External Contacts

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An external contact is a user to whom SL1 can send email messages (service notifications and ticket notifications) from SL1. External contacts do not have ScienceLogic accounts and cannot login to SL1. Like ScienceLogic users, external contacts are associated with organizations.

Each external contact can be included in distribution lists, service notifications, and in the list of possible ticket watchers for either the external contact's organization, or for individual tickets in the external contact's organization.

The External Contacts page allows you to view a list of existing external contact accounts, edit their properties, and define new external contact accounts.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

  • To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
  • To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

Viewing the List of External Contacts

The External Contacts page allows you to view a list of existing external contact accounts.

To view external contacts:

  1. Go to the External Contacts page (Registry > Accounts > External Contacts).
  2. The External Contacts page displays the following about each external contact account:

To sort the list of external contacts, click on a column heading. The list will be sorted by the column value, in ascending order. To sort by descending order, click the column heading again. The Last Edited column sorts by descending order on the first click; to sort by ascending order, click the column heading again.

  • Last Name | First Name. Last name and first name of the external contact.
  • Organization. Organization associated with the external contact account.
  • Email Address. Email address associated with the external contact account.
  • City. City associated with the external contact account.
  • State. State associated with the external contact account.
  • Postal Code. Postal code associated with the external contact account.
  • Phone Number. Phone number associated with the external contact account.
  • Contact ID. Unique, numeric ID, automatically assigned to each external contact account by SL1.
  • Last Edited. Date and time the external contact account was created or last edited.

Filtering the List of External Contacts

The External Contacts page includes nine filters, at the top of the registry. You can filter the list of external contacts by one or multiple of the following parameters: last name | first name, primary organization, email address, city, state, postal code, phone number, contact ID, and last edited. You can specify one or more parameters to filter the display of external contacts. Only external contacts that meet all the filter criteria will be displayed in the External Contacts page.

You can filter by one or more of the following parameters. The list of external contacts is dynamically updated as you select each filter.

  • For each filter except Last Edited, you must enter text to match against. SL1 will search for external contacts that match the text, including partial matches. Text matches are not case-sensitive. You can use the following special characters in each filter:
  • , (comma). Specifies an "or" operation. For example:

dell, micro

would match all values that contain the string "dell" OR the string "micro".

  • ! (exclamation mark). Specifies a "not" operation. For example:

!dell

would match all values that do not contain the string "dell".

  • Last Name | First Name. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching last name or a first name, or both.
  • Organization. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching primary organization.
  • Email Address. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching email address.
  • City. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching city in their addresses.
  • State. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching state in their addresses (for example, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, etc.).
  • Postal Code. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching postal code in their addresses.
  • Contact ID. You can enter text to match, including special characters, and the External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have a matching ID.
  • Last Edited. You can select from a list of time periods. The External Contacts page will display only external contacts that have been created or edited within that time period.

Creating and Editing an External Contact

You can create an external contact from the External Contacts page. To create an external contact:

  1. Go to theExternal Contacts page (Registry > Accounts > External Contacts).
  2. In the External Contacts page, click the Create button.
  1. The Create New External Contact page appears, where you can define values in the following fields:
  • First Name. Contact's first name. This value can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Last Name. Contact's last name. This value can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Title. Contact's title. This field can be up to 32 characters in length.
  • Department. Contact's department. This field can be up to 36 characters in length.
  • Phone. Contact's phone number at work. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Fax. Contact's fax number at work. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Mobile. Contact's cell phone number. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Pager. Any other phone numbers for contacting the person. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Primary Email. Contact's primary email address. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Secondary Email. Additional email address for contacting the person. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Alternate Email. Additional email address for contacting the person. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Street Address. Contact's street address at work. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Suite/Building. Suite/Building for the person at work. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • City. City where the person works. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • State. State where the person works.
  • Postal Code. Zip code where the person works. This field can be up to 12 characters in length.
  • Country. Country where the person works.
  • NOTE: By default, the Country field will be set to the country specified in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior). You can override this setting for the current external contact. Editing the value in this field will not affect the system-wide default setting.

  • Toll Free. Toll-free phone number for the person. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • Organization. Organization to associate with the person. Select from a list of all organizations in SL1.
  • Key Role. Description of the Contact's responsibilities in case of a critical situation. This description might differ from the Contact's actual title. For example, a contact's title might be Senior Engineer, but his/her role for the organization might be technical lead. Select from the drop-down list. (SL1 system administrators can go to the System > Customize > Select Objects page to customize the entries that appear in this list) If a value is supplied in this field, the contact will appear as a Critical Contact for the Organization in the Organization Properties page.
  • Critical Contact. Circumstance when person should be contacted. This description might differ from the Contact's department. For example, the Contact's department might be Operations, but his/her role for the organization might be Hardware Maintenance. Select from the drop-down list. (SL1 system administrators can go to the System > Customize > Select Objects page to customize the entries that appear in this list) If a value is supplied in this field, the contact will appear as a Critical Contact for the Organization in the Organization Properties page.
  • Pass Phrase. Questions that verifies a contact who has forgotten his/her password. SL1 does not use this field.
  • What is your Mother's maiden name?
  • What is your favorite pet's name?
  • What is your favorite color?
  • Answer. This field contains the answer to the question selected in the Pass Phrase field. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Time Zone. Time zone associated with the Contact's location. Select from a list of all time zones.
  • Billing ID. Billing ID associated with this contact. This field can be up to 24 characters in length.
  • CRM ID. CRM ID associated with this contact. This field can be up to 64 characters in length.
  • Notes. Any notes you want to include with the contact's profile information.
  1. After you have defined fields in the Create New External Contact modal page, click the Save button to save the external contact.

Editing an External Contact

You can edit an external contact from the External Contacts page. To edit an external contact:

  1. Go to the External Contacts page (Registry > Accounts > External Contacts).
  2. In the External Contacts page, find the external contact you want to edit. Click its wrench icon ().
  3. The External Contact Information page appears. You can edit any of the fields described above.
  4. Click the Save button to save your edits.

Deleting One or More External Contacts

You can delete one or more external contact accounts from the External Contacts page. To delete one or more external contact accounts:

  1. Go to the External Contacts page (Registry > Accounts > External Contacts).
  2. In the External Contacts page, select the checkbox for each external contact account that you want to delete. To select all checkboxes for all organizations, select the checkbox icon () at the top of the page.
  3. In the Select Action drop-down list, select DELETE External Contacts.
  4. Click the Go button to delete the contact(s).

Adding External Contacts to a Distribution List

A distribution list is a list of users, external contacts, and/or vendors to whom you want to send email messages from SL1. The list can include both rules and manually added accounts. The rules allow the distribution list to be dynamically updated. For example, suppose one of the rules for a distribution list is "include all external contact accounts in the organization named Central NOC." You could then add or remove external contacts from the organization, and the distribution list would include only the current external contact accounts in the organization.

Distribution lists are used in the Service Notifier page. The Service Notifier page allows you to send a message from SL1. The message can include text, screen captures, and attached files. The message can be sent to manually entered email addresses, distribution lists, and manually selected users, external contact accounts, and vendors.

To learn more about adding an external contact to a distribution list, see the Business Services section.

Adding External Contacts to a Service Notification

The Service Notifier page allows you to send a message from SL1. The message can include text, screen captures, and attached files. The message can be sent to manually entered email addresses, distribution lists, and manually selected users, external contact accounts, and vendors. 

If you include an external contact account in a distribution list, you can send a service notification to the external contact by sending a service notification to that distribution list.

To learn more about adding an external contact to a service notification, see the Business Services section.