SolarWinds Orion Support and Best Practices
When configuring PageGate to work with Solarwinds, it is easiest to break the necessary steps into two steps: configuring PageGate to accept messages from Solarwinds (input), and configuring PageGate to deliver accepted messages to wireless devices (output).
On the accept/input configuration side of things, Solarwinds will be setup to pass alerts to PageGate. Solarwinds has two trigger actions that can be used to pass messages to PageGate: 'Dial Page or SMS' and 'Execute an external program'
The 'Dial Page or SMS' trigger action is the easiest to use, but it requires PageGate to be installed on the same computer as the Solarwinds application. This trigger action allows you, in Solarwinds, to select from the list of recipients and groups you've entered into PageGate. It automatically constructs and executes the commands necessary to pass messages to PageGate.
The 'Execute an external program' trigger action is commonly used when the Solarwinds and the PageGate applications are installed on different computers. PageGate's GetAscii interface includes the sendpage32.exe executable - a command line executable that Solarwinds can use to pass alerts to PageGate. When using this option the command line configured in Solarwinds must be constructed as follows:
<path to sendpage32.exe>\sendpage32.exe <recipient or group> <sender> <message>
(the '<' and '>' characters are not included)
The first step is to create a directory local to the Solarwinds computer and share it so that the PageGate computer has access, over the network, to the same folder. An example of this could be c:\Integration\Alerts\ on the Solarwinds server.
Using the command syntax shown above, and using the example directory, then a message that says 'This is a test' could be sent to the ITAlerts group by using the following command:
c:\Integration\Alerts\sendpage32.exe ITAlerts Solarwinds This is a test
On the delivery/output side of things, there are many options on how PageGate can deliver text messages to wireless carriers. There are several Internet based delivery protocols supported by various carriers (i.e. SNPP, WCTP, SMTP, etc.). PageGate also supports hardware such as GSM routers and GSM modems, for a strictly wireless solution.
Using cellular hardware (i.e. GSM routers and modes) is recommend for a few reasons. First, the messages sent using cellular hardware are delivered as proper and true SMS. They don't have to go through a translation gateway and are sent just like the messages from any other cellular device. Second, this removes reliance on your internet connection for alerting.
If the Solarwinds server is running in a virtual environment and you install PageGate on it directly, to use the 'Dial Page or SMS' trigger action, you would likely want to use a cellular router or gateway as those devices don't need to be virtualized, they already accept messaging commands via TCP/IP. Cellular modems, on the other hand, can require a physical USB/RS-232 connection which can be more challenging to setup and configure for a virtual machine.
However, if Solarwinds and PageGate are running on physical hardware, it is recommend that cellular modems are used instead of a cellular router or gateway, since cellular modems use a physical connection and they will operate even if the local network is down. With cellular routers and gateways, if the network is down, PageGate may not be able to reach the device to send messages.
Please refer to the PageGate manual for more information on configuring modems, routers, and internet based delivery protocols, for message delivery.
Steps for SolarWinds Integration
Video Tutorial to Setup Integration with SolarWinds Orion and PageGate
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