Managing the GNS Queue

Pending notification messages can be displayed using CygNet Explorer. There are two GNS queues: the Notification Queue and the Resend Queue.

The Notification Queue contains the notifications to be sent for the first time.
The Resend Queue contains the notifications that have their "resend" property active or are awaiting acknowledgment.

To view the queues, right-click in the GNS pane in CygNet Explorer and select View Queue, or click on the Notification Queue page or Resend Queue page from the GNS pane.

Queue Viewer

The columns and buttons on the Queue Viewer dialog box are described in the following table.

Column or Button

Description

Columns

Event ID

The root Event ID of the alarm event.

GNS ID

The ID of the GNS notification record.

Status

The status of the notification.

Possible states in the Notification Queue include:

In Progress — The notification is being sent. The notification cannot be deleted from a queue while it is In Progress.
Ready — The notification is ready to be sent.

Possible states in the Resend Queue include:

In Progress — The notification is being resent. The notification cannot be deleted from a queue while it is In Progress.
Ready To Del — The notification has been marked for delete, but the background thread has not actually deleted it yet.
Retrying On Fail — The GNS is planning on resending an email notification that has previously failed. Applies only to email notifications. Added in CygNet v9.8. See Resending Failed Email Notifications.
Unknown — The state of the notification is unknown. This might be displayed if you are viewing the Resend Queue using an older CygNet Explorer and a v9.8+ or patched GNS is retrying an email notification that previously failed. A v9.8+ CygNet Explorer would display "Retrying On Fail" in this scenario.
Waiting Clear — Waiting for the alarm to clear. Applies if Resend if not Cleared is enabled for this notification.
Waiting Time — Either waiting for an Acknowledgment or waiting for a Blackout to clear. Applies if Acknowledgment is enabled for this notification.

Address

Specifies the address of the notification's recipient.

Type

Specifies the notification type. For example:

AP — Alphanumeric pager
CP — Comm Port Address
NS — Net Send Address
PG — Numeric Pager
SM — Email Message, SMS Message
SP — SNPP Message
VA — Voice Address
WA — WAV Address
Z* - *<Notification Plugin Type Name>

Ack ID

The acknowledgment ID of the notification. When acknowledging a notification via a method other than using the GNS Queue Viewer, you must supply this code.

See Acknowledging Notifications for more information.

Notif ID

An internal identifier for the notification. Can be used in CxGns.

Resend ID

An internal identifier for the notification. Can be used in CxGns.

Site.Service

The Site and Service of the CVS of the point with which this alarm is associated.

Facility ID

The Facility ID of the point with which this alarm is associated.

UDC

The UDC of the point with which this alarm is associated.

Long ID

The long identifier of the point with which this alarm is associated.

Alarm

The alarm that triggered the notification.

Buttons

Info

Click Info to see the details of the selected notification, including the message text. The GNS Resend Queue Notification Entry dialog box for a message in the selected queue is shown in the following image.

GNS Resend Queue Notification Entry

Delete

Click Delete to delete the selected notification from the queue. A notification cannot be deleted from a queue if its status is "In Progress."

You can also delete a notification by clicking Delete Notification in the GNS Queue Notification Entry dialog box.

Note: If a user deletes a notification from the Resend Queue, the next to notify, resend, and acknowledgment rules will no longer apply.

Ack

The Resend Queue has an Ack button. Click Ack to acknowledge the selected notification(s). Acknowledging a notification removes all items with the same acknowledgment ID from the Resend Queue.

You can also acknowledge a notification by clicking Acknowledge Notification in the GNS Resend Queue Notification Entry dialog box.

Note: If a user acknowledges a notification from the Resend Queue, the next to notify, resend, and acknowledgment rules will no longer apply.

See Acknowledging Notifications for more information.

All

Click All to select all the notifications in the queue, usually for deletion. Deleting all notifications from the queue is useful for administrators dealing with a sudden surge of notifications being sent due to an event such as a power loss, where the recipients do not need to be notified multiple times for each point.

Connect

Click to force a refresh.

Queue Security

Authorization is required for deletions and acknowledgments. The security application name and event are defined in the Event record on the Notifications page. The default application name is "GNS" (or the name of service if different) and the default event name of "QUEUE." Users must have an authorization level of at least "Delete" (4) to delete notifications and "Add" (3) to acknowledge notifications. See the GNS security reference for more information.

Queue Persistence

All pending notifications are saved when the GNS is shut down, and are restored when the GNS is restarted. To clear the queue on a GNS restart you have to delete the messages from the queue using CygNet Explorer.