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Sun Management Center 3.6.1 User's Guide

Managing and Controlling Alarms

You can manage and control the alarms displayed in the alarms table.

ProcedureTo Acknowledge New Alarms

If you acknowledge alarms when the alarms occur, you can more easily track new alarms. Unacknowledged alarms continue to be displayed in several locations:

  1. In the Details Alarms window, select the appropriate alarm row.

    The selected row is highlighted.

    Tip –

    To select multiple rows in the table, use the Shift key or drag the cursor. To select multiple, non-contiguous rows from the table, use the Control key.

  2. Click the acknowledge button, which looks like a check mark.

    The user ID, date, and time of acknowledgment are registered. A green check mark appears next to the alarm icon in the Severity column. Information appears in the Alarm Acknowledged On section of the Additional Alarm Information pane.

ProcedureTo Delete Alarms

You should delete closed alarms to conserve space and to keep the alarms database current.

You can delete open alarms. If you delete open alarms, alarm information in the Alarms windows might differ from alarm information in the hierarchy and topology views. The alarms are removed from the view in the alarms table, but the alarm condition might still exist. You should delete open alarms only if those alarms are orphaned. An example of when this action might be required would be in the case of an unloaded module. If the module has triggered alarms that were not closed before the module was unloaded, the alarms are orphaned. If orphaned alarms remain in view, you need to be delete those alarms manually.

Caution – Caution –

You should only delete open alarms when there is no other way to remove these alarms.

  1. To delete all closed alarms, choose Delete All Closed Alarms from the Options menu.

  2. To delete only specific alarms:

    1. With the Alarms tab selected in the Details window, click the appropriate rows in the alarms table.

      Tip –

      To select multiple rows in the table, use the Shift key or drag the cursor. To select multiple, non-contiguous rows from the table, use the Control key.

    2. Choose Delete Alarms from the Options menu.

      A confirmation alert appears.

ProcedureTo Add an Alarm Note

You can track the history of an alarm by adding notes to an expanding list of notes for a specific alarm.

  1. With the Alarms tab selected in the Details window, choose Edit Note from the Options menu.

    The Edit Alarm Note window appears. The window shows any existing notes.

  2. Click the Add button.

    The Add window appears.

  3. Type your note in the text field of the Add window.

  4. Click the OK button to accept your changes and close the Add window.

    The Edit Alarm Note window displays the following information:

    • The date and time that you added the note

    • The login identity that added the note

    • The text of the note

ProcedureTo View and Add Suggested Fixes

A default suggested fix might be displayed when a specific alarm is selected in the alarms table. You can also provide your own suggested fix to accompany the default suggestion.

  1. With the Alarms tab selected in the Details window, select an alarm in the alarms table.

  2. Choose Edit Suggested Fix from the Options menu.

    The Edit Suggested Fix window appears. If a Sun Management Center suggested fix exists for this alarm, it is listed without a user identifier in the operator field.

  3. To view the suggested fix, select the suggested fix in the Add window. Then, click the View Alarms button.

    A read-only window appears that displays the text for the suggested fix. To close this window, click the Cancel button.

  4. To add your own suggested fix for this alarm, click the Add button in the Edit Suggested Fix window.

    The Add window appears.

  5. Type your suggested fix in the text field of the Add window.

    The length of the suggested fix text is limited to 4000 bytes.

  6. Click the OK button to accept your changes and close the Add window.

ProcedureTo Notify Users When a Host or Agent Is Down

By default, the Sun Management Center software checks whether a host or agent is not responding. However, no default action is defined in response to these conditions.

  1. Select the managed object on which you want this action performed.

    Tip –

    To apply this action to all children of a managed object, select the parent managed object. For example, to apply the action to all objects within a particular subnet, select the subnet.

  2. Press mouse button 3 and select Alarm Action from the pop-up menu.

    The Alarm Action window appears.

  3. To define an action for host not responding, click the Actions button next to Host Not Responding.

    The Action Selection window appears. To select or define an action, see To Select an Action.

    Tip –

    The Actions buttons are at the right side of the window. If you have made your window smaller than expected, you might need to scroll to the right or enlarge the window to access the button.

  4. To define an action for agent not responding, click the Actions button next to Agent Not Responding.

    The Action Selection window appears. To select or define an action, see To Select an Action.

  5. (Optional) If the current managed object is the child of an object for which an alarm action has been defined, choose whether to include group actions.

    By default, host not responding and agent not responding actions apply to all children. You can choose that a particular child should not share the group action. Click the appropriate checkbox to disable the inherited action.

    Note –

    The Include Group Actions section of the Alarm Action window appears only for applicable child managed objects.

  6. (Optional) To set the alarm action to apply only during certain times (for example, during business hours only), click the Scheduler button.

    1. To run the alarm action starting on a day other than today, provide a date in the Start Date field.

      You can edit the information in the Start Date field manually, or you can click on a date in the calendar to select the date.

    2. Select an hour and minute from the pop-up menus next to Start Time.

      Hours are based on a 24–hour clock. So, 16:00 is the same as 4:00 PM.

    3. Select an hour and minute from the first pop-up menus next to End Time.

    4. To allow this alarm action to occur more than once, choose how often it can occur from the Repeat Interval pop-up menu.

      For example, to permit an alarm action to occur only on weekdays, select Mon-through-Fri.

    5. (Optional) To limit how long the alarm action can be repeated, type a number in the Repeat Limit field.

      For example, to run this alarm action for a month, type 4 in the Repeat Limit field when the word next to the field says “Weeks.” The word next to the Repeat Limit field depends on your Repeat Interval choice.

      Note –

      The alarm action is available indefinitely if you do both of the following:

      • You select a Repeat Interval other than One Time.

      • You do not provide a value in the Repeat Limit field.

    6. Click OK to set this schedule, or click Cancel to exit from the Scheduler window.

  7. To complete the alarm action definition and exit from the Alarm Action window, click the OK button.

ProcedureTo Register an Alarm Action

Although alarms are defined, you need to tell Sun Management Center what to do when the alarm condition is met. For example, you might want to have the software send email notification to appropriate system administrators.

Note –

You need to perform this procedure on the managed object (host) that you are monitoring, not on system running the Sun Management Center server layer.

  1. In the Attribute Editor, click the Actions tab.

    The Attribute Editor Actions window is displayed.

  2. Click the Actions button next to the action to be registered.

    The Action Selection dialog box is displayed.

  3. Select the type of alarm action that you want to register.

    • To send an email, follow these steps:

      1. Select the Email button. Then, type the user name or alias to which to send the message.

        Tip –

        To send to more than one user name, separate the user names with a space.

      2. Type the message text.

    • To perform an action other than sending an email, follow these steps:

      1. Define a script that specifies the action. For more information, see To Define an Alarm Action Script.

      2. Select the Other button.

      3. Choose a script to run from the list of available scripts.

      4. Type any parameters that the script needs into the Arguments field.

    • To clear the alarm, select Clear.

  4. To set the action as you defined and close the Action Selection window, click the OK button.

  5. Click the OK button to accept the entries and close the Alarm Action dialog box.

    The entry is displayed in the corresponding Action field of the Actions dialog box.

ProcedureTo Run a Registered Alarm Action

You can initiate some alarm actions manually after an alarm occurs.

    Select one or more alarms with pending actions in the alarms table and click Run.

    The currently registered alarm actions for the alarm are started. The action state in the alarms table changes from pending to executed. For additional details, see To Modify Pending Alarm Actions.

    Note –

    Several seconds can be needed for the action state in the alarm table to update.

ProcedureTo Modify Pending Alarm Actions

For alarms with no registered actions, a “no action” icon is displayed in the Actions column of the alarms table. For alarms with a manual action, the “pending” icon is displayed until the user runs the action. Then, the “executed” icon is displayed. For alarms with an automatic action, the “executed” icon is always displayed.

  1. With the Alarms tab selected in the Details window, select an alarm that has a pending action in the Alarms table.

  2. Choose Modify Action from the Options menu.

    The Action Selection dialog box is displayed. Only alarms that are pending manual action can be modified.

  3. Select the action that you want to modify and make the necessary changes as described in To Select an Action.

ProcedureTo Select an Action

When an alarm condition is met, you can choose to send an email, perform some other action, or clear the alarm.

  1. To send an email, follow these steps:

    1. Select the Email button.

    2. Type the user name or alias to which to send the email message in the To field.

      Tip –

      To send to more than one user name, separate the user names with a space.

    3. Type the message text in the Message field.

  2. To perform an action other than sending an email, follow these steps:

    1. Select the Other button.

    2. Select a script to run from the list of available scripts.

      For information about creating a script to run, see To Define an Alarm Action Script.

    3. Type any parameters that the script needs into the Arguments field.

  3. To set the alarm to be cleared as the action, select the Clear button.

  4. To set the action as you defined and close the Action Selection window, click the OK button.

ProcedureTo Define an Alarm Action Script

The following procedure describes how to customize an alarm action to notify a user when an alarm condition occurs.

  1. Create your custom alarm action script, using the following optional arguments:

    %statusfmt

    The alarm severity, such as Warning, Critical, and so on.

    %statusstringfmt

    The complete alarm string, including severity. For example: Critical: Machine A Kernel Reader Number of User Sessions > 10.

  2. At the command-line level, become superuser.


    # su -

  3. Install the script in the home Sun Management Center directory.

    The default is the /var/opt/SUNWsymon/bin/ directory. For example:


    # cp custom-alarm-script /var/opt/SUNWsymon/bin/

  4. Click the Module Browser tab in the Details window.

  5. Set the alarm threshold.

    For more information, see Example: To Define and Respond to an Alarm.

  6. Open the Attribute Editor for the property to which you want this script to apply.

  7. Click the Actions tab.

    The action rows are displayed.

  8. Type custom-alarm-script %statusstringfmt in the Critical Action field of the Actions panel.

  9. Ensure that the Automatic check box on the Critical Action line is selected.

    By default, your script will execute automatically.

  10. To apply this action script and close the Attribute Editor window, click the OK button.