T/Mon Hints, Tips and Tricks: Syslog, Network Paging, and Advanced Point Editing

Because all of you are busy professionals, you may not always have the chance to take advantage of the new and useful features that are part of T/Mon. T/Mon is always being developed from the feedback that we get from you. Sometimes features or enhancement are added that may go unnoticed to you, here are some hints, tips, and tricks that will help new and experienced users alike take full advantage of some of the useful features of the T/Mon.

Handle Syslog Output with the T/Mon ASCII Processor

Using the T/MonNOC's ASCII processor, you can collect data from equipment that outputs Syslog messages. Syslog is unique in that it comes across a UDP port (typically 514). The formatting of Syslog messages makes them very easy for the T/Mon to parse. Each field is separated by some sort of character:

Ex.

Cell Site Intrusion

By making use of the hard field separators on the T/Mon's ASCII processor, only one rule is typically required for all messages from a device.

Don't have the ASCII processor installed on your T/Mon system? Contact DPS Sales at 1-800-622-3314.

Setup Automatic Paging Without Dial-up

T/Mon's automatic paging is a great tool, but dial-up isn't the fastest way to send pages. Alternative methods can give an extra bit of warning at critical moments.

You can configure T/Mon to send email alerts instead. This LAN output is then sent to the appropriate pager(s). See section 8 in T/MonXM Version 4.7 user manual for details.

You can also send pages via SNPP. This is a fast LAN-based direct connection to the paging terminal.

Both of these alternative paging methods are much faster than dial-up.

Speed Up Point Editing with the Built-In Editor

There's a powerful point editor in T/Mon that most people don't know about. If you're doing a lot of point editing, this can be a very handy tool. Press F9 on the point editing screen to see a list of functions, such as block move, block copy, point insertion/deletion, and the very powerful, yet often underused, "range" functions. These time-saving functions allow you to do things such as changing point descriptions that contain "East" to "West".

Perhaps the single most useful application of this tool is that after you use the "read" or "template import" function to make a copy of a similar device, you can use the "range" function to easily change the window assignments. This way, the alarms show up where you want them.

Advanced users can use the import and export point functions to edit the databases externally in programs such as Excel.