Locations, Contacts, and Business Services

Overview

NMIS provides organizational configuration for:

Locations - Physical site definitions with geocoding
Contacts - Notification recipients and schedules
Business Services - Service-level tracking and priorities
Escalation Policies - Tiered notification rules

Locations

Locations.nmis

Define physical sites where equipment is located. From Locations.nmis:30:

%hash = (
  'default' => {
    'Location' => 'default',
    'Address1' => '',
    'Address2' => '',
    'City' => '',
    'State' => '',
    'Country' => '',
    'Postcode' => '',
    'Geocode' => 'Brisbane, Australia',
    'Latitude' => '-27.44979',
    'Longitude' => '152.929688'
  }
);

Location Properties

Location - Unique location identifier
Address1/Address2 - Street address lines
City - City name
State - State/province
Country - Country name
Postcode - ZIP/postal code
Suburb - Suburb/neighborhood
Floor - Building floor
Room - Room number
Geocode - Human-readable location
Latitude - GPS latitude coordinate
Longitude - GPS longitude coordinate

Location Examples

From Locations.nmis:46:

Data Center Location

'DataCenter' => {
  'Location' => 'DataCenter',
  'Address1' => '123 Server Drive',
  'City' => 'Lenoir',
  'State' => 'NC',
  'Country' => 'USA',
  'Postcode' => '28645',
  'Geocode' => 'Lenoir, NC',
  'Latitude' => '35.914635',
  'Longitude' => '-81.526108'
}

Head Office Location

'HeadOffice' => {
  'Location' => 'HeadOffice',
  'City' => 'Charlotte',
  'State' => 'NC',
  'Geocode' => 'Charlotte, NC',
  'Latitude' => '35.215215',
  'Longitude' => '-80.840213'
}

Cloud Location

'Cloud' => {
  'Location' => 'Cloud',
  'Geocode' => 'St Louis, Missouri',
  'Latitude' => '38.612469',
  'Longitude' => '-90.198830'
}

Using Locations

Assign locations to nodes:

/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl \
  act=set \
  node=router1 \
  entry.configuration.location=DataCenter

Location Mapping

Locations enable:

Geographic map views - Visual node placement
Location-based reports - Site-specific metrics
Proximity analysis - Nearby device grouping

Contacts

Contacts.nmis

Define notification recipients for events and alerts. From Contacts.nmis:1:

%hash = (
  'contact1' => {
    'Contact' => 'Contact1',
    'Email' => 'nobody@localhost',
    'Mobile' => '5555551234',
    'Phone' => '',
    'Pager' => '',
    'DutyTime' => '06:20:MonTueWedThuFri',
    'TimeZone' => '0',
    'Level' => '(Fatal|Critical|Major|Minor|Warning|Normal)',
    'Location' => 'default'
  }
);

Contact Properties

Contact - Unique contact identifier
Email - Email address for notifications
Mobile - Mobile phone number
Phone - Office phone number
Pager - Pager number (if used)
DutyTime - When contact is available
TimeZone - Timezone offset (hours from GMT)
Level - Event severity levels to receive
Location - Associated location

Duty Time Format

From Contacts.nmis:5:

'DutyTime' => '06:20:MonTueWedThuFri'

Format: StartHour:EndHour:DayList Examples:

06:18:MonTueWedThuFri - Weekdays 6am-6pm
00:24:MonTueWedThuFriSatSun - 24/7 all week
08:17:MonTueWed - Mon-Wed 8am-5pm
18:06:SatSun - Weekends 6pm-6am (night shift)

Event Level Filtering

From Contacts.nmis:6:

'Level' => '(Fatal|Critical|Major|Minor|Warning|Normal)'

Receive only matching severities:

(Fatal|Critical) - Critical events only
(Major|Minor|Warning) - Medium severity
(Warning|Normal) - Informational
(Fatal|Critical|Major|Minor|Warning|Normal) - All events

Contact Examples

Operations Team

'ops_team' => {
  'Contact' => 'ops_team',
  'Email' => '[email protected]',
  'Mobile' => '5551234567',
  'DutyTime' => '00:24:MonTueWedThuFriSatSun',  # 24/7
  'TimeZone' => '0',
  'Level' => '(Fatal|Critical|Major)',
  'Location' => 'default'
}

Business Hours Contact

'business_hours' => {
  'Contact' => 'business_hours',
  'Email' => '[email protected]',
  'DutyTime' => '08:17:MonTueWedThuFri',  # 8am-5pm weekdays
  'TimeZone' => '-5',  # EST
  'Level' => '(Minor|Warning)',
  'Location' => 'HeadOffice'
}

On-Call Engineer

'oncall' => {
  'Contact' => 'oncall',
  'Email' => '[email protected]',
  'Mobile' => '5559876543',
  'DutyTime' => '17:09:MonTueWedThuFri',  # After hours
  'TimeZone' => '0',
  'Level' => '(Fatal|Critical)',
  'Location' => 'default'
}

Business Services

BusinessServices.nmis

Define business-critical services for tracking and prioritization. From BusinessServices.nmis:35:

%hash = (
  'Core Network' => {
    'businessService' => 'Core Network',
    'businessUnit' => 'Shared',
    'serviceType' => 'Revenue Generating',
    'businessPriority' => '10'
  }
);

Business Service Properties

businessService - Service name (unique identifier)
businessUnit - Owning business unit/department
serviceType - Service classification
businessPriority - Priority level (1-10, 10=highest)

Service Types

Common classifications:

Revenue Generating - Direct revenue impact
Business Critical - Essential operations
Business Supporting - Support functions
Non-Critical - Low impact services

Service Examples

From BusinessServices.nmis:

E-Commerce Service

'eCommerce' => {
  'businessService' => 'eCommerce',
  'businessUnit' => 'Sales',
  'serviceType' => 'Revenue Generating',
  'businessPriority' => '10'
}

Email Service

'eMail' => {
  'businessService' => 'eMail',
  'businessUnit' => 'Shared',
  'serviceType' => 'Business Critical',
  'businessPriority' => '6'
}

Web Page Service

'Web Page' => {
  'businessService' => 'Web Page',
  'businessUnit' => 'Marketing',
  'serviceType' => 'Business Critical',
  'businessPriority' => '7'
}

Assigning Business Services

Assign services to nodes:

/usr/local/nmis9/admin/node_admin.pl \
  act=set \
  node=webserver1 \
  entry.configuration.businessService="eCommerce"

Escalation Policies

Escalations.nmis

Define tiered notification rules for events. From Escalations.nmis:1:

%hash = (
  'default_core_default_default__' => {
    'Event' => 'default',
    'Event_Node' => '',
    'Event_Element' => '',
    'Group' => 'default',
    'Role' => 'core',
    'Type' => 'default',
    'Level0' => 'email:Contact1',
    'Level1' => '',
    'Level2' => 'email:Contact1',
    'Level3' => '',
    'UpNotify' => 'true'
  }
);

Escalation Properties

Event - Event name pattern (or ‘default’)
Event_Node - Node name pattern
Event_Element - Element identifier pattern
Group - Node group
Role - Node role type
Type - Node type
Level0-Level10 - Escalation tiers
UpNotify - Send recovery notifications

Escalation Levels

From Config.nmis:376:

'escalation' => {
  'escalate0' => '0',      # Immediate
  'escalate1' => '300',    # 5 minutes
  'escalate2' => '900',    # 15 minutes
  'escalate3' => '1800',   # 30 minutes
  'escalate4' => '2400',   # 40 minutes
  'escalate5' => '3600',   # 1 hour
  'escalate6' => '7200',   # 2 hours
  'escalate7' => '10800',  # 3 hours
  'escalate8' => '21600',  # 6 hours
  'escalate9' => '43200',  # 12 hours
  'escalate10' => '86400'  # 24 hours
}

Notifications are sent:

Level0 - Immediately when event occurs
Level1 - After 5 minutes if not resolved
Level2 - After 15 minutes if not resolved
Continue through levels until resolved

Notification Methods

From escalation level syntax: Email notification:

'Level0' => 'email:Contact1'           # Single contact
'Level1' => 'email:Contact1,Contact2'  # Multiple contacts

No notification:

'Level3' => ''  # Skip this level

Escalation Examples

Core Router Escalation

From Escalations.nmis:22:

'default_core_default_default__' => {
  'Event' => 'default',
  'Group' => 'default',
  'Role' => 'core',
  'Type' => 'default',
  'Level0' => 'email:ops_team',      # Immediate
  'Level1' => '',                     # Skip
  'Level2' => 'email:ops_manager',   # 15 min
  'Level3' => '',
  'UpNotify' => 'true'
}

Distribution Switch Escalation

'default_distribution_default_default__' => {
  'Event' => 'default',
  'Group' => 'default',
  'Role' => 'distribution',
  'Type' => 'default',
  'Level0' => 'email:ops_team',
  'Level1' => '',
  'Level2' => '',
  'Level3' => 'email:ops_manager',   # 30 min
  'UpNotify' => 'true'
}

Access Switch Escalation

From Escalations.nmis:42:

'default_access_default_default__' => {
  'Event' => 'default',
  'Group' => 'default',
  'Role' => 'access',
  'Type' => 'default',
  'Level0' => '',                     # No immediate
  'Level1' => 'email:helpdesk',      # 5 min
  'Level2' => '',
  'Level3' => '',
  'Level4' => 'email:ops_team',      # 40 min
  'UpNotify' => 'true'
}

Escalation Key Format

Escalation keys follow the pattern:

Event_Role_Type_Group_Node_Element

Use default for wildcard matching:

default_core_default_default__ - All core role events
Node Down_default_router_network__ - Router down in network group
default_default_default_default__ - Catch-all fallback

Recovery Notifications

From Escalations.nmis:20:

'UpNotify' => 'true'

When true, sends notification when:

Event is resolved
Device comes back up
Condition clears

Escalation policies are evaluated in order. Ensure more specific rules are listed before generic catch-all rules.

Email Configuration

From Config.nmis:262:

SMTP Settings

'email' => {
  'mail_server' => '127.0.0.1',
  'mail_server_port' => '25',
  'mail_from' => '[email protected]',
  'mail_from_reports' => '[email protected]',
  'mail_domain' => 'yourdomain.com',
  'mail_use_tls' => 'false',
  'mail_user' => '',
  'mail_password' => '',
  'mail_combine' => 'true'
}

Email Batching

'mail_combine' => 'true'  # Combine multiple events into single email

Configuration Management

Edit Locations

cp /usr/local/nmis9/conf-default/Locations.nmis \
   /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Locations.nmis
vim /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Locations.nmis

Edit Contacts

cp /usr/local/nmis9/conf-default/Contacts.nmis \
   /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Contacts.nmis
vim /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Contacts.nmis

Edit Business Services

cp /usr/local/nmis9/conf-default/BusinessServices.nmis \
   /usr/local/nmis9/conf/BusinessServices.nmis
vim /usr/local/nmis9/conf/BusinessServices.nmis

Edit Escalations

cp /usr/local/nmis9/conf-default/Escalations.nmis \
   /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Escalations.nmis
vim /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Escalations.nmis

After editing configuration files, validate syntax:

perl -c /usr/local/nmis9/conf/Contacts.nmis

Testing Notifications

Test Email Configuration

/usr/local/nmis9/bin/nmis-cli \
  act=test-email \
  [email protected]

Trigger Test Event

# Create test event
/usr/local/nmis9/bin/nmis-cli \
  act=event \
  event="Test Event" \
  node=router1 \
  level=Warning

Check Escalation Logs

tail -f /usr/local/nmis9/logs/event.log

Best Practices

1. Use Descriptive Names

Clear, meaningful identifiers:

Locations: DC1_FloorA, HeadOffice_B2
Contacts: ops_primary, mgr_network
Services: CustomerPortal, InternalHR

2. Document Duty Times

Maintain duty schedules externally for reference.

3. Test Escalations

Regularly verify notification delivery:

Send test events
Confirm email receipt
Validate escalation timing

4. Set Realistic Priorities

Use priority levels consistently:

9-10: Critical revenue impact
6-8: Business critical
3-5: Important but not critical
1-2: Informational

5. Maintain Contact Currency

Regularly review and update:

Email addresses
Phone numbers
Duty schedules
Departed staff

Getting Started

Core Features

Configuration

Device Models

Administration

Deployment

​Overview

​Locations

​Locations.nmis

​Location Properties

​Location Examples

​Data Center Location

​Head Office Location

​Cloud Location

​Using Locations

​Location Mapping

​Contacts

​Contacts.nmis

​Contact Properties

​Duty Time Format

​Event Level Filtering

​Contact Examples

​Operations Team

​Business Hours Contact

​On-Call Engineer

​Business Services

​BusinessServices.nmis

​Business Service Properties

​Service Types

​Service Examples

​E-Commerce Service

​Email Service

​Web Page Service

​Assigning Business Services

​Escalation Policies

​Escalations.nmis

​Escalation Properties

​Escalation Levels

​Notification Methods

​Escalation Examples

​Core Router Escalation

​Distribution Switch Escalation

​Access Switch Escalation

​Escalation Key Format

​Recovery Notifications

​Email Configuration

​SMTP Settings

​Email Batching

​Configuration Management

​Edit Locations

​Edit Contacts

​Edit Business Services

​Edit Escalations

​Testing Notifications

​Test Email Configuration

​Trigger Test Event

​Check Escalation Logs

​Best Practices

​1. Use Descriptive Names

​2. Document Duty Times

​3. Test Escalations

​4. Set Realistic Priorities

​5. Maintain Contact Currency

​Related Documentation

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Locations

Locations.nmis

Location Properties

Location Examples

Data Center Location

Head Office Location

Cloud Location

Using Locations

Location Mapping

Contacts

Contacts.nmis

Contact Properties

Duty Time Format

Event Level Filtering

Contact Examples

Operations Team

Business Hours Contact

On-Call Engineer

Business Services

BusinessServices.nmis

Business Service Properties

Service Types

Service Examples

E-Commerce Service

Email Service

Web Page Service

Assigning Business Services

Escalation Policies

Escalations.nmis

Escalation Properties

Escalation Levels

Notification Methods

Escalation Examples

Core Router Escalation

Distribution Switch Escalation

Access Switch Escalation

Escalation Key Format

Recovery Notifications

Email Configuration

SMTP Settings

Email Batching

Configuration Management

Edit Locations

Edit Contacts

Edit Business Services

Edit Escalations

Testing Notifications

Test Email Configuration

Trigger Test Event

Check Escalation Logs

Best Practices

1. Use Descriptive Names

2. Document Duty Times

3. Test Escalations

4. Set Realistic Priorities

5. Maintain Contact Currency

Related Documentation