Alerts and Notification

Introduction

Alerting Rules enable the creation of customized alerts, offering real-time visibility and automation options. Users can tailor alerts to their specific needs, from simple to correlated alerts, with features like Runbook Automation, event throttling, and scripting interface customization.

Different Types of Alerts

Simple Alerts

You can set up a Simple Alert by entering the name of the Alert, summary, and configuring a single Data Model. 

• Example: Imagine you want to keep track of the status of the availability of the servers. You can set up a simple alert to monitor the server status in real time, focusing on whether a server is running or not. If a server isn’t running, the alert signals a problem and admins can troubleshoot.

Compound Alerts

You have the option to set up multiple Data Models as distinct rules within a single alert configuration.

• Example: For instance, instead of having separate alerts for server resource usage and application service turnaround time, it’s more effective to trigger an alert when both conditions are met. Here’s how to set up such an alert rule:

• • Condition 1: Check for CPU Usage and Memory Usage (Server Resource Usage Data Model).
  • Condition 2: Check for Service Requests Turnaround Time (TAT Data Model).
    
    

• The Server Resource Usage DM used for Condition 1 can include multiple metrics that monitor various health parameters like CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, etc. This way, you can create comprehensive alerts that consider multiple factors.

Programmable Alerts

vuSmartMaps lets you use Python scripts to create programmable alerts. Using an evaluation script, you can generate alerts for breaching any business logic.

• Example: By default, vuSmartMaps generates an alert only when all conditions in an alert rule are true. So if there are two rules R1 and R2, an alert will be generated if both R1 and R2 are True. 
  • In the evaluation script, each rule’s result is represented by variables like R1, R2, etc., where True is represented as “R1 = True.” You can use logical operators in the evaluation script. So the above two rules evaluation can be represented in the evaluation script:
  • if R1 and R2:
  • return True;
• You can use “and” and “or” logic to create complex conditions, like “R1 and (R2 or R3) and not R4.” So for instance, the evaluation script will look like the following if either R1 or R2 condition is to be met:
  • if R1 or R2:
  • return True;
• This gives you control over when alerts are generated based on your specific criteria and combinations of conditions.

Further Reading

• Alert Console