Alerting

Alerting functions examine the attributes, capacity, and performance of resources. If the conditions that are defined for alerts are met, the actions that are specified for the alert are taken. Typically, the actions include sending a notification. For example, if the status of a SAN Volume Controller storage system changes to Error, an alert is displayed in the Alerts dashboard in the GUI, and an email might be sent to a storage administrator.

You can manage alerts in your storage environment in the following ways:

• Use alert policies to manage the alert definitions and notification settings that apply to different sets of resources. For example, you can use one alert policy for the storage systems in your test environment, and another for the storage systems in your production environment. Here are some important points about alert policies:
  • Alert policies manage one type of resource only. For example, if you have SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storage FlashSystem 900 storage systems in your storage environment, you cannot have both types of resource in one alert policy.
  • A resource can be managed by only one alert policy.
  • When you add a resource to be monitored by IBM Storage Insights Pro, it is added to a default alert policy automatically.
  • If a resource is managed by using a policy, the resource cannot have alert definitions and notification settings that are independent of the policy. The alert definitions and notification settings that apply to the resource come from the policy. However, ransomware alerts are always defined at the device level (if applicable) and do not depend on the alert policy to which the system belongs. Hence, all the active alert conditions are displayed in the Storage Systems > Alert Definitions page, regardless the alert policy.
  • It is not a requirement for resources to be managed by an alert policy. A resource can have its own alert definitions and notification settings, independent of an alert policy.
  • When you add a resource to be monitored by IBM Storage Insights Pro, it is added to a default alert policy automatically.
  • If you add a resource to a policy, any existing alert definitions for the resource are replaced by the alert definitions in that policy. You can't restore the original alert definitions for a resource after you move it into the policy.

    To store a copy of the original alert definitions for a resource before you move it into a policy, create a policy based on the alert configuration of the resource. Then, move the resource to another policy. If you want to reapply the original alert definitions later, you can add the resource to the policy with the original alert configuration.

• Define alert conditions and notification settings for individual resources. It is not a requirement for resources to be managed by an alert policy. A resource can have its own alert definitions and notification settings, independent of an alert policy.
• Define alerts and notification settings for applications and general groups. Use applications or general groups to manage alerts for groups of resource components such as volumes or pools. For example, you might want to define alerts on the response time for volumes in an application, depending on the response time requirements of the application. In this case, it is not useful to configure volume response time thresholds for the entire storage system because the storage system might serve many different applications with different needs.
• Define alert conditions and notification settings for Storage as a Service environments. Define alert definitions in your environment so that you are automatically notified when your capacity meets certain thresholds. For example, if your used capacity reaches 75% (IBM Storage FlashSystem) or 85% (DS8000) of your usable capacity, an alert notification is generated for the environment. Use these notifications to be made aware of STaaS environments that require your attention. For more information about the STaaS alerts, see Viewing and administering alerts.