Responding to Statuses

You can respond to the statuses you see in the Status Center. There are several types of responses:

  • Acknowledge
  • Reply
  • Escalate
  • Assign
  • Delete

You can respond to a status in two ways. Both can be accomplished from either the Status Center or from the Statuses widget on a dashboard.

  • ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions by the status. Then, select a response from the menu that opens. Note: The menu changes depending on the type of status you select. Only options that are valid for that status appear on it.

  • ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions by the status and select Properties. Then, in the upper left corner of the Status Properties page, clicktap the response button you want. You can also assign the status to someone or reply to it. Those options are under the Details section. Note: The buttons at the top of the page vary depending on which status you selected. Also, once you clicktap one of the buttons, you cannot cancel that action by canceling out of the Status Properties page.

There is a third way of responding to statuses, but you can only do it from the Status Center: Select (check) a number of statuses; then, clicktap one of the response buttons at the top of the page.

The following describes each type of response.

When you acknowledge a status, you're saying that you've seen the status and nothing further needs to be done. Note: Depending on what filters you have set, acknowledging a status may remove it from the list; however, it doesn't remove it from the system. Only deleting statuses removes them from the system. To see all the acknowledged statuses, use the "All" or "Acknowledged" filter.

To acknowledge a status:

  1. ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions for a single status and select Acknowledge from the menu.

    Or, select (check) a number of statuses and clicktap the Acknowledge button at the top of the page.

  2. ClickTap Acknowledge when asked to confirm your response.

Note: If you're on the Status Properties page, simply clicktap the Acknowledge button in the upper left corner to acknowledge the status you're viewing.

Certain statuses have been set up so that you can reply to them, either with a predefined reply, or with a custom reply specific to that status.

To reply to a status:

  1. ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions for the status and select Reply from the menu.

    Or, select (check) a number of statuses and clicktap the Reply button at the top of the page.

  2. ClickTap Look Up. Then, select a reply. The replies you can choose from are those set up for that message ID on the IBM i and the ones you've set up for your applications.

    Note: You can simply type a reply in the field. However, be aware that if the product or application it's sent to doesn't recognize it, the status will be changed to "Reply Waiting" and you'll need to reply to it again.

  3. ClickTap Reply when asked to confirm your reply.

Using Robot Network, you have a variety of options to escalate a status that is not acknowledged within a certain amount of time:

  • With Robot Alert, the messaging software from HelpSystems, you can have Robot Network send text, pager, or email messages in reaction to a status. If an operator doesn't react within a certain time frame, Robot Network uses Robot Alert to send a message to a specified device or list of devices. Using two-way paging you can respond to a status with a device. Robot Alert can send both a message and a list of responses to the device, as determined by your vendor. The device receives the message and responses, and the person can answer the message from the device. If there's no response, Robot Alert continues sending the message until it reaches the repeat limit. Robot Network also can work with Robot Alert to escalate and respond to statuses using two-way email messaging and SMTP.

  • Robot Network allows you to escalate and respond to statuses using SNMP traps to provide monitoring capabilities across your enterprise. You can use Robot Network and the IBM i as the heart of your enterprise monitoring solution. Robot Network uses SNMP traps for one-way and two-way communication with enterprise monitoring solutions such as BPM, Remedy, Netcool®, and HP OpenView.

  • You also can use Robot Network to escalate unacknowledged statuses using your own programs and escalation strategy.

To escalate a status:

  1. ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions for the status and select  Escalate from the menu.

    Or, select (check) a number of statuses and clicktap the Escalate button at the top of the page.

  2. ClickTap Escalate when asked to confirm your response.

Note: If you're on the Status Properties page, simply clicktap the Escalate button in the upper left corner to escalate the status you're viewing.

On occasion, you may need to suspend the status escalation process while determining a correct response (such as for Robot Console messages). You can assign a status to a Robot Network user so only one person is working on a particular status. Marking a status as assigned suspends the escalation process and lets others know who's working on it. Note: You can assign statuses to yourself or to others.

To assign a status:

  1. ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions for the status and select Assign or Assign to Me.

    Or, select (check) a number of statuses and clicktap the Assign or Assign to Me button at the top of the page.

    Note: If you select Assign to Me, skip to step 4.

  2. ClickTap Look Up. Then, select a user to assign this status to.

  3. Enter the Ticket number and Notes, if needed.

  4. ClickTap Assign.

    After the page is refreshed, the user name of the person the status is assigned to is displayed.

To unassign a status:

  1. ClickTap The Show Actions button. Show Actions the status and select Unassign.

    Or, select (check) a number of statuses and clicktap the Unassign button at the top of the page.

  2. ClickTap Unassign when asked to confirm your response.

To reassign a status:

To reassign a status, follow the procedure for assigning statuses. There's no need to unassign the status first.

To delete a status:

  1. Select (check) one or more statuses.

  2. ClickTap the Delete button at the top of the page.

  3. ClickTap Delete when asked to confirm the deletion.