Forum Discussion

mnagel's avatar
mnagel
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6 years ago

fix command-by-email formatting or handling

The current command-by-mail (when allowed, which is ONLY with the builtin mail transport) is a bit misleading especially to those not already familiar with LM.

You may reply to this alert with these commands:
- ACK (comment) - acknowledge alert
- NEXT - escalate to next contact
- SDT X - schedule downtime for this alert on this host for X hours.
- SDT datasource X - SDT for all instances of the datasource on this host for X hours
- SDT host X - SDT for entire host for X hours

I had a customer literally put in:

- ACK still working with century link 
 
because, well, that is what it says to do.  Please fix so it is more clear, or fix the response handler to account for this use case.  As always, the computer should be doing the work here, not offloading to busy humans.
 
  • I never used the email response system (have LM tied to a ticketing system). Took me a bit to notice, is the beginning hyphen the issue?

  • In this case, yes.  I never noticed myself, but can see why someone might take the instructions literally.  I just hate too-strict systems that error out like this and frustrate users unnecessarily.  We also link LM to ticketing in some cases, but found when it is done via email integration (easier with the ticketing system we use), LM made the decision that ACK and SDT notices are not sent via custom email integration, no way to fix short of development changes.  Really need at least some folks over there focusing on the basics -- some of the new advanced stuff is nice, but poor alert handling (not this one specifically, which is annoying but at least can be worked around) is a shame.

  • Agree!  I too would welcome more attention on the little things that would boost Operations productivity.

    Can't think of any reason why the options in the emails couldn't be hyperlinks - one click/tap, as well as accepting replies to the email.