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Alarms

The same alarm management concepts and guidelines apply to all methods of monitoring.

Alarm Conditions

An alarm condition exists when a machine's performance succeeds or fails to meet a pre-defined criteria.

Alarms

In graphical displays throughout the VSA, when an alarm condition exists, the VSA displays, by default, a red traffic light icon. If no alarm condition exists, a green traffic light icon displays. These icons can be customized.

Alarms, and other types of responses, are enabled using the following pages:

Five Methods of Monitoring

Each of the five methods of monitoring in Virtual System Administrator™ is either event-based or state-based.

  • Event-based
    • Alerts - monitors events on agent-installed machines
    • System Check - monitors events on non-agent-installed machines
    • Log Monitoring - monitors events in log files
  • State-based
    • Monitor Sets - monitors the performance state on agent-installed machines
    • SNMP Sets - monitors the performance state on non-agent-installed devices

Event-Based Alarms

Alerts, System Check and Log Monitoring represent event-based alarms that occur perhaps once. For example a backup may fail. There is no transition out of the condition, it just happens. Since there is no state, the red alarm in a dashlet never transitions back to green until you close the alarm in the alarm log. Typically event-based alarms are easier to configure, since the possibilities are reduced to whether one or more of the events happened or did not happen within a specified time period.

State-Based Alarms

Monitor set counters, services, and processes and SNMP set objects are either currently within their expected state range or outside of it and display as red or green alarm icons dynamically. These are known as state-based alarms.

  • If an alarm state currently exists, monitor dashlets show red alarms.
  • If an alarm state does not currently exist, monitor dashlets show green alarms.

For monitor sets and SNMP sets, the criteria for an alarm condition can be tailored using Auto Learn and Individualized sets. Alarms for monitor sets and SNMP sets can be be dismissed using the Network Status dashlet. Typically state-based alarms require more thought to configure then event-based alarms, because the intent is to measure the level of performance rather than outright failure.

Reviewing Created Alarms

All alarm conditions that have the Create Alarm checkbox checked—both state-based alarms and event-based alarms—are recorded in the alarm log. An alarm listed in the alarm log does not represent the current state of a machine or device, rather it is a record of an alarm that has occurred in the past. An alarm log record remains Open until you close it. Alarms can also be deleted from the alarm log. Note that a state-based alarm, like a monitor set or SNMP set, can trigger an alarm state that changes to red and then changes back to green. This same state-based alarm, if the Create Alarm checkbox is checked, can also generate an alarm record that remains Open until you close it.

Created alarms can be, reviewed, Closed or Deleted... using:

Created alarms can also be reviewed using:

Reviewing Alarm Conditions with or without Creating Alarms

A user can assign monitor sets, SNMP sets, alerts, system checks or log monitoring to machine IDs without checking the Create Alarm checkbox and a Monitor Action Log entry will still be created. These logs enable a VSA user to review alarm conditions that have occurred with or without being specifically notified by the creation of an alarm, email or ticket. You can generate a report using Info Center > Reports > Monitoring > Monitor Action Log.

Reviewing Performance with or without Creating Alarms

You can review monitor sets and SNMP set performance results, with or without creating alarms, using:

Note: You must run Update Lists by Scan for each machine ID you assign a monitor set, to ensure a complete list of monitoring definitions exists on the VSA to monitor that machine.

Reviewing Performance Data using Quick Sets

A Quick Status feature enables you to select any monitor set counter, service or process from any machine ID and add it to the same single display window. Using Quick Status, you can quickly compare the performance of the same counter, service or process on different machines, or display selected counters, services and processes from different monitor sets all within a single view. SNMP sets provide a similar Quick Status view for selected SNMP objects. Any Quick Status view you create exists only for the current session. The Quick Status window is accessed using Monitor > Dashboard > Monitoring Set Status, then clicking the Quick Status link or the Quick Status icon .

Reviewing Performance Data using Machine Status or Device Status

A Machine Status feature enables you to select any monitor set counter, service or process for a single machine ID and add it to the same single display window. Unlike the Quick Status window, a Machine Status view persists from one session to the next. SNMP sets display a similar window called the Device Status window for selected SNMP objects. The Machine Status window and Device Status window are accessed using Monitor > Dashboard > Monitoring Set Status, then clicking the machine/device status icon .

Suspending Alarms

The triggering of alarms can be suspended. The Suspend Alarms page suppresses alarms for specified time periods, including recurring time periods. This allows upgrade and maintenance activity to take place without generating alarms. When alarms are suspended for a machine ID, the agent still collects data, but does not generate corresponding alarms.

Group Alarms

Alert, system check, and log monitoring alarms are automatically assigned to a group alarm category. If an alarm is triggered, the group alarm it belongs to is triggered as well. The group alarm categories for monitor sets and SNMP sets are manually assigned when the sets are defined. Group alarms display in the Group Alarm Status dashlet of the Monitor > Dashboard List page. You can create new groups using the Group Alarm Column Names tab in Monitor > Monitor Lists. Group alarm column names are assigned to monitor sets using Define Monitor Set.