Question: How does HP Web Jetadmin detect events on devices in order to trigger alerts?

Answer:

Proactive alerting is accomplished through detection and processing of device based events and notification through some method (usually email). The initial detection of device-based events is done in one of two ways:

• Polling devices for specific states is one way to determine if an event has occurred. Polling is always used for Supplies and for Critical Alerts types.
• Traps are packets sent to HP Web Jetadmin for the purpose of signaling an event. When the device is first established in HP Web Jetadmin Alerts subscriptions, the trap destination (the application’s IP address) is configured onto the device.

Question: What is the difference between the three categories of alerts that are offered in HP Web Jetadmin: general, supplies, and critical?

Answer:

• General Alerts: include most non-supply device events and rely on traps. Polling is established when traps destinations can’t be configured or for a few special events.
• Supplies Alerts: monitor device supply status and levels through polling. The polling mechanism uses a combination of slow-polling and sliding time interval depending on the level of the supply being monitored.
• Critical Alerts: events are monitored by polling ever 5 minutes. This and other polling rates are adjustable.

Question: How do I subscribe to alerts in HP Web Jetadmin?

Answer:

The Create Alerts Subscription wizard can be activated for list selections of one or more devices, from the Alerts tab while viewing a single device, or it can be activated without list selection from within the Device Management navigation tree. In the latter case, Web Jetadmin will display the All devices list or device groups (when selected).

Specify Alerts Subscription Options allows users to choose either an existing template or one of the subscription types:

• General Alerts, Supplies Alerts, or Critical Alerts.

Once a selection has been made for either a template or an Alerts type, the rest of the wizard will continue where the user can specify notification type, select notification content, select events, etc.

Question: What is the difference between the alerts notification settings concise, verbose, and custom?

Answer:

The alert notification formats include Custom, Standard, and Concise, which can also be previewed in this portion of the wizard.

Standard and concise are pre-populated templates that contain a sample of desired items a user may want in an email message for an event. Concise is designed with just the bare minimum information for caseswhere an alert may be forwarded to a cell phone, pager, etc.

Custom provides an opportunity to compose a custom email containing just the desired elements from the entiore list of avaiable Web Jetadmin coluns in thedesired order. Free text can also be added to a custom email as desired.

Question: What is the difference between the Supplies alerts under the General category and the Supplies alerts under the Supplies category?

Answer:

The supplies alerts under the General category and the supplies alerts under the Supplies category contain essentially the same types of events to indicate when supplies are running low or out: toner, maintenance kit, fuser, threshold hit, cleaning kit, etc. However, for the alerts under the General category, the device dictates when a supply has run low or out. For the alerts under the Supplies category, the user dictates when the supply is running low or out by entering a threshold. The Supplies category alerts will be triggered based upon polling of the maximum and current levels of the supplies and performing a percentage remaining calculation. The General category alerts are performed via traps or polling of status objects for supplies running low or out.

Question: When subscribing to alerts, why does Web Jetadmin indicate a trap table is full on the device?

Answer:

In the case where Alerts were chosen that are normally triggered by device traps, HP Web Jetadmin will configure a trap table entry onto the device. This trap table entry includes the IP Address of HP Web Jetadmin’s install host as well as the port where the application listens for traps. In some cases a trap table full condition may be encountered. When this occurs the Edit Trap Table Settings tool will appear. This tool enables the user to resolve the trap table full condition through one of the following measures:

• Remove all trap table entries (configures current entry for Alerts processing).
• Remove the entry selected and replace with a new one (configures current entry for Alerts processing).
• Use polling only (uses list polling).
• Skip this device (device will not be configured for Alerts).

Question: What is an Alert template?

Answer:

Alerts templates, like other HP Web Jetadmin templates, are used to store alerts settings to be reused again. A default Alerts Template is preconfigured when HP Web Jetadmin is installed and contains a combination of Supplies, Service, and Media Path categorized General Alert events.

The Create Alerts Template tool is very similar to Create Alerts Subscription. When creating an Alert template, the user configures the following:

• Subscription type: one of three General, Supplies, or Critical.
• Notification type: logging only or Email.
• Email notification settings (when selected): Email Send-to recipients, Email format.
• Available Alerts: shows all available based on subscription type..
• Advanced Settings (when selected): Ignore first occurrence, Threshold setting, Ignore duplicate as they apply to selected Alerts.
• Template Name

When the Edit Subscription Template is invoked, all template settings can be adjusted. Subscriptions that are linked to this template will also be altered as a result of template modification. Apply, View, and Delete controls are available to further manage Alerts Templates. These are available from the navigation tree, Alerts, Templates.

Question: Is there a record of all of the alerts that have been sent by Web Jetadmin?

Answer:

Two records exist for reporting alerts that have been sent: alert history and alert log.

Viewing the alert history can be performed in a few different ways. Device specific Alerts histories can be viewed through Alerts History under the Alerts tab in any device list and for any device list selection. The global Alerts History can be viewed through the navigation tree, Alerts > History item. Both of these listings can be grouped by-device or by-alert using the Group by tool.

Alerts History retention settings can be adjusted through Tools > Options > Device Management > Alerts > General > Alerts History. The retention time has a default setting of 30 days and can be set as high as 365 days. Alerts History can also be cleared by using the Clear Log feature.

A log file is also available to track alert messages that have been sent from HP Web Jetadmin. The alert log file presents an excellent opportunity to feed alerts into enterprise management systems or call ticketing systems. The file can be parsed and fed into any of these systems with minimum effort. The log file can be configured during alert subscription or by selecting Tools > Options > Alerts.

The size of the log file can be controlled under File Size. The path of the log file is displayed on screen. The contents of the log file can be defined by selecting Edit and dragging desired items into the Body section. Now every event that has been processed as an alert will be logged in the log file with the desired parameters.

Question: Why is HP Web Jetadmin not accepting my SMTP server as a valid mail server?

Answer:

An error message will appear if the To and From addresses are not valid or if the mail server is not configured to relay email. The addresses can be manually verified with the following commands through a telnet session using port 25:

• telnet 25 (expected result: 220 xxxx)
• HELO
• MAIL FROM: (expected result: 250 xxxx)
• RCPT TO: M (expected result: 250 or 251 xxxx)
• RSET

Some mail servers will expect the sending address to be a valid e-mail address. Therefore, HP Web Jetadmin provides the option to modify the sender address that is used during alert e-mail messages.

HP Web Jetadmin also allows for entering SMTP user settings, optional user credentials to be used when SMTP authentication exists.

Question: Can I customize the alert e-mail content?

Answer:

During any Create Alerts Subscription or Create Alerts Template wizard, Edit Custom Email Template can be invoked. Custom Email Templates can also be managed in Tools > Options > Application Management > Email. Any column item can be inserted with any customer characters.

Question: What is the SNMP Trap Generator?

Answer:

In addition to e-mail, alerts can also be sent in the form of SNMP traps through the use of a component called the HP SNMP Trap Generator. This alert forwarding module provides printer event conveyance through a comprehensively customizable SNMP trap.

An SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) Trap is “typically�? defined as an industry-standard notification event issued from a device to the network management station when a significant event (not necessarily an outage, a fault, or a security violation) occurs. The trap produces one-way SNMP communication, which can significantly reduce the need for random status polling of the device, essentially salvaging valuable network bandwidth.

Although a “printer produced�? SNMP trap is a simple event notification mechanism, it is not always comprehensive enough to determine the most appropriate or efficient course of action. When HP Web Jetadmin receives a trap from a printer, it will launch an SNMP information request process that is designed to gather additional device information and serve as the content for a more comprehensive Web Jetadmin generated alert. With the Web Jetadmin SNMP Trap Generator, this alert can now be forwarded as a SNMPv1 or SNMPv2 trap.

This solution provides integration with Enterprise System Management (ESM) applications such as HP Openview Operations, HP Openview Network Node Manager, HP System Insight Manager, CA Unicenter, IBM Tivoli, Cisco Information Center, or any SNMP management station capable of receiving SNMP traps for purposes of notification and processing.

Helpdesk ticketing systems such as Remedy and Peregrine may also benefit from directly receiving printer alert content in the form of SNMP traps to generate Helpdesk tickets. The content of the traps that HP Web Jetadmin sends can be customized to include only the desired components to be fed into the destination.

When printers themselves send traps, the content describing the event is typically a five digit code or an SNMP OID, and the frequency cannot be controlled. A printer will send traps every time an event occurs. The advantage of using HP Web Jetadmin to act as the proxy for these traps is that events can be filtered to just forward the desired events at the desired frequency with much more detailed content than a regular printer trap.

Traps can be selected as an output mechanism when subscribing to alerts or by selecting Tools > Options > Alerts . The properties of the traps can be defined by selecting Edit. Trap destination includes entries to receive traps. Listen port dictates which port will be used when sending the trap. SNMP version configures SNMPv1 or SNMPv2 traps. Community configures the community name for the trap.

Question: Can I change the polling rate that Web Jetadmin uses to determine when to issue alerts?

Answer:

Some alerts require polling to process since traps do not exist for the events or a custom threshold is desired to trigger the alert. Alerts polling rates can be adjusted by navigating to Tools > Options > Device Management > Alerts > Polling Rate where two settings are available:

• Default alert rate: used when no device communications exist for X hours (default is 24 hours).
• Mission critical devices: used for devices with Critical Alerts settings; polls every X minutes (default is 5 minutes).

Question: What is the difference between a reactive alert and a proactive alert?

Answer:

A reactive alert would include a condition where the device is in a down state meaning print jobs are stacking up and end user productivity is affected. For example, a service condition such as Fuser Open would be considered a reactive alert. This type of alert would more than likely be submitted to a service desk or helpdesk to resolve the issue quickly.

A proactive alert would include a condition where the device is in a warning state and printing is still possible. Such a warning would indicate the device may become in a down state soon and to fix the problem now before it affects end user productivity. For example, a condition such as Toner Low would be considered a proactive alert. This type of alert would more than likely be submitted to a supplies provider to ensure the toner is on order or in stock to be replaced when it becomes empty.