Alert emails are sent out whenever Watchman Monitoring detects an issue with a computer it's monitoring. The following details their format to assist in further parsing, dissemination and filtering.
Email Message Types
Record Creation
Sent when a report is received from a new WatchmanID
Next Report
Sent when a computer was flagged to send an email on its next checkin.
Computer Record Change
Sent when any of the following key demographics change:
- Group
- Computer Name (excluding trailing number change)
- Serial Number
- RAM (except for Virtual Machines)
- Operating System
- Potential Operating System.
Agent Removal
Sent when agent is able to report its removal from a monitored computer.
Pending Expirations
A summary email of Expirations which will come due in the next 60 days.
New Warning
These are reports of issues which represent an ongoing issue with a computer which needs addressing.
New Alert
Emailed notices of events which may require attention, but do not necessarily require action to resolve. id notifications of a server rebooting, or Time Machine being disabled.
Both styles of New alert are replaced by tickets with the Zendesk integration.
Open Issues
Reports of issues which have not been addressed or muted.
Individual Emails
These are computer-centric.
Daily Summaries
A single daily email, broken into groups, then sorted by computer
Missing Report
A daily summary of all computers which have not reported in their allowed period of time.
Email Message Formatting
Some people may wish to use mail rules to take additional action or route emails based on the nature of the alerts received. For this purpose, and for your convenience, we've added descriptors to the subject line of alert emails along with headers.
Email Subject Lines
Email Subject Line Syntax
[{Email Prefix}][New] Warning: {Machine Name} of {Group} [{Issue 1}][{Issue 2}][{Issue X}]Sample example email subject lines
[Monitoring Client][New] Warning: MacMini Server of MyFavoriteClient [Daylite Server][Last Reboot]
[Our Remote Support] Warning: Jen's Computer of Widgets Inc. [CrashPlan App]
Selecting plain-text formatting includes only one issue per email.
The Email Prefix is "Monitoring Client" by default. Is editable via Custom Branding.
Subject line Labels
[Warning] Indicates there is a problem on a monitored computer which needs to be addressed.
[Alert] Used to inform of a fact which is important (such as a reboot of a computer, or Time Machine being disabled. Alerts are not repeated.
[New] This is added to the subject line of all alerts which contain a new, previously unreported, issue.
[Initial Report] Sent each time a new computer record is created in the Dashboard.
[Next Report] Sent a specific computer reports its status when Next Report Notification has been requested.
[Plugin Title] Short title of the plugin which generated the Warning or Alert. Details
Email Message Headers
For systems that support email header processing, Watchman Monitoring includes the following headers.
X-Wm-Subdomain: Watchman Monitoring Subdomain reporting (for instances of Managed Accounts)
X-Wm-Group-Slug: Group Slug (Indentifier)
X-Wm-Platform: Platform (Mac/Windows/Linux)
X-Wm-Change: Demographic item(s) that changed.
X-Wm-Watchman-Id: Watchman Monitoring Identifier
X-Wm-Plugin: Alerting Plugin
The number of headers will vary based on the content of the most recent report. For instance, a computer reporting problems with disk I/O errors and Time Machine being out of date will have two headers.
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