[Gllug] Autodiallers with “Line Sensing”

[Richard Russell]

I haven't been a sysadmin for a while, but last time I had a problem like
this, we got an old Nokia phone, and used a SMS tool to send SMS's to
relevant people (I think we were using Nagios to monitor server status
rather than environment status, but the same principal applies).

You could, if you were concerned about reliability etc, have two mobiles on
two (real, not virtual) network operators, and send through both of them -
or even send from one to the other for testing purposes (this test in itself
could be one of the environment monitoring functions).... You can then
implement an escalation system, or automated rota, so it texts people until
acknowledged.

I would think something like this, using SMS rather than a human link, would
be more effective and reliable, and possibly cheaper... Though it's also
possible I've misunderstood your problem statement.

Cheers

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 6:46 PM, Richard Westlake <
r.westlake at mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk> wrote:

> Hi
> Has anyone used or know of any Alarm Diallers or Autodiallers which have a
> "Line Sensing" function.
>
> By "line Sensing" I meant that it continually monitor the telephone line
> and if the line is disconnected or has some other problem then the device
> exerts a digital output e.g. closes some relay contracts.
>
> We would like to install an environmental monitoring system to warn of
> critical conditions in a server room. For example:
> *)  room temperature to high
> *) under floor water rope sensors have detected a leak
> *) Volt free critical alarms from the air conditioning units
>
> I was hoping that the monitoring system could trigger an autodialler which
> would then call the buildings main reception, which  is staffed 24x7, they
> could the pass on the message to the appropriate people, usually the estates
> and facilities department. At present the institution for sending this like
> of alert is a voice call to reception or a rather expensive connection to
> the Building management System (trend)
>
> I am concerned that as critical alerts should be very rare a problem with
> the autodialer or its phone line could go undiscovered for a long time.
>
> A solution would be to have the autodialer actively exert a digital output
> to indicate that it was operating normally and exert a second output to
> indicate that the line was OK. Alternatively it could just exert one output
> to indicate that everything was working normally and the telephone line was
> OK. The monitoring system could also check these digital outputs and notify
> the IT team by email or some other method.
> This would be a problem for the IT team rather then Estates and Facilities.
>
> I would prefer it to actively exert the output e.g. close relay contacts
> which are normally open as this provides "fail to safety". If the power
> failed, the monitor cable was disconnected or the unit developed a fault
> then we would get a notification.
>
> I release that there is the risk of an "out of hours" critical alert and
> telephone line failure occurring at the same time, given the rarity of each
> individual event this is somthign we ca probably live with.
>
> All the best
>
> Richard Westlake
>
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