Push notifications via the DESK mobile app
DESK offers multiple channels for receiving alerts to detected problems in your environment. In addition to traditional channels, such as email, we also offer direct integrations with many popular third-party channels, including Slack, JIRA, and OpsGenie. In addition to these options, you can also receive alerts via the DESK mobile app.
The DESK mobile app, which is available for both iOS and Android, delivers push notifications to your preferred mobile device and offers quick insights into all problems detected by DESK. Problems from the last 72 hours are fetched and updated in near real-time, so the DESK mobile app offers a convenient way of staying up-to-date on the state of evolving problems in your environment.
The DESK mobile app enables you to track multiple DESK environments. See for example below, which shows the DESK mobile app set up for push notifications from one DESK SaaS environment, (smartlab), and one DESK Managed environment (production-monitoring).
Supported operating systems
The DESK mobile app can be installed on the following operating systems.
| Operating System | Versions |
|---|---|
| Android | 4.1+ |
| iOS | 8+ |
Connect your DESK environments with the DESK mobile app
To connect your DESK environments with the DESK mobile app, follow the instructions below that correspond to the DESK deployment model you use.
DESK SaaS
Before connecting your environments with the DESK mobile app, you need to download the app through the iOS App Store or Google Play. You can also find the download links on the page that appears if you select Receive alerts via mobile app from the user menu in the top right corner of the DESK menu bar.
To add all your SaaS environments, log into the mobile app with your DESK SaaS account login. All your environments will appear as tabs.
DESK Managed
Before connecting your DESK environments with your mobile app, check the following requirements:
- In case your DESK Managed server is running behind a corporate firewall, you must first set up a Cluster ActiveGate that is accessible from the internet.
- Make sure that your firewall is configured to allow incoming network connections to the configured Cluster ActiveGate domain on the configured port.
- If there's a firewall in front of the Cluster ActiveGate, make sure that it is configured to send the correct security certificates.
To connect one of your DESK Managed environments with your DESK mobile app
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Access your monitoring environment from your desktop browser.
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From the user menu on the menu bar, select Receive alerts via mobile app, to enter the connect page.
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Install the mobile app on your mobile through the iOS App Store or Google Play.
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Connect your mobile app to your monitoring environment. There are two ways to do this, either via a QR code or via an email link.
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Connect via a QR code
Use your mobile phone to scan the QR code provided on the connect page, after selecting the operating system of your mobile phone from the drop list. Once the OR code is scanned, a message appears at the top of your mobile screen (Open in DESK). Click this message and your monitoring environment will be added to the DESK mobile app for real-time notifications.
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Connect via an email link
Enter your email address and click Send the link by email. Access your email from your mobile phone and click the link that you'll receive. This link will take you to your monitoring environment on your mobile phone. Subsequently, select Click on the link to connect your app with this environment to add your monitoring environment to the DESK mobile app for real-time notification.
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Note: Once your environment is successfully connected, you’ll see your DESK Managed environment listed with the other environments you’ve connected with your app.
DESK mobile app communication with DESK Managed
This section explains how your DESK Managed cluster communicates with the DESK mobile app. The communication is two-way. First, the DESK Managed cluster pushes minimal information (only the problem title and the problem unique ID) through Mission Control. Then your mobile app can fetch all detailed problem information on demand. Just click a notification to fetch updated info about a problem.
To access the problem details API you need to install a publicly accessible ActiveGate. Access is secured by the automatically generated user-specific API token mentioned above. This token is restricted to the mobile app REST API and can't be misused for other API calls or to log into the cluster.
The following diagram illustrates how push notifications are sent out to your iOS and Android mobile devices and how problem details are fetched on demand.
