You use the Outbound Settings to manage your communication settings so that you can send information to users or applications outside of VMware Aria Operations.

You manage your outbound options from this page, including adding or editing outbound plug-ins, and turning the configured plug-ins on or off. When activated, the plug-in sends a message to users as email notifications, or sends a message to other applications.

Outbound plug-in settings determine how the supported external notification systems connect to their target systems. You configure one or more instances of one or more plug-in types so that you can send data about generated notifications outside of VMware Aria Operations.

You configure each plug-in with the required information, including destination locations, hosts, ports, user names, passwords, instance name, or other information that is required to send notifications to those target systems. The target systems can include email recipients, log files, or other management products.

Some plug-ins are included with VMware Aria Operations, and others might be added when you add a management pack as a solution.

The configuration options vary depending on which plug-in you select from the Plug-In Type drop-down menu.

To add outbound notification plug-in, see Adding Outbound Notification Plug-Ins.

Where You Find Outbound Settings

To manage your outbound settings, from the left menu, click Configure > Alerts, and then in the right pane, click Outbound Settings. Outbound plugin settings determine how the supported external notification systems connect to their target systems.
Option Description
Toolbar options
Use the toolbar options to manage your Outbound Plug-Ins.
  • Add. Opens the Outbound Plug-In dialog box where you configure the connection options for the instance.

Select an existing plugin and click the vertical ellipsis to perform the following actions.

  • Edit. Modify the Outbound Plug-In instance details.
  • Delete. Removes the selected plug-in instance.
  • Activate or Deactivate. Starts or stops the plug-in instance. Deactivating an instance allows you to stop sending the messages configured for the plug-in without removing the configuration from your environment.
  • Export. Downloads the outbound settings.
  • Import. Allows you to import outbound settings. To import:
    • Click the Import option from the horizontal ellipsis.
    • Click Browse and select the file to import.
    • Select if you want to Overwrite or Skip the file in case of a conflict.
    • Click Import to import outbound settings, and click Done.
Instance Name

Name that you assigned when you created the plug-in instance.

Click the vertical ellipsis to perform the following actions.
  • Edit. Allows you to edit the selected payload template.
  • Delete. Removes the selected payload template.
  • Activate or Deactivate. Starts or stops the plug-in instance. Deactivating an instance allows you to stop sending the messages configured for the plug-in without removing the configuration from your environment.
  • Export. Downloads the outbound settings.
Plug-In Type

Type of configured plug-in for the plug-in instance. The types of plug-ins vary depending on the solutions you have added to your environment.

Status

Specifies whether the plug-in is currently running.

List of Outbound Plugins

VMware Aria Operations provides outbound plug-ins. This list includes the name of the plug-in and whether you can filter the outbound data based on your notification settings.

If the plug-in supports configuring notification rules, then you can filter the messages before they are sent to the target system. If the plug-in does not support notifications, all messages are sent to the target system, and you can process them in that application.

If you installed other solutions that include other plug-in options, they appear as a plug-in option with the other plug-ins.

Messages and alerts are sent only when the plug-in is activated.

Table 1. Notification Support for Outbound plug-ins
Outbound plug-in Configure Notification Rules
Automated Action plug-in No

The Automated Action plug-in is activated by default. If automated actions stop working, select the Automated Action plug-in and activate it if necessary. If you edit the Automated Action plug-in, you only have to provide the instance name.

REST Notification plug-in Yes
Standard Email plug-in Yes
SNMP Trap plug-in Yes
Webhook Notification Plugin Yes
Slack plug-in Yes
Service-Now Notification plug-in Yes
Vmware Hosted Email plug-in No

The Vmware Hosted Email plug-in is activated by default.