Defining a Summary Threshold
To define a summary threshold, you first create an alert in the Alerts form and define one detail action and one summary action for the alert in the Actions window of the Alerts form.
To define a summary threshold for your alert:
1. Navigate to the Alerts form and create a new alert or display an existing alert that you want to define a summary threshold for. See: Overview of Alerts.
2. In the Alerts form, choose Actions.
3. In the Actions window, define a detail action and a summary action that you want Oracle Alert to perform depending on the number of exceptions it finds for your alert. You will add these two actions to a threshold group. You can define message, SQL statement script, operating system script, or concurrent program request actions, but both detail and summary actions must be of the same action type.
4. In the Alerts form, choose Threshold Groups from the Special menu.
5. In the Threshold Groups window, give your threshold group a name (up to 80 characters) and description (up to 240 characters). See: Oracle Alert Naming Conventions.
6. In the Type field, choose the type of action you want to use in the group (Message, SQL Statement Script, Operating System Script, or Concurrent Program).
7. In the Action field of the Threshold Group Members block, display a list of the predefined actions for this alert. Choose a detail action and a summary action to include in this threshold group.
You can choose only actions created for this alert with the same action type as the group.
8. Check the Enabled field to enable the action in the threshold group.
9. Enter a current or future date in the End Date field if you want to disable an action in the threshold group by a certain date.
10. Choose Action Sets from the Alerts window.
11. In the Action field of the Members alternative region, enter the threshold group you want to include in your alert's action set.
12. In the Summary Threshold field, enter a number that represents the maximum number of exceptions that the alert Select statement can find before Oracle Alert switches from performing the detail action in the threshold group to performing the summary action. You can define a summary threshold for each threshold group that resides in an action set.
For example, suppose you define an action set with a summary threshold of five. If, during an alert check, the alert Select statement locates between one and five exceptions, Oracle Alert performs the threshold group's detail action once for each exception found. If the Select statement locates six or more exceptions, however, Oracle Alert performs the summary action once for all the exceptions found.
Attention: You can only define a summary threshold for an action set member that is a threshold group. You cannot define a summary threshold for an action or an escalation group.
13. Save your work. Your alert is now ready to use summary threshold.
- If you are combining dynamic distribution with summary threshold, keep in mind that Oracle Alert groups exceptions before it determines whether to perform a detail or a summary action. That is, if you use an output to represent your message action's distribution, Oracle Alert first substitutes the appropriate exception value for the output, then based on the number of exceptions substituted, performs either the detail or summary action in the threshold group.
For example, suppose you define a message action that uses an output to dynamically distribute information to a group of managers, and you define a summary threshold of 3 for your action set. Suppose that during an alert check, the alert Select statement returns 7 exceptions, 3 of which must go to one manager, 4 of which must go to another manager. Using the defined summary threshold of 3 exceptions, Oracle Alert sends three detail messages to the first manager, and one summary message reporting 4 exceptions to the second manager.
1. Display the existing threshold group in the Threshold Groups window of the Alerts form.
2. Choose Delete Record from the Edit menu.
3. If the threshold group is an active member of an action set, an error message followed by a References window appears.
You can also choose References from the Special menu in the Threshold Groups window at any time to display the References window.
You must navigate to the Action Sets window and remove or disable the threshold group from those action sets before you can delete the threshold group.
5. Once you delete your threshold group, save your changes.
See Also
Creating a Periodic Alert
Creating an Event Alert
Creating Alert Actions
Creating an Action Set for an Alert
