[Info-vax] Is there a way to get OPCOM requests sent to an email address or pager

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2013-04-03 21:34:13 +0000, tommynoble at gmail.com said:

> Is there some way to have OPCOM (or some other process) send 
> notifications to an email address or a pager/mobile phone when there 
> are outstanding operator requests?
> 
> This is as opposed to having an operator sitting at a console (or 
> checking it from time to time) to find those requests, but instead for 
> the system to more proactively send such notifications to someone who 
> can address them.
> 
> I have only ever been motivated enough to use DCL to scan down the 
> current OPERATOR.LOG file to detect open OPCOM requests requiring 
> intervention.  This takes longer and longer as OPERATOR.LOG grows and 
> therefore that file has to be reset on some basis to keep the file 
> small enough to scan in a reasonable amount of time, and it also 
> depends on how long it takes for a given request to actually post on 
> OPERATOR.LOG (which can be a few minutes at least).

Nope.  Not in OPCOM, using native software, as provided by HP.  OPCOM 
is ancient and primitive and entirely lacks a direct API for receiving 
and processing notifications, an omission which requires receivers to 
create and process messages via what are called pseudoterminal devices 
and broadcast mailboxes, and related hackery.  It's... ugly.

IIRC, there were (expensive) commercial packages which provided this 
sort of notification gateway, but I don't know if any of those packages 
are still around.  If you're rolling your own service, then probably 
the "easiest" way is to use one of the existing open-source syslog 
tools or the open-source APIs, and use that to capture and report the 
OPCOM messages via some other local syslog server.  There are various 
syslog servers around on Unix and Linux, and those can be used to 
process and filter the messages.  Or update the logic of one of the 
existing syslog OPCOM-capture tools to send SMS or email notifications 
directly; there are tools around intended to catch OPCOMs.

FWIW, OPCOM potentially being quite chatty, you may end up with a large 
SMS bill, if you're paying by the message and not careful.

Pointers, links and downloads for syslog and related 
<http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1257>
C wrappers for sending email <http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1260>

-- 
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