Create Alarms and Actions

Prerequisite: Make sure your account has Monitoring privileges enabled in the user group.‌

Create an Alarm

In the DCD, go to the Menu > Management > Monitoring.
In the Monitoring Manager‌, select Create in the Alarms tab.‌
A drop-down list will open up. Enter the following values to create an alarm:‌

Name: Enter an appropriate name.
Server: Select a virtual instance.
Metric: Select the relevant metric.
Unit: Select either of the following values:
- Total: Select the Total value for absolute numbers. Example: CPU utilization. Total is not supported for other metrics except if you use the Delta aggregation.
- Per second: Select it for per-second rate.
- Per minute: Select it for per-minute rate.
- Per hour: Select it for per-hour rate.
Threshold Type: Define equality of value.
Threshold: Enter the threshold value.
Range: Define the time range within which the threshold must exceed the configured parameter limits before triggering an alarm event. The minimum time allowed is 120 seconds.
Range Aggregation: Time range aggregation types are Average or Delta.
- Average: Calculates the average of the defined metrics for all samples collected within the defined range. The average metric must be outside the configured parameter for the defined range to trigger an action event. This range aggregation is useful for detecting constant load patterns.
- Delta: Compares the change of the defined metric during the defined range. This range aggregation helps detect significant positive or negative spikes within the load patterns.
Alarm Delay: Define the duration between the monitoring metric exceeding the configured threshold parameters and sending an alarm notification. The minimum time allowed is zero seconds, which will trigger an action event immediately once the defined criteria are fulfilled. You can also delay the alarm notification by setting a higher value. Setting a higher alarm delay will consider further metric samples in the calculation and continue shifting the range as time passes. As a result, the system may return to its regular functioning mode after a brief spike in the load pattern.
Actions: Select one or multiple actions upon alarm trigger.

Select Create to save the alarm.

Result: Your alarm will be created; you can edit or delete the alarm configuration if it is no longer needed.‌

Note: The Status and History provides an option to list the status and history of an alarm's state transition.‌

Upon alarm trigger, the alarm icon will blink to indicate that the configured threshold has been triggered. The blinking will stop automatically once the system is back within the threshold. This is monitored within the defined duration. The alarm status is OK while the system runs within the boundaries of the threshold. Once it is outside the boundaries and meets the criteria for triggering an action, the status will change from OK to FIRING. This transition will execute the defined action. When the system returns to the defined threshold boundaries, the status returns from FIRING to OK. The status change will be visible in the alarm manager but will not trigger an action.

Example of an alarm configuration with an alarm delay

The alarm configuration defines an average CPU utilization of 70% or higher as critical, and it has a defined range of two minutes and an alarm delay of zero seconds. The system collects four samples in two minutes in the following example, even though it collects metrics more often.

Sample01: 20% CPU utilization
Sample02: 30% CPU utilization
Sample03: 50% CPU utilization
Sample04: 70% CPU utilization

The alarm will not trigger for this two-minute range because the average of samples for the considered range will be below 70%. Considering subsequent samples:

Sample05: 71% CPU utilization
Sample06: 72% CPU utilization
Sample07: 75% CPU utilization
Sample08: 30% CPU utilization

When it reaches Sample07, the monitoring service will calculate an average CPU utilization above 70%. As the alarm delay is set to zero seconds, it will trigger an action immediately to send an alarm.

Assume the same example but with an alarm delay of 30 seconds. For Sample07, the monitoring service calculates an average CPU utilization above 70%. Still, the system does not trigger an action this time, as an alarm delay of another 60 seconds is configured, but the monitoring system constantly collects further metrics. When it receives Sample08, the monitoring services have calculated the average CPU utilization for the previous 120 seconds, which will be below 70%. The system does not trigger an action as the alarm threshold criteria are unfulfilled.

Configure Alarms

The examples below show possible configurations for the expression property of an Alarm.

Current CPU load for all cores

Setting a trigger when the average load of all cores over the last hour exceeds 90%.

"expression": {
  "metric": 
    "instance_cpu_utilization_average",
  "source": {
    "uuid": "279565bf-...-e9572e185144"
  },
  "range": "1h",
  "comparisonThreshold": "90"
}

Default Values

unit: total

rangeAggregation: average

comparisonOperator: greater_than_or_equal_to_threshold

Increase in received bytes

Setting a trigger when more than 1MB is incoming within the last ten minutes.

"expression": {
  "metric": "instance_network_in_bytes",
  "source": {
    "uuid": "e17f01e9-...-40968fbbb559"
  },
  "range": "10m",
  "rangeAggregation": "delta",
  "comparisonThreshold": "1000000"
}

Default Values

unit: totaL

comparisonOperator: greater_than_or_equal_to_threshold

Sent packets per second (lower bound)

Set a trigger if the outgoing packet is less than one per second.

"expression": {
  "metric": 
    "instance_network_out_packets",
  "source": {
    "uuid": "e17f01e9-...-40968fbbb559"
  },
  "unit": "per_second",
  "comparisonThreshold": "1",
  "comparisonOperator": 
    "less_than_threshold"
}

Default Values

range: 4m

rangeAggregation: average

Storage writes per second

Set a trigger if the write operations are more than 100 per second.

"expression": {
  "metric": 
    "instance_volumes_write_ops",
  "source": {
    "uuid": "e17f01e9-...-40968fbbb559"
  },
  "unit": "per_second",
  "comparisonThreshold": "100"
}

Default Values

unit: total

rangeAggregation: average

comparisonOperator: greater_than_or_equal_to_threshold

Create an Action

In the Actions section, you can configure an action that will be executed when an alarm is activated. Currently, MaaS supports email notifications.

Prerequisite: Make sure your account has Monitoring privileges enabled in the user group.‌

In the DCD, go to the Menu > Management > Monitoring.
In the Monitoring Manager‌, select Create in the Actions tab.
A drop-down list will open up. Enter the following values to create an action:‌

Enter a Name for the action.
Select the Action type. We only support Send Email at the moment.
Enter an Email address.

Select Create.

Result: Your action will be configured and executed when an alarm is activated.

Note: Once an alarm is created, you can edit the action configuration or delete it if it is not needed anymore. You can only delete an action by an alarm when it is not in use. The Execution History provides a detailed view of a created action for an executed alarm.

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Last updated 2 months ago