How to enable a text message (SMS) notification channel

To configure alert notifications for System Center - Operations Manager, your first task is to enable a notification channel. This article describes how to configure a channel that will send alert notifications to subscribers by using a Short Message Service (SMS) or text message.

Prerequisites

To enable an SMS Notification Channel, ensure the following:

1. Modem(s) for SMS with support for SMS Protocol Data Unit (PDU) mode is/are set.

2. The Modem(s) is/are attached via the COM Port on all the management servers present in the Notifications Resource Pool.

3. The Baud Rate of the COM port is set to: 9600

How to set COM Port Baud Rate from the Command Line

1. Open Administrator Command Prompt

2. List all modes: Mode

3. Set the COM Port to use a Bits Per Second (Baud) rate of 9600: Mode Com1: Baud=9600

To enable a text message notification channel

1. Sign in to the computer with a user account that is a member of the Operations Manager Administrators role.

2. In the Operations console, select Administration.

3. In the navigation pane, under Notifications, right-click Channels. Select New channel, and select Text message (SMS).

4. Enter a name for the channel, such as SMS channel and optionally provide a description. Select Next.

5. In the Text message box, specify the text that is sent to SMS notification subscribers. The Text message box contains a default message that includes text and variables. You can edit the default message or delete it and replace it with another message. You can select the right arrow next to the Text message box for a full list of available variables. For more information, see How to Customize Message Content for Notifications.

6. In the Encoding box, select the text format for the SMS messages.

7. Select Finish, and then select Close.

Note

When customizing the text message, ensure that SMS has a 160 character limit. Operations Manager can't send longer messages (over 160 characters) using Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

Next steps

• To designate when to send notifications and the addresses to which the notifications should be sent, review How to create notification subscribers.

• To define the criteria, notification channel, and subscribers that will receive the notification, create a notification subscription.

• To create an email notification channel, see How to enable an email notification channel.

• To create a command channel notification, see How to enable a command notification channel.

• To create an instant message notification channel, see How to enable an instant message notification channel.