Creating a Gateway Offline alert Rule

Creating a Gateway Offline email alert in Rules

The most efficient way to create alerts for Gateway disconnects is to leverage the power of Places.  In the following Knowledge Base, we will create a rule that will email whenever a Gateway from a certain Customer loses connection to the outside world.

First, be sure to set your Scope to the relevant Place for the Customer or Site you are concerned about.  In the example below I am making this rule for any Gateway within Josiah Security Co. (To set scope see KB HERE)

1. Browse to the Rules section below Configuration and click the "Create Rule" button on the top.
2. Give the Rule a "Name" and a "Description" so you can easily identify it in the future.
3. Select the Schedule for this rule.  In most cases it will be "Always".
   1. If you need this rule to only execute during specific times you will need to create a custom schedule first.  Please cancel this configuration and refer to the Schedules KB for assistance there.
4. Now we need to add the Triggers that will cause our notification to occur.  Select Add Condition
   1. Here the What will be "Type", leave the Operator "is equal to", and the Value will be "GatewayConnection", Finally be sure to click the green "Create" button.
   2. Now we want to click Add Condition and select "Active", leave the Operator as "is equal to", and the value will be "Off" Then click the Create button 
   3. 
      The above configuration says that anytime a Gateway has a connection event going Offline, we will trigger this rule.
5. Next we want to add a Suppression to avoid false notifications.  Choose Add Guard to begin he process and select Suppression Guard
   1. Choose the delay time.  Suggested 120 seconds (2 minutes) for most instances, but can be what ever value you specify. As we use 600 seconds or 10 minutes in the example below. 
   2. Click Add Condition and then "Type", leave the Operator "is equal to", and the Value will be "GatewayConnection", Finally be sure to click the green "Create" button.
   3. Now we add the Active equals On.  Click Add Condition and select "Active", leave the Operator as "is equal to", and the value will be "Off" Then click the Create button 
   4. 
      It should look like the above.
   5. This will ensure that you will only get notifications of the offline status if it is down for a measured period of time.  It avoids getting notifications for small Internet Service dips or momentary drops due to updates.
6. Our final step is to create our Action we want to happen when the above occurs.
   1. Click Add Action and in our case we will choose Email Notification.  You can also get SMS or Webhooks to trigger based on the rule if you choose.
   2. Next we will type in the email address(es) that we would like notified.  Start by typing in the first one.  If this email is associated with an existing user on the system it will show in the dropdown and you can click directly on it.  If not, complete typing the email and click on the row below displaying that address.
      
   3. Now we will build the email that will be received.  Type the Subject line in under Subject.  This is a free form box, we suggest giving it a subject that is easily identifiable. 
   4. Then add the Body of the email.  Here you can be a little more verbose.  Example: "Gateway at Josiah Security Co. has had a connection event."

1. 1. Click Update to save the above changes
2. Finally click Create Rule at the bottom of the page, and your rule is active and ready to go!