the network monitored by NetMRI.

Summary, Non-Summary

$RunDate

Date when the notification was processed (see additional information below).

Summary, Non-Summary

$SerialNo

NetMRI appliance serial number.

Summary, Non-Summary

$ServerURL

URL of server running NetMRI. An HTML notification will provide a link to the server.

Summary, Non-Summary

$ServerName

Name of server running NetMRI. An HTML notification will provide a link to the server.

Summary, Non-Summary

$SeverityName

The name of the severity Type for the reported notification. Three valid values are used by NetMRI: Error, Warning and Info.

Summary, Non-Summary

$TimeZone

Time zone specified in NetMRI configuration.

Summary, Non-Summary

$Title

Provides brief information about the event; this variable can be useful as the e-mail subject. Does not state the concerned device. $Title is different for each notification category:
"$IssueType" for issues.

"$ChangeType" for changes.

"Job $JobName not approved" for jobs not yet approved.

"$JobMessage $JobName" for all other completed jobs.

"$Title" for system alerts.

Summary, Non-Summary

$TotalCount

Total number of processed events.

Summary

$TypeCount

Total number of unique Type IDs. Notifications have a Type ID, which is a string of up to 255 characters in length; numerous notifications with the same Type ID can be counted in the summary if a summary is sent.

Summary

$Version

The NetMRI version number.

Summary, Non-Summary

The $Identifier variable: NetMRI builds $Identifier to identify the object that triggered the event. If the name of the device can be determined, it will appear first. An IP address or MAC address follows in parentheses (see Alternative 1 below). If no name exists, the notification shows the IP or MAC address (see Alternative 2). For a VLAN, if the event does not deal with a specific device, the identifier uses the VLAN name (see Alternative 3). In all cases, if the message is formatted in HTML, NetMRI adds links in the body of the message to enable access to the object.

Alternative 1: <device name> (<device IP or MAC address)

Alternative 2: <device IP or MAC address>

Alternative 3: <VLAN name>

The $RunDate variable: $RunDate is useful as part of summary notifications, which run at set intervals (hourly, daily, monthly, etc.) and collect all events that happened since the last time NetMRI sent the notification. Because the gap is larger between Issue/Change Timestamps and the notification RunDate, $RunDate is more useful in the summary case.

Example: You set up a monthly notification on Interface Down issues. Suppose two of those issues fire on the 15th and the notification fires on the first of the next month. 14, 15, or 16 days elapse between the Issue Timestamp and when the notification was processed.

$RunDate is less useful for non-summary notifications, because notifications process every few minutes; there is a minimal difference between the Issue/Change Timestamp and the RunDate.