opcmsg - send an event to HPOM server

Note: HP renamed the product called now HP operations manager way too many times. Also it is very inconsistent with using abbreviations. Here we will assume that the term "HP Operations manager" and abbreviations HPOM, OMU, and OVO  mean the same thing :-)

The command opcmsg sends an event to  HPOM server. It can run from a regular user account (does not require to be root or sudo to root).

The   opcmsg  command  opcmsg can be issued by any user.

The even which is sent by  opcmsg will be first interpreted by the HPOM  Message Interceptor on the local Managed Node. Those messages are forwarded to and then processed within HPOM by so called Message Interface Policies. At least one policy of this type should be present on the node. Typically message does not go to operator console if no policy matched the message.

Typically there is generic  opcmsg(1|3) policy that can be made to match the message delivery of which you are debugging, but you mileage may vary (especially if too zealous consultant configured your server ;-). Always check, this if message is not delivered. For general strategy of dealing with the case when message is not delivered see Message from opcmsg not reaching HPOM console

The opcmsg command is available on all servers with HPOM agent installed.  It generate messages with the following most important customizable fields (there are many more):

• Severity -- Specifies one of  HPOM's severity levels: normal, warning, minor, major, or critical.
• Application -- the application generating the event.  This field  typically is used in the policy to select the appropriate message so application name should be unique.
• Object -- Used as the correlator between the initial and clearing events. It must be unique so that a clearing event can be matched to the alarm event and cause it to be removed from the  event browser. In most cases, you have to concatenate the device name generating the event and one or more variable values.
• Msg_text -- Contains the text you want it to appear in the event browser. It can be prefixed with a short special text string to trigger the custom template for message correlation
• Msg_grp -- The message group in which you want the message to appear. The message group should be already must  defined in HPOM
• Node -- The node appearing in the event . The node must have already been defined in the Node Bank.

The custom policy for handling these opcmsg messages can among other things:

• Change attributes of the message, extract variables from Msg_txt field, etc
• Provide conditions that cancel a more severe event if less sevire event is arrived. For example, major cancels critical, minor cancels both major and critical, and so on.
• The message will be discarded, locally logged, forwarded to the Management Server, or forwarded to the Management Server with local logging.

Syntax

opcmsg [ -help ] [ -id ]

application=application
object=object
msg_text=msg_text
[ severity=severity ]
[ msg_grp=msg_grp ]
[ node=node ]
[ service_id=service_id ]
[ -option variable=value ]*

Any unique prefix can be specified for the available options. Note that the prefix for the option severity is s while the prefix for the option service_id is ser.

• -help Print usage message of opcmsg. All other options are ignored and no message will be submitted.
• -id Return the message ID of the submitted message to stdout. This option also sets the OPC- DATA_REMARK_FOR_ACK flag of the message, so that the manager information of the message will be held by the message agent (see opcagtmsg_ack.3).
• severity=severity Specifies the severity of the message. Following severities are supported: normal, warn- ing, minor, major, critical. By default severity normal will be applied.
• application=application Name of application (or script/program) which has been affected by or has detected the event/problem.
• msg_grp=msg_grp Default Message Group to which the message belongs. By default no Message Group will be assigned.
  • Backup Messages related to backup / restore / archiving functionality.
  • Hardware Messages related to hardware functionality.
  • Job Messages related to job streaming.
  • Misc Messages which cannot be assigned to any other Message Group. If a message does not have a Message Group assigned or the Message Group is not (yet) configured, the message will belong to the Misc Message Group.
  • Network Messages related to network / connectivity problems.
  • OS Messages related to operating system, I/O etc. malfunctions.
  • OpC Messages generated by HP OpenView Operations itself. This Message Group should not be used by opcmsg.
  • Output Messages related to print spooling / hardcopy functionality.
  • Performance Messages related to Hardware / Software (CPU, disk, process) malfunctions.
  • SNMP Messages generated by SNMP traps.
  • Security Messages related to security violations or attempts to intrude a system.
• object=object Object which has been affected by or has detected the event/problem.
• msg_text=msg_text  
Descriptive text explaining the event/problem in more details.
node=node  System on which the event/problem has been detected. By default the node name of the current system will be applied.
service_id=service_id Name of the service (as defined in the service configuration file) to which the message will be mapped.
-option variable=value Sets the variable $OPTION(variable) to value. Within the message conditions this variable can be used to access the value passed with the opcmsg call. Special shell characters have to be escaped.

Exit Values

This command will exit with value zero after successful message generation; in case of internal error, 1 will be returned and a descriptive text will be displayed on standard error. If a syntax respectively usage error has been detected, 2 will be returned in conjunction with explaining text on standard error.

Acknowledgement of previously issues message (Autoclose)

The option -id returns only one message ID even if the message matched several message conditions and multiple messages were generated on operator console.

If you like to acknowledge such messages with opcmack(1) you have to use opcgetmsgids(1) to retrieve the message IDs from all message before you can acknowledge them.

Restrictions

 The message group (msg_grp), the object, and the application parameter should not be longer than 32 bytes, because this is the maximum size HPOM can handle with these parameters.

Examples

Test if messages coming from the node

/opt/OV/bin/opcmsg s=critical o=test msg_g=OpC a=test msg_t="test"

Submit a normal message issued by the application OpenSpool with the related object laserq:

opcmsg appl=OpenSpool obj=laserq msg_t="More than 100 print requests waiting in queue"

Submit a critical message issued by the script diskwatcher.sh with the related object /usr/lib which belongs to the Message Group OS by default; the minimal unique prefix is used for the options:

opcmsg s=critical msg_g=OS a=diskwatcher.sh o=/usr/lib n=ovtest.bbn.hp.com msg_t="Only 5% of entire disk space still available!"

Submit a critical message issued by the script mailwatcher.sh with the related object root which belongs to the Message Group OS by default. Also the -option switch is used to pass the subject to the message interceptor.

opcmsg s=critical msg_g=OS a=mailwatcher.sh o=root msg_t="Received mail” -opt subject=cron -option sub- ject2="x.log y.log z.log"

Etc

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Last modified: March 12, 2019