# Custom
Netdata Agent's alert notification feature allows you to send custom notifications to any endpoint you choose.
## Setup
### Prerequisites
####
- Access to the terminal where Netdata Agent is running
### Configuration
#### File
The configuration file name for this integration is `health_alarm_notify.conf`.
You can edit the configuration file using the `edit-config` script from the
Netdata [config directory](/docs/netdata-agent/configuration/README.md#the-netdata-config-directory).
```bash
cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config health_alarm_notify.conf
```
#### Options
The following options can be defined for this notification
Config Options
| Name | Description | Default | Required |
|:----|:-----------|:-------|:--------:|
| SEND_CUSTOM | Set `SEND_CUSTOM` to YES | YES | yes |
| DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_CUSTOM | This value is dependent on how you handle the `${to}` variable inside the `custom_sender()` function. | | yes |
| custom_sender() | You can look at the other senders in `/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh` for examples of how to modify the function in this configuration file. | | no |
##### DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_CUSTOM
All roles will default to this variable if left unconfigured. You can edit `DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_CUSTOM` with the variable you want, in the following entries at the bottom of the same file:
```
role_recipients_custom[sysadmin]="systems"
role_recipients_custom[domainadmin]="domains"
role_recipients_custom[dba]="databases systems"
role_recipients_custom[webmaster]="marketing development"
role_recipients_custom[proxyadmin]="proxy-admin"
role_recipients_custom[sitemgr]="sites"
```
##### custom_sender()
The following is a sample custom_sender() function in health_alarm_notify.conf, to send an SMS via an imaginary HTTPS endpoint to the SMS gateway:
```
custom_sender() {
# example human readable SMS
local msg="${host} ${status_message}: ${alarm} ${raised_for}"
# limit it to 160 characters and encode it for use in a URL
urlencode "${msg:0:160}" >/dev/null; msg="${REPLY}"
# a space separated list of the recipients to send alarms to
to="${1}"
for phone in ${to}; do
httpcode=$(docurl -X POST \
--data-urlencode "From=XXX" \
--data-urlencode "To=${phone}" \
--data-urlencode "Body=${msg}" \
-u "${accountsid}:${accounttoken}" \
https://domain.website.com/)
if [ "${httpcode}" = "200" ]; then
info "sent custom notification ${msg} to ${phone}"
sent=$((sent + 1))
else
error "failed to send custom notification ${msg} to ${phone} with HTTP error code ${httpcode}."
fi
done
}
```
The supported variables that you can use for the function's `msg` variable are:
| Variable name | Description |
|:---------------------------:|:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `${alarm}` | Like "name = value units" |
| `${status_message}` | Like "needs attention", "recovered", "is critical" |
| `${severity}` | Like "Escalated to CRITICAL", "Recovered from WARNING" |
| `${raised_for}` | Like "(alarm was raised for 10 minutes)" |
| `${host}` | The host generated this event |
| `${url_host}` | Same as ${host} but URL encoded |
| `${unique_id}` | The unique id of this event |
| `${alarm_id}` | The unique id of the alarm that generated this event |
| `${event_id}` | The incremental id of the event, for this alarm id |
| `${when}` | The timestamp this event occurred |
| `${name}` | The name of the alarm, as given in netdata health.d entries |
| `${url_name}` | Same as ${name} but URL encoded |
| `${chart}` | The name of the chart (type.id) |
| `${url_chart}` | Same as ${chart} but URL encoded |
| `${status}` | The current status : REMOVED, UNINITIALIZED, UNDEFINED, CLEAR, WARNING, CRITICAL |
| `${old_status}` | The previous status: REMOVED, UNINITIALIZED, UNDEFINED, CLEAR, WARNING, CRITICAL |
| `${value}` | The current value of the alarm |
| `${old_value}` | The previous value of the alarm |
| `${src}` | The line number and file the alarm has been configured |
| `${duration}` | The duration in seconds of the previous alarm state |
| `${duration_txt}` | Same as ${duration} for humans |
| `${non_clear_duration}` | The total duration in seconds this is/was non-clear |
| `${non_clear_duration_txt}` | Same as ${non_clear_duration} for humans |
| `${units}` | The units of the value |
| `${info}` | A short description of the alarm |
| `${value_string}` | Friendly value (with units) |
| `${old_value_string}` | Friendly old value (with units) |
| `${image}` | The URL of an image to represent the status of the alarm |
| `${color}` | A color in AABBCC format for the alarm |
| `${goto_url}` | The URL the user can click to see the netdata dashboard |
| `${calc_expression}` | The expression evaluated to provide the value for the alarm |
| `${calc_param_values}` | The value of the variables in the evaluated expression |
| `${total_warnings}` | The total number of alarms in WARNING state on the host |
| `${total_critical}` | The total number of alarms in CRITICAL state on the host |
#### Examples
##### Basic Configuration
```yaml
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# custom notifications
SEND_CUSTOM="YES"
DEFAULT_RECIPIENT_CUSTOM=""
# The custom_sender() is a custom function to do whatever you need to do
custom_sender() {
# example human readable SMS
local msg="${host} ${status_message}: ${alarm} ${raised_for}"
# limit it to 160 characters and encode it for use in a URL
urlencode "${msg:0:160}" >/dev/null; msg="${REPLY}"
# a space separated list of the recipients to send alarms to
to="${1}"
for phone in ${to}; do
httpcode=$(docurl -X POST \
--data-urlencode "From=XXX" \
--data-urlencode "To=${phone}" \
--data-urlencode "Body=${msg}" \
-u "${accountsid}:${accounttoken}" \
https://domain.website.com/)
if [ "${httpcode}" = "200" ]; then
info "sent custom notification ${msg} to ${phone}"
sent=$((sent + 1))
else
error "failed to send custom notification ${msg} to ${phone} with HTTP error code ${httpcode}."
fi
done
}
```
## Troubleshooting
### Test Notification
You can run the following command by hand, to test alerts configuration:
```bash
# become user netdata
sudo su -s /bin/bash netdata
# enable debugging info on the console
export NETDATA_ALARM_NOTIFY_DEBUG=1
# send test alarms to sysadmin
/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test
# send test alarms to any role
/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/alarm-notify.sh test "ROLE"
```
Note that this will test _all_ alert mechanisms for the selected role.