1.2. Users, Groups and Paths

The SysOrb System has a concept of Users, Groups and Paths, to allow for different groups of people to be alerted in case of alerts raised on monitored node.

A User is a person with access to the SysOrb Network Monitoring System. This person has a username and a password. By means of the username and password, the person can access status information on the SysOrb Network Monitoring System.

A User can have a number of Paths. A Path describes a way the SysOrb Network Monitoring System can notify the user of a warning or an alert. A path can be the phone number of a numerical pager, an e-mail address of a mailbox or the phone number of a cellular phone belonging to that user.

A Group is the logical entity that is notified when an alert is raised. A Group can refer to zero or more Paths. This basically means that if machine mail.sysorb.com causes an Alert in the SysOrb Network Monitoring System, this can cause one Group to be notified. This Group could then refer to the Paths of a few administrators responsible for that node.

While this system might seem a little complex at first glance, it does give the user a powerful way of notifying the right people. When complex networks and systems are being monitored the use of paths is a great help as it allows SysOrb to notify users in different ways depending on what warnings and alerts have been raised.