Defining alert definitions for general attributes and capacity changes

You can define alerts that are triggered when the attributes or capacity of a resource changes. Attributes represent the key properties and configuration of a resource, such as status, versions, removals, discoveries, and data collection status. Capacity represents storage statistics such as available capacity, used capacity, drive capacity, reserved capacity, and more.

1. To define alerts for resources, choose one of the following options:

   Option	Steps
   Define alerts for a policy	Go to Settings > Alert Policies. Double-click the policy. Click Edit Alert Definitions on the Alert Definitions tab.
   Define alerts for a resource that is not managed by a policy	Go to the resource list page for the resource. For example, to define alerts for a block storage system, go to Storage > Block Storage Systems. To define alerts for a switch, go to Network > Switches. Right-click the resource for which you want to define alerts, then click View Alert Definitions. Click Edit Alert Definitions.

2. Click the type of resource that you want to alert on. For example, click Storage System.
3. Click the category of the attributes that you want to alert on.

   Category	Description
   General	Attributes for the key properties of a resource, such as status, version changes, removals, discoveries, state, data collection status, and warranty or maintenance expiry.
   Capacity	Attributes for capacity statistics of a resource, such as available capacity, used capacity, drive capacity, reserved capacity, and more.

   Restriction: Not all categories are available for some resources.
4. To enable the alert for an attribute, click the check mark for the attribute.
   The advanced options for the alert, such as notification frequency, are displayed.
5. Specify the conditions for generating an alert for an attribute.
   Conditions can include operators such as >=, or <=. Conditions can also include storage values and time values.
   For example, for a capacity attribute such as Used Capacity, you can specify that an alert is generated when the percentage of used capacity is greater than or equal to 70% in next 90 days.

   

   Note:

   With the help of AI-enabled capacity planning of IBM Storage Insights, capacity alerting is further enhanced to help you identify where your storage system used capacity is heading. Following enhancements were now available while setting up a capacity alert for used capacity metric.

   2 new fields Capacity and Span were added while setting up alert definitions for used capacity.

   • The Capacity field is provided with 2 drop down values. Custom for providing desired value in the Value field, and Capacity Limit to default set Value to 80%.
   • The Span field is provided to specify the desired duration in days or dates. None value is also provided for Span field.

   IBM Storage Insights uses existing AI capability to calculate the growth trends and hence all alert policies for growth trends adhere to same limitations of AI-based capacity forecasting.

   Tips:

   • Not all attributes require conditions to generate an alert. For example, you can enable an alert for the Deleted Volume attribute, but you don't need to specify any conditions.
   • Some attributes use operators such as is, is not, contains, and changes. For example, for the Firmware attribute for a DS8000® you can select the operator Contains and enter R5 in the value field. An alert is triggered if the firmware is at the R5 level rather than at a later version such as R6.1, R6.2, or R6.3. You can use this alert definition if you want to be notified when the firmware for a storage system is reverted to a previous version.
6. Assign a severity to an alert.
   Assigning a severity can help you more quickly identify and address the critical conditions that are detected on resources. The severity that you assign depends on the guidelines and procedures within your organization. Default assignments are provided for each alert.

   Option	Description
   Critical	Alert is critical and needs to be resolved. For example, alerts that notify you when the amount of available capacity on a file system falls below a specified threshold.
   Warning	Alerts that are not critical, but represent potential problems. For example, alerts that notify you when the status of a data collection job is not normal.
   Informational	Alerts that might not require any action to resolve and are primarily for informational purposes. For example, alerts that are generated when a new pool is added to a storage system.

7. Optional: If you want to send email notifications of alert violations to contacts other than the policy contacts or global alert notification addresses, enter the email addresses in the Email Override field.
   Tip: If you enter an email address in the Email Override field, only that email address receives notifications for the alert. The following contacts do not receive notifications:

   • Any email addresses that are specified as policy contacts, if the alert is in an alert policy.
   • Any global email addresses that are specified for alert notifications. To view the global alert notification addresses, go to Settings > Notification Settings.
8. Optional: Click View Additional Options to specify how frequently you are notified of alerts.
   Use these settings to avoid triggering too many alerts for some conditions.
9. Optional: Click View Additional Options to specify that the following actions are taken when alert conditions are detected on monitored resources:

   Run script

   Run a script when an alert is triggered for the condition. Use a script to call external programs or run commands that take action as the result of an alert. By using a script, you can automatically address potential storage issues when they are detected to avoid unplanned downtime or performance bottlenecks. Learn more.

   Netcool® / OMNIbus

   Send alert notifications to a Netcool server or OMNIbus EIF probe server within your environment that was configured to receive IBM Spectrum Control alerts.

   SNMP

   Generate SNMP trap messages to any network management station (NMS), console, or terminal when an alert condition is detected. System administrators must set up their SNMP trap ringer with the provided management information base (MIB) files to receive SNMP traps from the product.

   Windows event log or UNIX syslog

   Write alert messages to the OS log. If you already have an administrator monitoring OS logs, this method is a way to centralize your priority messages for quick notification and viewing.

10. Optional: Duplicate an alert.
    Use this action when you want to define another alert for the same attribute but with different conditions and settings.
    Duplicating alerts can be helpful in the following situations:

    • When you want to generate separate warning alerts and critical alerts for different conditions on the same attribute.
      For example, for a capacity attribute such as Available Capacity, you might want to define the following alerts:

      • Define a warning alert to be generated when the amount of available capacity on a resource's pools is less than or equal to 50 GiB.
      • Duplicate the alert, but this time, specify a critical severity when the amount of available capacity on a resource's pools is less than or equal to 10 GiB.
    • When you want to send, alert notifications to different people based on the severity of an alert.

      In the previous example for the Available Pool Space attribute, you can configure the notification settings so that warning alerts are sent to junior administrators, while critical alerts are sent to more senior administrators.

11. Click Save Changes.