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Icinga SMS notification without an SMS gateway

Icinga SMS notification sends the duty admin a text naming the host, the check and the time when something goes Down at night. Icinga 2 already mails each problem, so you add one User object with your Welco address and one apply rule. Nothing gets installed on the master.

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  • One User object and one apply rule
  • No SMS gateway or modem
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Icinga

Published:

A network map watched by Icinga 2: five hosts answer pings until app03 goes critical (/var 412 MB free) and the monitor raises the alert. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [app03] disk /var CRITICAL, 412 MB free at 4:18 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long Icinga 2 alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: [app03] disk /var CRITICAL, 412 MB free at 4:18 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What the duty admin gets from Icinga texts

  • One phone wakes up, not ten

    A Critical service at 2 a.m. reaches whoever has duty tonight. The rest of the team sleeps.

  • Your filters pick the states

    The user's states list lets Down and Critical through. Warning and Unknown stay in email.

  • One text per problem

    Set interval = 0 and Icinga sends a single notice, not a fresh one every half hour.

  • Mail to icingaadmin carries on

    Users who get alert email today keep getting it. The Welco user is only one more recipient.

What you need before you start

Allow about 20 minutes for one admin who can edit Icinga 2 objects. Other tools use the same email idea, as the IT monitoring text alerts overview shows.

  • Icinga 2 with working mail. If icingaadmin gets alert emails today, the mail command and scripts are fine.
  • Write access to /etc/icinga2/conf.d/, or admin rights in Icinga Director if your objects live there.
  • A verified Welco account and your Welco address. Start free to get one.
  • On-call admins who joined from your Welco invite with their own cellphone. Each confirms by replying YES. They need no app.

Set up Icinga SMS notification in 5 steps

Icinga 2 decides who hears about a problem through User objects and apply Notification rules. You add one of each. In Director, use Users and an apply rule under Notifications.

  1. Approve the Icinga sender

    Open a recent alert email and note the From address, often icinga@ plus the server name. Welco can then lock sending to your monitor's address. Mail from anywhere else is refused.

  2. Create a user for the on-call phone

    Add a User object whose email is your Welco address. Its states and types filters choose what may become a text.

    • states = [ Down, Critical ] keeps warnings and unknowns out of the text stream.
    • Add Up and OK with types = [ Problem, Recovery ] if your team wants the all-clear too.

  3. Apply a notification rule

    Write one apply Notification rule for hosts and one for services. Import the stock mail-host-notification and mail-service-notification templates, list your new user, and assign with a filter such as "critical-servers" in host.groups.

  4. Set the repeat interval

    By default Icinga 2 repeats a notification every 30 minutes while a problem lasts. Set interval = 0 on the rule to text once, or interval = 2h for a slow reminder.

  5. Check the config and send a test

    Run icinga2 daemon -C, then reload with systemctl reload icinga2. In Icinga Web 2, open a host and send a custom notification. Start with a Welco safe test run to see the result in the feed first.

Example Icinga 2 objects

A starting point for a file like conf.d/welco.conf. Change the group name and the address to match your setup.

conf.d/welco.conf
object User "welco-oncall" {
  display_name = "On-call phone (Welco)"
  email = "your Welco address"
  states = [ Up, Down, OK, Critical ]
  types = [ Problem, Recovery ]
}

apply Notification "text-oncall" to Service {
  import "mail-service-notification"
  users = [ "welco-oncall" ]
  interval = 0
  assign where "critical-servers" in host.groups
}

One user object between Icinga and the on-call phone

Verify your business, invite your duty admins and paste your Welco address into the user.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

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An Icinga ping alert before and after

The stock Icinga mail script adds a banner, the full plugin output and an empty comment block. Welco keeps the check, the host and the time.

Alert email from icinga@mon01.example.net, subject “[PROBLEM] ping4 on dist-sw-gatineau is CRITICAL!”. Welco trims it to one text of 96 characters: “Welco: [dist-sw-gatineau] ping4 CRITICAL, 100% packet loss at 10:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [dist-sw-gatineau] ping4 CRITICAL, 100% packet loss at 10:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters268961 credit

Animation: the alert email "[PROBLEM] ping4 on dist-sw-gatineau is CRITICAL!" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [dist-sw-gatineau] ping4 CRITICAL, 100% packet loss at 10:47 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

You can also shorten the email at the source by editing the subject in the mail script. Or let Welco trim long alerts to one text.

Tune Icinga texts for night duty

Icinga filters before the email leaves, and Welco filters again once it lands. Our case study from a US credit union shows a small team running nights this way.

  • Recovery is your call

    Recovery is a notification type. Keep it in the user's types so the admin can go back to sleep, or drop it to leave all-clears in email.

  • Flapping checks stay off the phone

    Leave FlappingStart and FlappingEnd out of types. A check that bounces between OK and Critical then texts nobody.

  • Patch nights stay silent

    Icinga holds problem notices for objects in a scheduled downtime. Keep DowntimeStart, DowntimeEnd and DowntimeRemoved out of types as well.

  • Nights to the duty phone

    Give the rule a period such as offhours, or let Welco's night and weekend routing choose the phone by hour.

  • Dependencies before a flood

    Dependency objects stop hosts behind a down parent switch from notifying. Welco can then cap a burst of alerts that still gets through.

  • Several admins, one user

    One Welco address reaches several phones per alert, each once. That beats one Icinga user per person when staff change.

When an Icinga text doesn't show up

Work from the Icinga side outward and stop at the first row that fits.

No notification line in icinga2.log

Where to look
The user's states or types filter, or the assign where line, is too narrow.

The notification fired but no mail left

Where to look
Test the local mail command on the server. The stock scripts hand off to it.

The Welco feed shows a refused message

Where to look
Approve the exact From address the Icinga mail scripts use.

The alert is in the feed but no phone buzzed

Where to look
That admin hasn't confirmed with YES yet, or the number is a landline. Text delivery tracking names the cause.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an Icinga module or an SMS gateway to send texts?

No. Welco works from the mail Icinga 2 already sends through its stock notification scripts. You add one User object and one apply rule. Nothing is installed on the master or the satellites.

Can night problems go to one admin and daytime problems to the team?

Yes. Point the rule's period at a TimePeriod, or keep Icinga sending all day and let a Welco time rule pick the phone. One Welco address can also reach several admins, and each phone gets the alert once.

Will recovery, flapping and downtime notices become texts?

Only the types you list on the user. Leave out Recovery, FlappingStart, FlappingEnd and the downtime types to keep them in email. Icinga also holds problem notices while a host sits in a downtime.

Can the duty admin acknowledge an Icinga problem by replying to the text?

No. A reply is emailed back to the alert's last sender, so the team can see who is on it. Acknowledge the problem in Icinga Web 2, which also stops repeat notices. Leave the acknowledgment notification type out of types so that step sends no text.

Should I add the Welco user in Icinga Director or in config files?

Use whichever place already owns your notification objects. In Director, make the user under Users and the apply rule under Notifications. If you edit files, keep the objects in their own file so a sample config upgrade leaves them alone.

What do Icinga texts cost?

Icinga texts carry no per-user fee, and Welco needs no hardware or setup fee. A short alert uses one message credit, and long plugin output uses more unless trimmed. The 7-day free trial includes 15 credits, enough to test Icinga end to end. A card verifies your business but isn't charged until you pick a plan on pricing, priced in US dollars with no overage.

Turn your next Icinga problem into a text

One user, one apply rule and your Welco address. That's the whole change.

Text me my Icinga alertsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing