Summary

A long time ago, someone needed to get something done in your company and the solution was to purchase some sort of product that you installed on top of Lotus Domino. Since then, you’ve been locked in the eternal 3 steps dance of “(step 1) a new version of Lotus Domino gets released but (step 2) wait for vendor to release compatible version of the add-in and (step 3) finally upgrade both products”. Point-in-case where I work: we needed a Fax solution that integrated with our Lotus Notes and Domino environment so someone installed FastFax from Quadrant Software on top of one of our Lotus Domino servers.

After a few years and some issues here and there, it’s been pretty much humming along. But the last issue I ran into left me wondering if there was a (free) way to monitor the 2 tasks that I see for FastFax when I issue a SHOW TASK command on the server console. So, I turned to DDM and Event Handlers for that task but, out-of-the-box, I realized that they can only be used to monitor Lotus Domino server tasks.

So, what did I do after I realized this? Well, I tried to hack Event Handlers and, oddly enough, it worked!  Here’s what I did …

Hacking Event Handlers to Monitor Add-Ins from other Vendors

Two Things Right away … First, I’m sorry if this has been written about somewhere else. I’m sure that in the Yellowverse, someone, somewhere did the exact same thing and blogged about it but I didn’t look hard enough to find it. And secondly, I’ll be blunt, this worked for me and the issue that I was faced with. There’s a good chance that this might not work for you … but you won’t hurt anything by trying. Truth be told, I’m not even sure why it works but it does…

Step 1 … issue a SHOW TASK and make a note of the Task(s) that you want Event Handlers to monitor. In my case, FFXGWOT and FFXGWIN:

Database Server      Platform Stats is gathering statistics
Database Server      Shutdown Monitor
Database Server      Process Monitor
FFXGWOT              Idle
FFXGWIN              FFXGWIN
Router               Dispatch: Idle
Router               Sweep: Idle
Router               Utility: Idle

So, now that you know which “Add-In” tasks we want to monitor … follow the steps (for the screenshots, I’m only using the FFXGWIN task):

Step 2: Open the Monitoring Configuration (events4.nsf) on the server where the Add-In task is running.

Step 3 - Open the view "Task Status" view under the "Event Generators" category.

Step 4 - Click on the "New Task Status Monitor" view Action button.

Step 5 - Select one of the Task (*any*), the Server where the Add-In task is running and "What" to monitor (status down).

Step 6 - Let's create an agent to perform the "Hack".

Step 7 - Give the agent a name and change the agent type.

Step 8 - Make sure that the agent is private and set to run on Selected Documents.

Step 9 - Add the code to change the field "Task" to the process we want to monitor.

Step 10 - Save the agent.

Step 11 - Close Designer.

Step 12 - Select the new task monitor you created and then run the agent on it.

Step 13 - Now, make a mental note of the Event Generator number because you'll need it later.

Step 14 - Now switch to the view "Event Handlers - By Server".

Step 15 - Now click on the button to create a new Event Handler.

Step 16 - On the Basics tab, select the Trigger to be a Custom event generator.

Step 17 - On the Event tab, click on the button to select the Event.

Step 18 - Scroll down to the "Task Status" event generators and select the one you just created (this is where you need the event number to make your life easier).

Step 19 - On the "Action" tab, select the "Mail" method and type your name in the Address field (yes, you could set it to run an agent or whatever you want ... I wanted to get an email).

Step 20 - Save your new Event Handler.

Step 21 - You can see your new Event Generator under the "All Servers" category.

Addendum

So, with this Event Generator and Event Handler in place, when the task FFXGWIN goes down in a ball of flames (for one reason or another), I get a nice email. Of course, I had to repeat these steps for the FFXGWOT tasks and it also works like a charm for that task.

Like I said previously, this worked for me in my environment. Maybe it won’t work for you but it won’t cost you a dime to try … Enjoy!