Pattern 5 - Parse email and extract specific information

Pattern 5 - Parse email and extract specific information

Style: Log a job from an email that was generated from a Network Montoring tool such as What's Up, SolarWinds, Argent etc.

Filter style: Subject keyword scanning

Parsing: Extract specific text (a version number) from the body of the email and insert this into a custom field with the job.

Template use: A basic job template

Visual Pattern:

Description:

Network monitoring tools have the ability to email the results of a scan, or when a particular threshold has been breached, or approaching breach.

A common practice with the Email Manager is to convert these emails into helpdesk tickets. This is basic Email Manager functionality. This pattern builds on this idea by using the powerful email parser to extract specific text from the body of the email. In this case, the network monitoring tool has been configured to scan SQL Servers. The email that it sends will also have the version number of the SQL Server in the body. The SQL Server version string will look like this

[Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1617.0 (X64) Apr 22 2011 19:23:43 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor)

The purpose of the email parser is to extract the version number and then store it in a custom text field on the job.

[Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - [10.50.1617.0]{.auto-style3} (X64) Apr 22 2011 19:23:43 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor)

Text extraction is achieved via the Email Parser

Extending the pattern:

Each Email Manager profile can contain unlimited email parsers. Set up as many as you need to extract whatever you require. Scan for machine names, threshold limits, CPU utilization, temperature, or other WMI, or SNMP information.

The extracted text can also be stored in a variable, which can then be subject to an parser itself. This is a powerful way of chopping up text, or building up a string of extracted information.

Build Escalation and Workflow around this information

Once you have extracted specific information, you can then start building Priority Manager escalation and workflow rules around it.

Don’t just extract….workflow also!

See Also

Pattern 6