regarding alerts

hi experts,

i need to generate an alert when ever the file is not processed?

how to create an alert?

do we need any authorization to create this alerts, when i am trying with alrtcatdef in XI server withthe change mode i can define the alerts but during container variables i am unable to do the things ..

please guide me how to create an alert and configure that alert and how to declare variables etc stuff..

NOTE: IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONFIGURE FOR SINGLE SCENARIO..

regards

shs