OP5 Monitor ["OP5 Monitor"]
["User Guide"]

# Problem responses

## Overview

This page describes the most commonly used responses to problem states in OP5 Monitor and how to use them. The main problem responses are:

- Acknowledge problems.
- Schedule downtime.

These two problem responses are among several actions you can perform on your monitoring objects. As with all actions, you can perform them on multiple objects. For more details, see View and perform actions on hosts and services in Monitor hosts and services.

## Acknowledge problems

When a new problem is discovered on a host or service, the first thing you need to do is to acknowledge it. By acknowledging a problem, you:

- Make sure no more notifications are sent out.
- Show other users that you have seen the problem and are aware of it.

Acknowledging at host level also acknowledges all services for the host.

Described below are two of the main ways you can acknowledge a problem:

- In the OP5 Monitor user interface.
- By SMS, if your OP5 Monitor server was configured to use SMS during installation. For more information, see Configure an SMS modem in Additional server and software setup.

### Acknowledge a problem in the user interface

The most common way to acknowledge a problem is in the user interface.

#### Acknowledge a problem on a host or service

To acknowledge a problem:

1. Find the host or service, using either the Search facility or one of the host or service views, as described in Open a host or service view in Monitor hosts and services, then click the host or service name to go to the host or service detail page.
2. Click ACKNOWLEDGE in the left-hand panel.
3. Add a comment with further information, such as the actions you will take. After acknowledgement, your comment will be visible in the host or service view in the Status column.
4. Check the required comment options:
   - Sticky means all notifications are suppressed until the object changes state to OK or UP; if you uncheck this option, OP5 Monitor continues to send notifications for other state changes, such as from CRITICAL to WARNING.
   - Notify means contacts receive a notification of your acknowledgement.
   - Persistent means the comment you entered remains in the system after the object is no longer in a problem state.
5. Click Submit. After you submit, you return to the host or service detail page.

Note: You can also acknowledge problems using the Acknowledge problem host and service actions. For more details, see View and perform actions on hosts and services in Monitor hosts and services.

### Acknowledge a problem by SMS

If you received your notification by SMS, you can acknowledge it by sending an SMS back to the OP5 Monitor server.

To acknowledge a problem by SMS:

1. Open the notification SMS on your mobile phone.
2. Forward it to the OP5 Monitor server. You must forward the complete SMS exactly as it looked when you received it.

If you now check the host, you can see that it has been acknowledged and a comment appears next it in the host views.

### Remove an acknowledgement

You can remove an acknowledgement if, for example, you acknowledged the wrong problem or you need to stop working on it and you want notifications to continue to be sent out.

To remove an acknowledgement for a host:

1. Find the host and click the host name, using either the Search facility or one of the host views, as described in Open a host or service view in Monitor hosts and services.
2. In the Options menu, select Actions > Remove acknowledgement.

Notifications continue as before for the host and the acknowledgement comment remains.

Note: You can also remove acknowledgements using the Remove acknowledgement host and service action. For more details, see View and perform actions on hosts and services in Monitor hosts and services.

## Schedule downtime

Using scheduled downtime enables you to plan for system work ahead. When a host or service is scheduled for downtime, OP5 Monitor suppresses alerts for that host or service. OP5 Monitor also informs you when a host or service is scheduled for downtime through the user interface. Information about scheduled downtime is stored, so that planned system work does not affect availability reports. It is possible to schedule downtime for the following object types:

- Hosts
- Services
- All members of a host group
- All members of a service group

If the parent-child relationship is configured correctly, then you can also configure triggered downtime for hosts that are children of a host in scheduled downtime. For more information on how to configure a parent-child relationship between hosts, see Configure a host or service in Manage hosts and services.

### View scheduled downtime

You can view a list of all monitoring objects with scheduled downtime, along with details of the downtime for each. You can also remove scheduled downtime in this view.

To view all scheduled downtime:

1. Click Monitor > Downtimes
2. Select one of the downtime views.

### Schedule new downtime

The procedures below explain how to schedule downtime for a single monitoring object. You can also schedule downtime for multiple monitoring objects. For more details, see View and perform actions on hosts and services in Monitor hosts and services.

When the scheduled downtime starts, a notification is sent. When adding a retroactive downtime, it is noted in the log for the service or host.

#### Schedule downtime for a host or service

To schedule downtime:

1. Find the host or service, using either the Search facility or one of the host or service views, as described in Open a host or service view in Monitor hosts and services, then click the host or service name to go to the host or service detail page.
2. Click SCHEDULE DOWNTIME.
3. Enter the Start time and End time.

4. Choose between:

   - Fixed — downtime starts and stops at the exact start and end times.
   - Flexible — you know how long it will be down for, but not when it will go down. For flexible downtimes, specify:
     - Duration— the length of the downtime in hours.
     - Triggering downtime— another scheduled downtime that will trigger the downtime, such as downtime scheduled on a parent host.
     - Propagate to children— if any children are also to be taken down.
5. Enter a Comment.
6. Click Submit.
7. Click Done.

When the scheduled downtime starts, the host or service detail page shows the status of the host or service as In Scheduled Downtime.

#### Schedule downtime for a host group or service group

To schedule downtime:

1. Find the host group or service group, using either the Search facility or one of the host group or service group views, as described in Open a host group or service group view in Monitor host groups and service groups, then click Actions to go to the host or service group detail page.
2. In the Options menu, choose Schedule downtime from the Host Operations or Service Operations.
3. Specify the downtime details, as described in Schedule downtime for a host or service.

### Remove scheduled downtime

You can remove scheduled downtime both before the scheduled downtime has started and during the downtime. If you remove the scheduled downtime before it has reached its end time, OP5 Monitor sends a notification saying that the scheduled downtime is cancelled.

To remove scheduled downtime:

1. Open a scheduled downtime view in Monitor > Downtimes.
2. Click the Delete icon under Actions.
3. Click Submit.

The scheduled downtime and the scheduled downtime comment are removed.

Note: You can also remove downtime and cancel all downtimes using the Delete downtime and Cancel all downtimes host and service actions. For more details, see View and perform actions on hosts and services in Monitor hosts and services.

### Schedule recurring downtime

Recurring downtime is useful for managing host and service downtime which is planned to occur on a regular basis, for example, you need to reboot your Citrix servers once per week.

#### Add recurring downtime

To add recurring downtime:

1. Click Monitor > Downtimes > Recurring Downtimes.
2. Click the New icon at the top right of the view.
3. Select the object type from the drop-down list.
4. Choose the objects, for example your Citrix host group.
5. If the downtime is flexible, select the Flexible checkbox and specify the duration.
6. Set the start and end date and time.
7. Specify the recurrence details, such as the days of the week, the frequency, and the end date.
8. Specify any specific dates to exclude.
9. Add a Comment.
10. Click Add Schedule.

#### View, edit or delete your recurring downtime schedules

1. Click Monitor > Downtimes > Recurring Downtimes.
2. In the Actions menu, click either the:
   - Edit icon and update the fields as specified in Add recurring downtime.
   - Delete icon, then OK.

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