Single Point Operations Interface Pipe

The Single Point Interface Operations Pipe (SPIP) provides an interface for application programs to transmit event reports that:

Raise, acknowledge, and clear alerts in Operations Sentinel
Log messages in Operations Sentinel log files
Change attribute values

The input to SPIP is from a site-supplied external program or shell script. External application programs and scripts write requests to a pipe file on the Operations Sentinel server named spo_pipe. The complete path for the pipe is as follows:

\\operations-sentinel-server\pipe\spo_pipe

where operations-sentinel-server is the network name of the Operations Sentinel server. Programs sending data to spo_pipe do not receive any confirmation that the data was received or that the event report was processed.

SPIP receives data through spo_pipe. You can write event reports to spo_pipe from the following sources:

Operations Sentinel server - For example, you can write to spo_pipe from a program or by using an echo or type command. Note that an echo command opens and closes a connection to the named pipe each time it is used. The order the event reports are received is indeterminate. If you are sending multiple event reports, it is best to put them in a file and send them to the pipe using a type command.
Remote systems - You can use the same methods to write to spo_pipe from remote Windows systems that you use to write from the Operations Sentinel server.
Remote UNIX and Linux systems - You can use other methods, such as rcp, to write to spo_pipe on the Operations Sentinel server. Using rcp requires that you install rshd (included in the ClearPath IOE, or available from third-party vendors, such as Denicomp) on the Operations Sentinel server.

Examples

The following example shows how to send an alert on a Windows system using SPIP:

’************************************************************************************
’
’ PURPOSE: Send a sample alert event to Operations Sentinel.
’ 						’
’ OUTPUT: Returns 0 on normal exit.
’ 						Writes an event to the Windows Application Event Log if the SPO pipe
’ 						cannot be opened or the event cannot be written to the pipe.
’
’************************************************************************************
On Error Resume Next
’
’ Constants
’
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2
Const ERR_PREFIX = "Alert Script <vbs name here> Error: "
’
’ Declare variables
’
Dim wshArgs ’ input argument object
Dim wshShell ’ wscript shell object
Dim objNetwork ’ network object
Dim fso ’ file system object
Dim fpipe ’ pipe object
Dim strErr ’ error message
Dim numButton ’ button attributes
Dim ans ’ answer from the custom dialog
Dim strTitle ’ title of the dialog box
Dim strPipePath ’ path to the spo_pipe
Dim strSPO_Server ’ Used to hold the name of the spo server.
Dim strAlertText ’ Text of the alert
Dim strEventReport ’ event report sent to spo via the pipe
’
’ Init objects
’
Set wshArgs = Nothing
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
’ Name: CleanUp
’’ Purpose: Discontinue association of object variables with the instantiated objects.
’ 							Assigning object variables to Nothing releases all the system and memory
’ 							resources associated with the previously referenced object.
’
’ Input Environment: None.
’
’ Output Environment: None.
’
’ Return Value: None.
’
’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
Sub CleanUp()
		Set WshShell = Nothing
		Set objNetwork = Nothing
		Set fso = Nothing
		Set fpipe = Nothing
End Sub
’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
’ Main program starts here.
’
’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’
Err.Clear
strTitle = "Error sending alert!"
numButton = vbOKOnly + vbExclamation + vbDefaultButton1
strSPO_Server = objNetwork.ComputerName
strPipePath = "\\" & strSPO_Server & "\pipe\spo_pipe"
strAlertText = " spip alert from vbs."
strEventReport = "TYPE=AL|CLASS=host" & "|INSTANCE=" & strSPO_Server
strEventReport = strEventReport & "|APPL=spip" & "|ALERTID=ed" & CStr(Idx)
strEventReport = strEventReport & "|SEV=critical|TEXT=" & CStr(Idx) & strAlertText
’
’ Open the pipe and write to it
’
Do
		Err.Clear
		Set fpipe = fso.OpenTextFile(strPipePath, ForWriting, True)
								If Err.number = 0 Then
										’
										’ Open was successful. Write to the pipe.
										’
				fpipe.WriteLine(strEventReport)
				fpipe.Close
				Exit Do
		ElseIf (Err.Number = -2147024665) Then
				’
				’ Pipe is busy...try again
				’
				strErr = "pipe busy"
										 WScript.Sleep 100
		Else
				’
				’ Error...send event to application log (set WRM to pick it up)
				’
				Exit Do
		End If
Loop Until (Err.number = 0)
’
’ Log error to event log if necessary
’
If Err.number <> 0 Then
		WshShell.LogEvent 1, ERR_PREFIX & Err.Number & VBLF & Err.Description & VBLF &
RR_OPEN_PIPE & strPipePath
		Call CleanUp()
		WScript.Quit (Err.Number)
End If
’
’ Clean up.
’
Call CleanUp()
’
’ Exit gracefully.
’
WScript.Quit 0
’
On Error Goto 0

The following example shows how to generate log entries from a file on a UNIX or Linux system.

Note: When you enter event reports in a text file, you must add a blank line following the last event report.

rcp spiptest.txt myuser@mysposrver://mysposerver/pipe/spo_pipe

where mysposerver is the name of the Operations Sentinel server and the file spiptest.txt contains one or more event reports, such as:

“TYPE=lg | CLASS=host | INSTANCE=mccoy | 
APPL=sample | TEXT=msg text.”
“TYPE=lg | CLASS=host | INSTANCE=mccoy | 
APPL=sample2 | TEXT=msg text2.”