Active Administrator 8.6 - User Guide

Viewing alerts and alert history

Viewing alerts and alert history

The Active Directory Health Analyzer Alerts page is divided into two areas. The top pane displays current alerts and the bottom pane displays alert history.

 

NOTE: To manage Active Directory Health Analyzer alerts, the user must have the Active Directory Health and the Active Directory Health Alert Management roles. If you want a user to only view the alerts, the user needs the Active Directory Health and the Active Directory Health Alert Viewer roles. See Defining role-based access. TIP: If you know of a maintenance event or some other known event that may generate unnecessary alerts, you can mute alerts.

To view alerts and alert history

1	Select Active Directory Health | Alerts.

The Current Alerts area displays the current alerts for the monitored domain controllers and domains with the total number of alters indicated next to the Alerts Count in the header. By default, the list of active alerts automatically refreshes every 30 seconds. A lightning bolt indicates a remediation is attached to the alert.

▪	To disable automatic refresh, clear the Auto refresh active alerts check box.

The Alert History area displays the 50 newest current and cleared alerts, filtered by date range for the previous day.

▪	By default, the Alert History displays alerts from the Live Active Administrator database. To view alerts from the Active Administrator® archive database, choose the source of the Alert History.

▪	To load another 50 alerts, click Load 50 More.

▪	To hide the Alert History pane, click . To show the Alert History area, click .

2	Double-click an alert to view details about the alert.

 

Table 50. Alert details menu options

Option	Description
Alert Settings	Edit alert settings. See Setting alerts.
Notifications	View the recipients of the listed notifications.
Copy	Copy a selected alert to the clipboard.

3	Use the menu to manage the list of alerts.

 

Table 51. Alerts menu options

Option	Description
Refresh	Refresh the list of active alerts.
Copy Active Alert	Copy a selected alert to the clipboard.
Copy Alert History	Copy a selected alert history item to the clipboard.
Filter History	Filter the list of alert history. See Filtering alert history.
Alert History Report	Generate an alert history report. See Generating an alert history report.
Notifications	Add, edit, or remove notifications. See Managing alert notifications.
Limiter	Limit the number of notifications. See Limiting alert notifications.
Grouping	Add or remove grouping the alerts by severity, alert name, or object name.

4	Use the shortcut links to manage the list of current alerts.

 

Table 52. Alerts shortcut links options

Option	Description
Details	View the details of the selected alert.
Copy	Copy the selected alert to the clipboard.
Create Notification	Create a notification in which the selected alert should be included. See Creating alert notifications.
Add To Notification	Set the notifications in which the selected alert should be included.

- OR -

Use the shortcut links to manage the list of historical alerts.

 

Table 53. Alerts shortcut links options

Option	Description
Details	View the details of the selected alert.
Copy	Copy the selected alert to the clipboard.

 

Filtering alert history

Filtering alert history

You can display all alerts or filter the list to display only those alerts for a specific date, date range, domain, or domain controller. You also can filter the list for specific alerts and by severity.

To filter alert history

1	Select Active Directory Health | Alerts.

2	Select the source of the alert history.

3	Click Filter History.

4	By default, all dates are included. You can select a specific date or date range.

5	To filter the list of alerts, select Filter by alerts. Use Select All and Clear All to help you select the alerts to display in the Alert History area.

6	To filter the list by severity, select Filter by severity, and choose the levels of alerts to display in the Alert History pane.

7	To filter by a domain or domain controller, type the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in the Object name box.

8	Click OK. A banner displays the filters that are in effect for the Alert History area.

Generating an alert history report

Generating an alert history report

You can generate a report of the alert history and display it in a report editor, send the report in an email, or save the report to a file.

To generate an alert history report

1	Select Active Directory Health | Alerts.

2	Select the source of the alert history.

3	Click Alert History Report.

4	By default, all dates are included. You can select a specific date or date range.

5	To filter the list of alerts, select Filter by alerts. Use Select All and Clear All to help you select the alerts to display in the Alert History area.

6	To filter the list by severity, select Filter by severity, and choose the levels of alerts to display in the Alert History pane.

7	Select how to deliver the report. You can display the report in a report editor, where you can make additional formatting changes, or you can send the report in an email and save it to a folder.

To display the report in a report editor

a	Select Interactive.

b

Click OK.

To send the report in an email

a	Select Delivery report, if necessary.

b	Change the default report name if desired.

c	By default, the date and time are appended to the end of the file name. Clear the check box if you do not want the date and time appended to the file name.

d	By default, a PDF file is created. You can choose a different format.

e	Open the Email tab, if necessary.

f	By default, the logged in account displays in the list. To add more recipients, click Add, type the email addresses, and click OK.

g	Modify the default subject line if desired.

h	Set the priority of the email.

NOTE: If you also want to save the report to a folder, do so before you click OK.

i

Click OK.

To save the report to a file

a	Select Delivery report, if necessary.

b	Change the default report name if desired.

c	By default, the date and time are appended to the end of the file name. Clear the check box if you do not want the date and time appended to the file name.

d	By default, a PDF file is created. You can choose a different format.

e	Open the Save to Folder tab.

f	Click Add.

g	Add a path to the location where you want to store the report file, and click OK.

h

Click OK.

Muting alerts

Muting alerts

If you know about an upcoming maintenance to the system or some other event that may cause a lot of unnecessary alerts, you can mute the collection of alerts or set a schedule to mute the alerts. During the mute period, no alerts are collected into the Active Administrator® database and no alert notifications are sent. If you forget to remove the mute, the mute is cleared automatically after one hour.

You can mute all alerts or just alerts for a specific forest, domain, domain controller, or site. The Mute button displays on each window in the Active Directory Health Analyzer. If you are viewing health for a specific object, the Mute button will mute the alerts for that object. For example, if you are viewing a specific site and you click Mute, only the alerts for that site are muted.

Table 54. Muting alerts

Mute type	Forest alerts	Domain alerts	DC alerts	Site alerts
All	Muted	Muted	Muted	Muted
Forest	Muted	Alerts sent	Alerts sent	Alerts sent
Forest + domain controllers + sites NOTE: Applies to only one forest.	Muted	Muted	Muted	Muted
Domain	Alerts sent	Muted	Alerts sent	Alerts sent
Domain + domain controllers	Alerts sent	Muted	Muted	Alerts sent
Domain controller	Alerts sent	Alerts sent	Muted	Alerts sent
Site	Alerts sent	Alerts sent	Alerts sent	Muted

To mute alerts

1	Select Active Directory Health | Alerts.

2	Select an object in the tree. The Mute button is not active for Domains, Sites, and Monitored Domain Controllers. See Table 54 to see what alerts are muted for each object.

3	Click Mute.

▪	To mute the entire system, including all forests, domains, sites, and domain controllers, click Mute All.

▪	To mute the selected object only, click Mute.

▫	When muting a forest, you can also choose to include the sites, domains, and domain controllers.

▫	When muting a domain, you can also choose to include domain controllers.

4	Click Yes to confirm the mute.

A heading displays on every analyzer page to indicate what object is muted, the time it was muted, and by whom it was muted. If more than one object is muted, only the number of muted objects displays. The mute automatically clears after one hour.

▪	To clear all mutes, click Clear All.

▪	To open the Mute dialog, click Details. You can mute the object again if the mute is about to expire or clear a selected mute or all mutes. See Clearing mutes.

To schedule muting alerts

1	Select Active Directory Health | Analyzer.

2	Select an object in the tree.

3	Click Schedule Mute.

4	If scheduling a mute for a forest object, optionally select Include sites, domains and domain controllers to also mute their alerts.

- OR -

If scheduling a mute for a domain object, optionally select Include all domain controllers to also mute their alerts.

5	Optionally, enter the Reason the alerts are being muted.

6	Set the Start and End dates and times for the alerts to be muted.

7	Optionally, select Override manual mutes to override existing mutes during the scheduled mute.

8	Optionally, select Do not save observed values to suppress saving details of the alerts that occur during the scheduled mute in the database.

9	Click Schedule to create the scheduled mute.

To view and modify a scheduled mute

1	Select Active Directory Health | Analyzer.

2	Click Mute Schedule.

3	Optionally, select a schedule and click Edit to change the schedule details.

4	Optionally, select a schedule and click Remove to delete the schedule.