Here's the transcript from Thursday, January 16th''s Alert Central Office Hours session. As always, check out the schedule here: Hey, Listen! Alert Central Office Hours Schedule & Transcripts. We'll put up a Thwack event over in the Community Events, Webcasts & Training space and you can sign up for a handy reminder email by filling out this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9TNQKD3
Highlights from this Office Hours include several questions about product integration and features.
I've marked the AC Team members below with (AC Team), (PM), and (Dev), so they are easy to distinguish. If you didn't get your question answered or have a new question after reading through, feel free to post it here in the Alert Central forum!
| Sender | Text |
|---|---|
| Brett | I have recently encountered a few clients that want to "integrate" AC with a Sharepoint on call calendar. Is there any way to do that right now? |
| DanielleH (Thwack Team) | Hi Brett |
| DanielleH (Thwack Team) | The PM will be here shortly. Thanks for joining us! |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello Everyone |
| Katie B (AC Team) | We will be getting started shortly |
| Nicole (PM) | currently, no, but we've had a couple of feature requests to integrate with sharepoint and/or exchange. let me see if i can find one on thwack. |
| Brett | Thank you. |
| Nicole (PM) | http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/2369 is a general request, didn't see one specifically for sharepoint so i'd either mention it in that request or add another idea. |
| David | I would like to see the backend database opened up to sql updates. |
| David | I haven't seen any kind of formal documentation on this and I was told that using the PostGres ODBC driver was a bad idea. |
| David | The UI is great but (like the first poster), its hard to get people to put their personal calendar into another system |
| ziba | I don't hear anyone talking |
| Nicole (PM) | for what kind of purpose? we DO have a standard solarwinds API that we can expose in a more well-documented manner (we've provided occasional instructions on thwack for this, but we can formalize) |
| Nicole (PM) | that would give you access to almost everything. |
| Nicole (PM) | mostly calendar? |
| Nicole (PM) | i think there's a thwack feature specific to that, let me dig it up and mark it down to see what we can do about documenting |
| ziba | Is this only chat or are we going to have a demo? |
| Nicole (PM) | office hours is just a chat |
| David | Yeah, mostly calendar. I looked at SWQL but (unless I am mistaken), it is intended for reporting type activities not inserts, updates, deletes, etc. |
| ziba | It would be nice to have a demo |
| Nicole (PM) | ah, this request is for calendar read - http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/1965. close but not quite. |
| Nicole (PM) | i'll make a note and check on what we can do/document with the API |
| Nicole (PM) | i was just about to ask if you've asked this question before when I found the e-mail thread and, sure enough, that was you |
| Nicole (PM) | in that discussion i did confirm with our development team that write access is possible, but i'll dig in. |
| David | sounds good. |
| Chris | Has any testing been done with Exchange 2013, and are there any caveats to configuring AC and the server? We're having problems getting email responses (Ack, Close, etc.) to flow. Access to root's mail logs on the appliance would really help to troubleshoot this. Any plans to make this available? |
| Nicole (PM) | you can extract the log data that IS generated via the VAMI console, but i'm not sure it'll provide much detail. we did have an issue in a recent release where the replies were getting separated from the original messages which we resolved in a hotfix about a week ago |
| Nicole (PM) | (collecting logs info - http://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-170983 ) |
| Nicole (PM) | (1.1.2 release info - http://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-171085 ) |
| David | I am relatively new with AlertCentral. Is there any kind of best practices document for setting it up (as ide from the Admin guide). |
| Nicole (PM) | we do have some better setup guidance on the thwack resource pages: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-170950 and http://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-171085 |
| Nicole (PM) | videos with examples and where to go without having to read the entire admin guide |
| David | Perfect |
| scottrich | the latest release of Alert Central works with Exchange 2013. It was just posted a few days ago. |
| ziba | Agreed, specially since there are no support eithr |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Welcome to Office Hours |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Is there something we can help you with? |
| Nicole (PM) | ziba, what would you like to see in a demo? have you already watched the intro videos (the pie in the face and the tour)? |
| Desire | Yes |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello! Is there something we can help you with? |
| ziba | Thanks Nicole, I watched it but would like to see how we can work with alerts in relation to on-call and how is it possible to ACK the alerts using our phone or within email. |
| Nicole (PM) | hmm, i'll think on that one. we do have the on call video but it's all about setting up calendars, and not an end-to-end kind of "so this is what you get, tada!" kind of thing. |
| Desire | I am new to the orion software and I wanted to create a report that manages some of my big circuits and have that email directly to my boss. I dont have access to the server Only have acess to console. Is that possible from the comsole? |
| ziba | what version are you using |
| Desire | I am not sure, but I will get back to you.. |
| Nicole (PM) | in 10.6+ you can access reporting from the web console (there's a "Reports" button on the Home tab) |
| Nicole (PM) | NPM that is |
| Desire | I have the admin right and I looked under setting I do not anything for creating a report . E verything I read sayas that I need to access the report scheduler. I dont access to the server that manages the software. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello! Is there something we can help you with? |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Howdy! What can we help you with? |
| Nicole (PM) | here's a video on using the web report writer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SGJqKEJSNR8 - it has some screenshots that might help confirm we're talking about the same location |
| miamidade | hello Katie & Nicole... getting in the loop... |
| Desire | Under the report tab there are many reports, but they are done.I need to be able to create or modify an existing report and have that auto email to my boss. Is that something I can do from npm? |
| Nicole (PM) | i am not an NPM expert but yes, i believe so. i'd check out the video and possibly post in the NPM forum: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/network-management_tht/orion-network-performance-monitor or report lab: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/labs_tht/report-lab |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello! Welcome to office hours. Is there something we can help you with? |
| Desire | Thanks Necole ! I will check that and let you know. |
| Nicole (PM) | good luck |
| Katie B (AC Team) | welcome back! |
| luis | hello Katie, I am new in the forum. I have the following question: Is correct to install Network Performance Monitor, User device Tracker and Network Topology Mapper un the same server ? |
| miamidade | Nicole, do you have any updates on items mentioned in this thread? |
| miamidade | Have you worked with on call calendars? Got lost, confused, or wish for a feature? |
| Katie B (AC Team) | New to thwack or new to Alert Central Office Hours? |
| miamidade | http://thwack.solarwinds.com/thread/59658 |
| luis | both |
| Nicole (PM) | on the NPM/UDT/NTM question, best to ask in the NPM/UDT/NTM forums but my answer would be yes, that is correct, unless you have needs that dictate installing them on separate servers. let me see if there's a deployment guide or anything |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Well welcome to both! We have a wonderful "on boarding mission" to help you get familiar with thwack: |
| Katie B (AC Team) | http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/solarwinds-community/announcements/blog/2013/11/04/you-dont-know-thwack--the-onboarding-mission |
| Katie B (AC Team) | It will introduce you to the different forums and areas |
| Katie B (AC Team) | as well as what sort of awesome free stuff you can get |
| Katie B (AC Team) | like free product extensions and help from Product Managers like Nicole |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Alert Central office hours is to help people get started with Alert Central and work out any issues they might be running into along the way |
| Katie B (AC Team) | As for your server question, you can ask on the NPM forum: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/network-management_tht/orion-network-performance-monitor |
| Nicole (PM) | i can't find anything super helpful on deployment, so if you don't find what you need, i'd post the question over in the NPM forum. generally, it's all on one server, though, as i said. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | I am sure they will be able to provide you with the most accurate info |
| Nicole (PM) | miamidade, we are making some on call usability improvements in a couple of releases over the next couple months |
| Nicole (PM) | including fixing that super irritating recurring on call scheduling dialog |
| Nicole (PM) | the backwards one that people always get stuck on. |
| Nicole (PM) | after that we're looking at expanding on call to stuff like "on duty" and adding an on call builder/wizard, but that will come later. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello Dewey and Arras! Is there anything we can help you with? |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Sorry Luis! |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Dewey and Arras that was for you |
| miamidade | what about allowing to choose different group members in the calendar escalations? |
| Nicole (PM) | you mean have a calendar that applies to multiple groups, or put users from different groups in one calendar? |
| Nicole (PM) | (if so, that has definitely come up) |
| luis | thanks Katie. bye |
| miamidade | I was thinking on put users from different groups in one calendar... but now that you mentioned... can I have a calendar that applies to multiple groups? I noticed every time I create a group a PRIMARY calendar shows up by default... should I create another calendar and associated to any group I need? Can a group have more than one calendar? |
| Nicole (PM) | unfortunately the calendars are tied to groups, i.e. children of groups, and there aren't any "master" or multi-group calendars |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Hello! Anything we can help answer for you? |
| Nicole (PM) | we need some kind of 'calendar sharing' or 'global calendar'... let me see if there's a thwack feature on this, we've heard it several times now and i' mmaking a separate note. |
| Nicole (PM) | here's one that fits the bill: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/2886 |
| DanielKeery | What version is AlertCentral currently on? |
| Nicole (PM) | 1.1.2... dang, i forgot to update the homepage. |
| Dewey | Hi, Katie, ...saw the chat session and was easedropping. We've installed and completed our transition to WHD in the last couple weeks. |
| DanielKeery | Last version we tried we as the 2nd release after the Beta and we were having issues with Exchange integration, has that been rectified? |
| Nicole (PM) | latest version info - http://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-171085 |
| Nicole (PM) | it's hard to say without knowing what your issue is, but we have spent a lot of time fixing bugs |
| DanielKeery | looks like 1.1.0 was the last version we tried, was there a 1.1.1? |
| Nicole (PM) | yep |
| Nicole (PM) | that page has the differences in 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 |
| DanielKeery | disregard. |
| DanielKeery | yeah i see it, sorry. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | That's great |
| Katie B (AC Team) | how was the transition? |
| miamidade | thanks Nicole. I voted for that bill... I appreciate the work you guys are doing... we really like the AC and looking forward for those fixes and improvements. |
| Nicole (PM) | awesome! |
| Dewey | mostly tech familiarization issues; playing whack-a-mole with process holes |
| Dewey | several functionality issues I need to work through |
| DanielKeery | Our email address is different from our Domain, so when we would export users it would try to send emails to a whole bunch of invalid people. Is there a way to change the email domain of a AD domain? Hopefully that makes sense. |
| Nicole (PM) | oh, hmm |
| DanielKeery | import users rather. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Have you been on the WHD forum? |
| Dewey | for a couple months |
| Nicole (PM) | well, one (tedious) workaround would be to import them, not send them the validation, then add their correct primary addresses by hand |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Have you posted any of those functionality issues on the forum? |
| Dewey | yes, usually as new ideas; no responses yet |
| DanielKeery | we were looking into adding an alias on the smtp server to forward upsdiv -> xerox but we ran out of time testing it. at the time we were having a lot of issues that made it impossible for our use but it looks like we'll give it another shot. |
| Nicole (PM) | ah |
| Nicole (PM) | well, feel free to post on the forum or even next office hours (feb 27) |
| DanielKeery | I think as long as calendar rotation has been addressed and we can figure out the email thing, oh and it recognizes our exchange emails, i think we might be able to use this yet. It really is what we need idealistically but in practice it's ggenerally different. |
| Nicole (PM) | if you get stuck |
| Nicole (PM) | yeah, that's pretty common |
| Nicole (PM) | you have to get over a hump to automate everything and then it feels good |
| Nicole (PM) | but in the beginning it's a little uncomfortable |
| DanielKeery | Well, free is a bad word around here. Without some kind of commitment from your end as far as bug fixes go, it's really hard to convince management to get on board. They would rather pay for a product where we can bug them to get support fixes than go "free." Sadly enough. |
| Nicole (PM) | ah, yes. we are looking into that, too. |
| Katie B (AC Team) | Do you have a link to your posts? I was just checking out the forum and didn't see anything from Dewey, but I it is very possible that isn't your thwack handle |
| Desire | Hello ALL, |
| DanielKeery | Is alertcentral by any chance open sourced? (i assume not, wasn't last i checked) Has there been any consideration of opening the source? |
| Angel | Good morning from California |
| Nicole (PM) | correct - not open source. out of curiosity, would that help your case, being open source vs. freeware? what about the option to pay for maintenance, better/worse? |
| Desire | I was in earlier and I had asked some questions and Nicole was kind enough to add a link about the web report writer. I was in my phone and now I am back at my desk and I wanted to watch the video, but I tried typing the link it does not come. Can someone provide me the link again? |
| Nicole (PM) | sure let me scroll back |
| Nicole (PM) | http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SGJqKEJSNR8 |
| DanielKeery | If it was something that we could actually integrate into our enviornment with the rest of our SolarWinds products (we have 7 i believe), yes paying for maintenance would be on the table. If not, we have devs so we would could dig into it and fix it ourselves, and maybe even contribute back to the community. |
| Desire | I am new to Orion and I need to be able to create or modify report and have them delivery through e-mail to my boss. |
| Nicole (PM) | ah, i see |
| Desire | Awesome! |
| DanielKeery | So if you ever come up with some type of maintenance program with an SLA, definitely let us know. |
| Nicole (PM) | thanks everyone for hanging out in office hours today - as always feel free to post on the forum or ping me directly if you need anything |
| Nicole (PM) | next office hours is February 27 - same bat time, same bat channel. |
| DanielKeery | Last question, the forum is still the official place for support, correct? |
| Nicole (PM) | yep |
| DanielKeery | alright, thanks nicole. |
| Nicole (PM) | monitored directly by dev, QA, and PM. |
| Nicole (PM) | thanks |
| Dewey | Katie, I'm not seeing the stuff I posted last year either. |
| Nicole (PM) | in the WHD ideas area? |
| Dewey | I'll consolidate my work and repost as needed |
| Nicole (PM) | you can see everything you've posted by going to this URL - http://thwack.solarwinds.com/people/<yourusername>/content |
| Nicole (PM) | (replace with your username) |
| Nicole (PM) | that might be a better way |
| Dewey | that worked |
| Katie B (AC Team) | We are about to shut down chat, but if you would like to send some of those posts over via thwack message I can check them out and see if we can get you some help |
| Dewey | I need to update them first |
| Dewey | ...and thanx! |
| Katie B (AC Team) | no problem! |
| Katie B (AC Team) | We will post today's chat session on the alert central product forum if you need to go back and check anything out. Thank you all for coming! |
| Nicole (PM) | [Emotion=emthup.gif] |
| Desire | I am back. |
| Angel | [Emotion=emthup.gif] |
| Desire | I watch the video and I am still not able to create a new report. Thing is I do not have the software install in my pc. All I have a link that allows me to login. Reports that are there are already completed and I can only export and view them. That is all. I can't create any new report using webwriter you talked about or the report scheduler. My question is how can I create new report if I only have the link to log in into the Orion? |
| Katie B (AC Team) | You've gone past our expertise with Orion |
| Desire | what I wanted to do is being able to create a report on my big circuits to check the bandwidth and have that e-mail automatically to my boss |
| Katie B (AC Team) | If you post your question here: http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/network-management_tht/orion-network-performance-monitor someone from that team will surely be able to help out |