Alerts Settings

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Apr 29, 2019 by Chandler Berry
4 min read

The Alerts Settings page covers all the basic settings needed to get Alerts set up to use in the VitalSigns environment.

About the Alert Settings page

The Alert settings page has several tabs, all of which have different information and configuration options for the VitalSigns environment. The options and features for the Setting alone are enough to fill this tab, so the subsequent tabs will be covered in child pages here:

Alerting Options

Persistent Notifications

Persistent Notifications send an alert repeatedly until the issue is resolved, based on the interval and duration set in this section.

 Steps to enable/configure:
  1. Check the box next to Enable Persistent Alerting under Advanced Alerting.
  2. Enter the Alert Interval (how often you want to be notified about the issue).

  3. Enter the Alert Duration (the length of time you want to notified about the issue).

Alert Limits

Alert Limits do what it says on the name, essentially. When enabled, a 0 in the field is read as "no limit". When VitalSigns sends the maximum amount, no more alerts will be sent out.

This feature is useful if there is a known periodic issue that produces many alerts.

 Steps to enable/configure:
  1. Check the box next to Enable Alert Limits under Alert Limits.
  2. Enter a value for Total Maximum Alerts per Definition (the maximum number of alerts for each alerting event).

  3. Enter a value for the Total Maximum Alerts per Day (the maximum number of alerts per day).

Alerts On/Off

The Entire Alerting function of VitalSigns can be Enabled/Disabled with this option.

SNMP Listener

VitalSigns Alerts can be configured with SNMP traps, for further monitoring of Alerts functions.

 Steps to enable/configure:

  1. Check the box next to Enable SNMP traps under SNMP Listener.

  2. Enter the host name of the computer that will be listening for trap messages.


To save any changes made on this page, the Save button at the bottom of the page must be clicked.


E-mail Alerting

Adding a SMTP server is required for sending out Alerts, as it uses email to send them. A SMTP server is also required for adding new Users to VitalSigns, as VitalSigns send an email with the temp password on creation.

 Steps to enable/configure:
  1. Enter the Host Name and Port number for the SMTP server.

  2. Enter the User ID (in the form of a valid email) for the SMTP server.

     You must enter a valid email address located in the Directory even if your server does not require authentication.

  3. Enter a name into the From field that the VitalSigns Alerts should be coming from. (ex: VitalSigns Alerts)
  4. Click on the Enter Password button, and type in the password for the SMTP server (this is optional if your server does not require authentication). Click Save on the Password window.
  5. Select the checkbox to the left of Requires Authentication if your SMTP server requires authentication.
  6. Select the checkbox to the left of Requires SSL if your SMTP server requires SSL.


You can enter a second SMTP server for failover under Secondary SMTP Server section.

To save any changes made on this page, the Save button at the bottom of the page must be clicked.

SMS/Text Alerting

VitalSigns can also send SMS Alerts directly to a Mobile Phone, by utilizing a free to start 3rd Party Service, Twilio. Through using Twilio, VitalSigns can send instant SMS Alerts, which are useful in case the SMTP server has gone down, and regular Alerts are unable to be sent.

 Steps to enable/configure:

To utilize the SMS capability within VitalSigns, you must sign up for an account with Twilio. Instructions on how to do so are found here.

  1. Enter the Account Sid (issued by Twilio).
  2. Enter the Authentication Token (issued by Twilio).
  3. Enter the telephone number provided by Twilio into the Phone Number From field.

To save any changes made on this page, the Save button at the bottom of the page must be clicked.

Recurring Alert Options

VitalSigns also has the ability to only send alerts about a server if the amount of Alerts are above a defined threshold. You can enable recurring alert options to prevent VitalSigns from constantly sending you alerts when an issue is not necessarily critical.

 Click here to expand...
  1. Under Recurring Alert Options check the box to the left of Alert about recurrences only.

  2. Enter a value for the Number of recurrences per hour.

    This value is the number of times the event must fail before VitalSigns alerts you of a problem.

  3. Select the events/alerts for which you want to restrict alerts.
  4. Click Submit to save the changes

To save any changes made on this page, the Save button at the bottom of the page must be clicked.

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