Sending NetCrunch alerts in Flowdock

One of the new features in NetCrunch is the possibility to integrate with Flowdock and to create tickets in the Flowdock Inbox for alerts. This article explains how to set up and configure a Flowdock integration.

In this article, we will explain and show how to set up your NetCrunch to send tickets to a selected flow in your Flowdock.

Enable NetCrunch to post in Flowdock

To enable NetCrunch to post selected alerts directly into your Flowdock Flow, you need to first set up an Integration Profile for Flowdock. To do so, click Monitoring Integration Profiles at the top of the NetCrunch application.

In the editor, the new Integration Profile needs to be named and you will be asked for a "Flow Token". To configure such a token, we follow the link: https://www.flowdock.com/oauth/applications.

If you want NetCrunch to post the messages into a specific Flow, make sure it is created before you follow the steps on the website to create a new Developer Application. Name the application and enter a short description, then tick the box Shortcut application. It is also possible to upload an icon to clearly identify NetCrunch posts. Now save this application.

Scroll to "Tools for testing" and create a new source by entering a name for the source and selecting the Flow where the messages should be sent to. Click on Generate and copy the generated Flow Token into your NetCrunch. Make sure that you copy it correctly because this token cannot be retrieved later.

Integration Profiles

Create an alert sending the ticket to Flowdock

To allow NetCrunch to utilize the integration, it's necessary to create an alerting script (or edit the already existing one). The steps below explain how to create a new alerting script.

  • Click Monitoring Alerting Escalation Scripts
  • In Alerting Scripts Window click Add Alerting Script
  • Click Add and select Action to Run Immediately
  • Click Integrations tab and select Flowdock Message
Create alerting script

A new window will appear, but there's not much configuring here. Make sure that you are using the correct profile. Test sending messages to a Flowdock Flow by clicking Test. A small window with the test procedure will appear, and if everything is configured properly, the test will finish with a "Successfully executed" message, during a test a message will now appear in the Flow Inbox where NetCrunch should send the messages.

Test the Integration

However, this will not work with the "Close Ticket" operation. To test the "Close Ticket" operation you need to create an alerting script with an "Open Ticket" operation as an Action to Run Immediately and the "Close Ticket" operation as an Action to Run on Alert Close. Then select a node and create an alert (for example Node Monitoring Disabled) to test and assign the alerting script to this alert. The following steps explain how to create a "Node Monitoring Disabled" alert for a single node.

  • Right-click the node where you want to create an alert
  • Select the Node Settings and click Alerts&Reports in the node settings window
  • Click Add Alert, select the Basic tab and choose Node monitoring is disabled
  • Right-click the new Alert and select Assign Predefined Alerting Script Your Script name
Assign the alerting script

If you now trigger the alert (Disable the Node Monitoring), you will create a ticket. If this alert is closed (Node Monitoring Enabled) the ticket will be commented upon and closed. After such an alerting script is attached to various alerts, NetCrunch will send messages to Flowdock each time when the given alert is generated.

Result

It is also possible to send tickets to different Flows. This can be done by creating different Integration Profiles with their specific Flow Token. It is not necessary to create a new Developers Application every time, you can generate a new source for the already created application. Just copy the Flow Token, clearly name the Integration Profile and select the correct Profile in the Alerting Script configuration. This way NetCrunch can access several Flows and send different alerts to the right people in various Flows.

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