MarkerMessage

You can configure the agent to generate a periodic Marker message at a user-defined interval, such as a marker message each hour. To enable this function, the configuration file must contain both the MarkerMessage and MarkerMinutes directives, and the MarkerMinutes value must be greater than zero.

MarkerMessage indicates that the agent is still available on the network, serving as a heartbeat function for the system. The MarkerMessage directive can be up to 256 characters. It is always sent with the syslog clock facility and debug severity.

Like the MessagePrefix value, the MarkerMessage content can contain environmental variable references, and date and time specifications. 

Example

To send a message once an hour that identifies the local time of the machine and the machine name, use the following MarkerMessage value:

MarkerMessage Hostname: %COMPUTERNAME% - Time: %H:%M:%S

The variables correspond to the following values:

  • %COMPUTERNAME% (including the leading and trailing % characters)—an environmental variable
  • %H:%M:%S—time at the current location, represented as hours (00–23), minutes (00–59), and seconds (00–59)

For a list of supported time specifications, see Special LogFile names.

The MarkerMinutes value indicates the time since system startup or reconfiguration of the agent. It is not a fixed time of day, so do not use the MarkerMessage to schedule events that must occur at a specific time.

You can use MarkerMessage to schedule events that occur at periodic intervals, but when the message is not tightly synchronized to the platform's internal clock. Do not use MarkerMessage to drive real-time processes or perform time-of-day scheduling.

Related topic

MessagePrefix

 

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