5.3.3. Agent types

The following agent types are currently available : 

• Messages in error.
• Messages in success.
• Messages waiting for download.
• Certificate expiration.
• Gateway polling failure.
• No message since.
• Too many messages.
• Gateway warning.

Do not hesitate to ask Babelway if you would like to see another agent.

Messages in error

This agent will send notifications when messages fall in error.

The specific parameters are : 

For which messages

Select for which messages you want to be notified. Most users will just use the default "For any message", but this allows for example to filter out test messages, or to send notifications about different messages to different teams. If you apply such selections, please be aware that the channel of the message can still be unknown in case of error happening before the routing. For example, if you have 2 channels named A and B, that share all the same elements but the gateway OUT, and have therefore a routing before the gateway OUT. Defining 2 agents With filters "Channel is A" and "Channel is B" may result in a situation where you are not reported of some errors, because there could be also some messages that fall in error before the routing, and for which the channel is unknown.  This problem will for sure never happen if you use "For any message". Also, using conditions on the gateway IN is often a good solution to write proper condition in that case, as the gatewayIn is always defined, on any message. In other situations, using exclusion rules can be the solution (ex: "All messages, except the ones in channel A").

Also, this agent will remind you about the errors until they have all been fixed (unless you selected "No reminder"). So, it is very important that you "Close the error" in your messages after that you have fixed the problem.

Messages in success.

This agent will issue notifications if messages terminate successfully in the selected channels.

The specific parameters are : 

For which messages

Select for which messages you want to be notified.

Messages waiting for download.

This agent issues notifications for messages that are waiting to be downloaded in Server OUT gateways (SFTP, FTP, ...).

The specific parameters are : 

For which messages

Select for which messages you want to be notified.

Since how long

Tells the system how much time after the message is available for download you want to be notified.  There are 2 very different use cases for this agent :  You download messages manually. In that case, you want that this agent notifies you quickly when messages come, so that you know that you have to go and pick them. You will use short values here ("No delay" or "10 minutes"). Your messages will be downloaded automatically. In that case, you are not interested to know that messages are waiting for a short time, as it would lead to useless notifications (no action from your part is expected). But you could be interested to be notified if the automatic process is broken for some reason. For example, if the automatic process is supposed to pick messages after maximum 2 hours, you could ask to be notified if a message is waiting for more than 3 hours, because in that case, you should check why they were not picked up.

Certificates expiration

This agent will warn you about certificates that will expire soon (or have already expired) in your environment.

Gateway polling failure

Poller IN gateways need to connect regularly to the system of the sender to fetch the messages that must be pulled into Babelway. This agent will notify you if some of these gateways are experiencing problems.

Typical interesting problems (requiring your intervention) are that the remote system is down, or that the  credentials have changed.

It can also happen that there are tiny problems, due for example to network instability, or very short unavailability of the remote system. This agent will NOT issue notifications in that case unless the problem looks persistent (typically at least 30 minutes).

The specific parameters are : 

Gateway condition

Select for which gateways you want to be notified.

No message since

This agent issues notifications if no messages have been processed by the selected channels for too long.

The typical use case is to detect that some of your senders have stopped sending documents, and are likely to experience some problems. For example, if you expect exactly one order from one of your clients every day, you can configure this agent to notify you if you did not receive this order. Or if some channel is expected to have regular traffic (many messages every hour), you could be interested to know quickly if it stopped receiving anything.

The specific parameters are : 

In which channels	Which channels should be monitored. If you select here many channels, every channel will be monitored individually, and you will be notify if ANY of these channels had no message.
Since how much time	After how much time (of channel inactivity) we should notify you.

 

Too many messages

This agent will notify you if too many messages are received, either for some channels, or in your whole environment.

Typical uses cases are : 

• Detect if some of your channels would go crazy, and send messages continuously. This could for example happen due to a misconfiguration, like an infinite loop, or if messages are not correctly marked as already picked up.
• Prevent billing bad surprises. You can for example configure the agent to the approximate number of messages that are included by default in your billing plan (or that you expect). If you exceed this limit, you will want to be notified quickly. Maybe it is due to a misconfiguration that generates excessive messages and it can be fixed quickly. Or maybe the increase is normal, but you should switch to another billing plan.

Specific parameters are : 

Threshold	The maximum number of messages that you expect during the period of time. The notification will be triggered if you have more messages than this limit.
Period of time	On how long the messages should be counted. For example, if you select "24 hours", you will be notified if you have too much messages during the last 24 hours.
In which channels	Which channels should be included in the count.
Condition	Either Threshold applies to ALL channels : notification will be triggered if there are too many messages in all channels, counted together. You will for example use this option to prevent billing bad surprises, to count all the messages in your environment. Or Threshold applies to ANY channel : Threshold will be applied on every channel individually. You will be notified if ANY of the channel exceeds the threshold. You could for example use tis value in the scenario where you know to you have a lot of low-volume channels (ex: max 10 messages/day), and want to know if any of them starts to have more.

Gateway warning

Any message that did not prevent a gateway to work properly, but that has been considered as notifying reporting to you. It can be about suspicious configuration, temporary problems, actions that are expected in the configuration, ...

There are no specific parameters for this agent.