Contact Definition

Description

A contact definition is used to identify someone who should be contacted in the event of a problem on your network. The different arguments to a contact definition are described below.

Definition Format

Bold directives are required, while the others are optional.

define contact{  
contact_name *contact_name*
alias alias
contactgroups contactgroup_names
host_notifications_enabled [0/1]
service_notifications_enabled [0/1]
host_notification_period *timeperiod_name*
service_notification_period *timeperiod_name*
host_notification_options [d,u,r,f,s,n]
service_notification_options [w,u,c,r,f,s,n]
host_notification_commands *command_name*
service_notification_commands *command_name*
email email_address
pager pager_number or pager_email_gateway
address*x* additional_contact_address
can_submit_commands [0/1]
is_admin [0/1]
retain_status_information [0/1]
retain_nonstatus_information [0/1]
min_business_impact [0/1/2/3/4/5]
}  

Example Definition

define contact{
    contact_name                    jdoe
    alias                           John Doe
    host_notifications_enabled      1
    service_notifications_enabled   1
    service_notification_period     24x7
    host_notification_period        24x7
    service_notification_options    w,u,c,r
    host_notification_options       d,u,r
    service_notification_commands   notify-service-by-email
    host_notification_commands      notify-host-by-email
    email                           jdoe@localhost.localdomain
    pager                           555-5555@pagergateway.localhost.localdomain
    address1                        xxxxx.xyyy@icq.com
    address2                        555-555-5555
    can_submit_commands             1
}

Directive Descriptions

contact_name
This directive is used to define a short name used to identify the contact. It is referenced in contact group definitions. Under the right circumstances, the $CONTACTNAME$ macro will contain this value.
alias
This directive is used to define a longer name or description for the contact. Under the rights circumstances, the $CONTACTALIAS$ macro will contain this value. If not specified, the contact_name will be used as the alias.
contactgroups
This directive is used to identify the short name(s) of the contactgroup(s) that the contact belongs to. Multiple contactgroups should be separated by commas. This directive may be used as an alternative to (or in addition to) using the members directive in contactgroup definitions.
host_notifications_enabled

This directive is used to determine whether or not the contact will receive notifications about host problems and recoveries. Values :

  • 0 = don’t send notifications
  • 1 = send notifications
service_notifications_enabled

This directive is used to determine whether or not the contact will receive notifications about service problems and recoveries. Values:

  • 0 = don’t send notifications
  • 1 = send notifications
host_notification_period
This directive is used to specify the short name of the time period during which the contact can be notified about host problems or recoveries. You can think of this as an “on call” time for host notifications for the contact. Read the documentation on time periods for more information on how this works and potential problems that may result from improper use.
service_notification_period
This directive is used to specify the short name of the time period during which the contact can be notified about service problems or recoveries. You can think of this as an “on call” time for service notifications for the contact. Read the documentation on time periods for more information on how this works and potential problems that may result from improper use.
host_notification_commands
This directive is used to define a list of the short names of the commands used to notify the contact of a host problem or recovery. Multiple notification commands should be separated by commas. All notification commands are executed when the contact needs to be notified. The maximum amount of time that a notification command can run is controlled by the notification_timeout option.
host_notification_options

This directive is used to define the host states for which notifications can be sent out to this contact. Valid options are a combination of one or more of the following:

  • d = notify on DOWN host states
  • u = notify on UNREACHABLE host states
  • r = notify on host recoveries (UP states)
  • f = notify when the host starts and stops flapping,
  • s = send notifications when host or service scheduled downtime starts and ends. If you specify n (none) as an option, the contact will not receive any type of host notifications.
service_notification_options

This directive is used to define the service states for which notifications can be sent out to this contact. Valid options are a combination of one or more of the following:

  • w = notify on WARNING service states
  • u = notify on UNKNOWN service states
  • c = notify on CRITICAL service states
  • r = notify on service recoveries (OK states)
  • f = notify when the service starts and stops flapping.
  • n = (none) : the contact will not receive any type of service notifications.
service_notification_commands
This directive is used to define a list of the short names of the commands used to notify the contact of a service problem or recovery. Multiple notification commands should be separated by commas. All notification commands are executed when the contact needs to be notified. The maximum amount of time that a notification command can run is controlled by the notification_timeout option.
email
This directive is used to define an email address for the contact. Depending on how you configure your notification commands, it can be used to sendout an alert email to the contact. Under the right circumstances, the $CONTACTEMAIL$ macro will contain this value.
pager
This directive is used to define a pager number for the contact. It can also be an email address to a pager gateway (i.e. pagejoe@pagenet.com ). Depending on how you configure your notification commands, it can be used to send out an alert page to the contact. Under the right circumstances, the $CONTACTPAGER$ macro will contain this value.
address*x*
Address directives are used to define additional “addresses” for the contact. These addresses can be anything - cell phone numbers, instant messaging addresses, etc. Depending on how you configure your notification commands, they can be used to send out an alert o the contact. Up to six addresses can be defined using these directives (address1 through address6). The $CONTACTADDRESS*x*$ macro will contain this value.
can_submit_commands

This directive is used to determine whether or not the contact can submit external commands to Shinken from the CGIs. Values:

  • 0 = don’t allow contact to submit commands
  • 1 = allow contact to submit commands.
is_admin

This directive is used to determine whether or not the contact can see all object in WebUI. Values:

  • 0 = normal user, can see all objects he is in contact
  • 1 = allow contact to see all objects
retain_status_information

This directive is used to determine whether or not status-related information about the contact is retained across program restarts. This is only useful if you have enabled state retention using the retain_state_information directive. Value :

  • 0 = disable status information retention
  • 1 = enable status information retention.
retain_nonstatus_information

This directive is used to determine whether or not non-status information about the contact is retained across program restarts. This is only useful if you have enabled state retention using the retain_state_information directive. Value :

  • 0 = disable non-status information retention
  • 1 = enable non-status information retention
min_business_impact

This directive is use to define the minimum business criticity level of a service/host the contact will be notified. Please see root_problems_and_impacts for more details.

  • 0 = less important
  • 1 = more important than 0
  • 2 = more important than 1
  • 3 = more important than 2
  • 4 = more important than 3
  • 5 = most important
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