# Notification Actions

## Action Overview

This page defines how a (simple) Notification Action glues together the triggers with the Output Channels listed in Available Output Channels.

Selector

  Notification Actions for Checks Changes and Tickets can filter the observed elements by selectors. This helps to define the exact subset of Checks, Changes, or Tickets that has to be monitored. For CCMS Alerts there is no such option.

Service Hours

  The Notification Action is only executed during the time range defined by the selected Service Hours record.

Maximum attempts

  Assume your Output Channel fails to deliver; perhaps your SMTP server is not available temporarily. You can define how often the Output Channel shall be executed before the Notification Action fails.

Filter Lists

  In case you want more fine-grained control of your Notifications besides the restriction by Check Selectors and Service Hours, you can link Filter Lists to your Notification Action. Output Channels are executed only in case the defined filters are passed.

Resolver

  If you want additional data to be included in the Output Channels (i.e. data that is not available through the standard Interpolations) you can define a so-called Resolver that is executed whenever a Notification Action fires, and that provides additional variables. The Resolver basically is a program you need to provide that takes some of the standard Interpolations as input and provides custom data as result.

  In order to distinguish the Resolver you may define from the internal one resolving standard Interpolations, we sometimes also use the term “Custom Resolver” .

Confirmation of RealTime Monitoring Checks/Daily Checks

  Notification Actions can be used to confirm RealTime Monitoring Checks or Daily Checks. This is especially helpful if you deliver a Notification into a third-party monitoring or problem management application and you want to make Avantra reflect this in, for example, the RealTime Monitoring views.

  If you only want to confirm RealTime Monitoring Checks or Daily Checks without delivering Notifications the Null Channel Output Channel will prove useful.

All these items are described in the upcoming sections.

Each Notification Action only supports one of the five available Action Types: Checks, Changes, Tickets CCMS Alerts, Server Events, and SAP HotNews events

Once Avantra finds a Notification Element that matches the trigger criteria of a defined Notification Action, this Notification Action is going to be processed.

A Notification Element that is being processed by a Notification Action is also called a Notification message. Every Notification message has a status depending on the result of filter evaluation and — of course — on the success of the Output Channel.

The status information is saved in the Avantra Database and can be displayed in Avantra WebUI.

Table 1. Notification Message Status
Message Status | Description
--- | ---
OK - Blocked | The Notification has been blocked by a filter
OK - Sent | The has been successfully sent
Pending | A Notification attempt failed but will be retried
Aborted | The Output Channel failed to deliver
Scheduled | The Notification is scheduled to be sent
Initial | A Notification has not been processed by the defined Notification Action because e.g. the trigger criteria did not match