> #### Creating an e-mail action

> You can associate an e-mail action with a rule violation. The e-mail action defines the name, description, e-mail addresses of the sender and recipient, and a user-defined subject and message that is initiated in response to an alert.

> To create an e-mail action:

> 1. Select Library from the menu bar. The Fathom Component Library page appears in the detail frame.
> 2. Click Create E-mail Action. The E-mail Action page appears:

> 3. In the Name field, enter the name of your action. You cannot enter spaces between words or use special characters such as an asterisk (*), ampersand (&), or period in this field.
> 4. Enter a description of the action in the Description field.
> 5. Enter the e-mail address of the intended alert recipient in the Send to field. (This is a required field.) Consider the following points when entering these values:
> - You should explicitly enter e-mail addresses (for example, `smith``@`company.com). However, depending on your mail server implementation, Fathom might be able to determine the mail server domain name and automatically provide the `@`company.com portion of the address.
> - You can also enter names using quotation marks. The quotation marks will display when the recipient receives the e-mail. Also, you can enter a comma-delimited list of recipients. For example: "Some User" <someuser`@`somedomain.com>, "Some Other User" <someotheruser@somedomain.com>.
> 6. Enter the e-mail address of the sender in the Send from field.
> Fathom Management supports either of the following formats to enter a value for the Send from field:

> - someuser`@`somedomain.com
> When this format is received in the recipient's inbox and appears in the FROM: header text of the message, the entire entry name and e-mail address, as entered in this format, display.

> - "Some User" <someuser@somedomain.com>
> When the recipient receives an e-mail that is sent using this format, the recipient's inbox displays only "Some User" with quotation marks, as the sender of the e-mail; the address does not appear. Similarly, when you open the message, the FROM: header appears as: From: "Some User." Only when you display a received e-mail will you display both the user name and domain name as entered using this format.

> 7. Enter a description of the e-mail's topic in the Subject field.
> In the Subject field, the phrase Fathom Alert automatically appears, followed by the e-mail variable %CONTAINERNAME% to immediately identify the specific container to which the alert applies. However, you can override any of this information. Also, you can use any of the e-mail variables identified in Table 4–3 in the Subject field to clarify the content of the e-mail.

> Table 4–3: Variables for an e-mail action
> Variable | Description
> --- | ---
> %ALERTID% | The ID of the current alert.
> %ALERTNAME% | The name of the current alert.
> %ALERTSEVERITY% | The severity of the current alert.
> %HOST% | The host on which Fathom is running.
> %CONTAINERNAME% | The container whose resource caused the alert to generate.
> %RESOURCENAME% | The name of the resource that caused the alert to generate.
> %ALERTLASTOCCURRENCE% | The date and time of the last occurrence.
> %ALERTREASON% | The reason that the alert occurred.
> %ALERTCOUNT% | The number of times that this alert has occurred.
> %ALERTTRIGVALUE% | The value that triggered the alert.
> %HOSTLINK% | The link to the host on which Fathom is running.
> %RESOURCELINK% | The link to the resource that generated the alert that caused the e-mail to be sent.
> %ALERTLINK% | The link to the description of the alert that caused the e-mail to be sent.

> Note: The percent symbol (%) is used before and after each variable. If you need to include the percent symbol in the text of a message, you must enter two percent symbols (%%) in the message body.

> 8. Select either Text (the default option) or HTML as the format option for your message in the Send As field. If you select Text, no additional work to your message is required. However, if you select HTML, you must use proper HTML-formatting techniques to ensure that your message will be readable by the recipient.
> 9. Use the default message variables that appear in the Message area, or edit these variables with the values that will appear in the specific e-mail action that you create.
> Refer to Table 4–3 for a listing of the variables you can define for an e-mail message.

> 10. Click Save to save the action or Cancel to discard the action. When you save the e-mail action, the detail frame displays the properties of the new action:

> You can now edit, copy, delete, or test the e-mail action.

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