When a server goes down or when the response time of a database query exceeds the normal query execution time, any monitoring system in place should perform two actions. One to generate an alarm with relevant information (preferably the RCA – Root Cause Analysis) and secondly to log a ticket into a Service Desk solution. It may additionally execute an SMS action to notify the right technician.
With IT360, you can do that without any external interference. IT360 allows you to automate these actions thereby reducing time taken to troubleshoot the issue. In today’s post, we will see how to create threshold, assign action and configure alarms so that the action is properly executed.
Creating Thresholds
Thresholds are values on based on which the alarm is generated. For example, lets say the response time of an Apache server which acts as the web server for a website optimal response time is 1ms. When this value is breached or when the response time value goes higher, the website takes longer to load. Hence, it is critical to ensure that there is a threshold assigned to this web server and is carefully monitored.
In order to assign a threshold for this web server, follow the steps given below:
1. Click on ‘Admin‘ -> ‘Servers & Apps‘ -> ‘Configure Alarms‘.
2. Select the appropriate web server from the pull down menu ‘Alarm Configuration by Monitors‘. This will display the list of attributes for which you can assign thresholds for the particular web server.
3. Click on ‘Associate‘ opposite to ‘Response Time‘. This will open a pop-up configuration window, wherein you can select the correct threshold corresponding to response time.
4. Click on ‘Save‘ and ‘Close‘ button to save and close the configuration window. You will now find that the response time for the Apache server is now configured and ready for associating an action.
Create Ticket Action
Now once the threshold is configured, click on ‘Action‘ under ‘Servers & Apps‘. Click on ‘Add New‘ under ‘Log a Ticket‘ option.
1. Provide a proper name for the ticket.
2. Select the correct Category, Sub Category, Item, Priority, Group and Technician who will be responsible for this web server.
3. IT360 also allows you to insert relevant details into the Ticket content. This enables the technician to view relevant information. This allows the technician to troubleshoot the performance issue quickly.
4. Click on ‘Log a Ticket‘ button to complete the process.
Additionally, you can also execute this action manually by clicking on this
icon. You can also update ticket’s content, change category, sub category, etc by clicking on the edit 
icon.
Assign Ticket Action
Once the ticket action is created, click on ‘Configure Alarms‘. Click on the attribute for which you would like the ticket action to be associated with (in our case, the Apache Server’s response time). Click on the ‘Response Time – Cr > 1500ms‘. In the configuration pop-up window, select the check box labeled ‘Configure actions at Attribute level‘.
Select the appropriate action that needs to be associated with this threshold value. You can create actions and enable them in such a way that you can get alerted when there is an issue, or when the issue clears or when the issue is going to get critical. Once you have chosen the action and clicked the ‘Save‘ & ‘Close‘ button, the configuration is done. The next time when the response time threshold value is breached, the technician is automatically notified. A ticket is logged into the Service Desk solution. In addition to this, you can also associate an SMS action to this threshold thus ensuring the technician receives the information as soon as the incident occurs.
Similarly, you can create an ad-hoc action by clicking on ‘New Action‘ link inside the configuration pop-up window. It will allow you to create the following actions as displayed in the screenshot below.
