Foglight for Databases 5.9.7 - Administration and Configuration Guide

Shows rule definitions.

Overview

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Name. The rule name.

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Type. A rule type can be either simple or multiple-severity. A simple rule has a single condition, and when that condition evaluates to True, the rule enters the Fire state. Multiple-severity rules are more complex in that they can have multiple conditions and multiple the severity levels, including Warning, Critical, and Fatal. For more information, see Rule types.

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Rule Scope. The rule scope. This can give you a better idea on the effect the rule has on your monitored system. The scope identifies one or more topology objects that the rule evaluates. If the scope is not defined, the rule runs against the entire data set which can have a negative effect on overall performance. A rule can be scoped to a topology type and can optionally be scoped to specific topology objects of that type. For more information, see Rule scope.

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Cartridge. The name of the cartridge in which the rule is defined, including the cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those rules that you create.

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Cartridge Version. The version of the cartridge in which the rule is defined, including cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those rules that you create.

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Comments/Description. Comments or notes associated with the rule.

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Alarm Description. Description of the alarm message.

Status

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Enabled. Indicates if a rule is enabled or disabled. When a rule is disabled, its conditions are not being evaluated which prevents the rule alarms from being generated. For example, if Foglight is collecting any data that, under normal circumstances, result in alarm generation. Failing to generate alarms can be an indication that the rule is disabled. Rules are often brought offline during system maintenance periods.

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Blackout. Indicates if there are any blackouts in place that affect the rule’s actions.

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Alarms. Indicates if the rule alarms are enabled or disabled. When rule alarms are suspended, the rule continues to evaluate the collected data but does not generate alarms when its conditions are met. For more information, see Suspending or resuming rule alarms.

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Actions. Indicates if the rule actions are enabled or disabled. When rule actions are suspended, the rule continues to evaluate the collected data but does not generate actions when its conditions are met. For more information, see Suspending or resuming rule actions.

Triggering and Behavior

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Trigger Type. The trigger type. This value affects the frequency at which the rule conditions are evaluated. The rule trigger gives you a general idea of the rule activity and the alarms it generates. For example, a default data-driven trigger causes the rule conditions to be evaluated every time the data associated with the rule is collected and higher data sampling frequencies result in a higher number of alarms being generated. For more information, see Rule triggers.

Table 27. Rulettes for Rule View

Lists one or more object instances to which the rule is bound, and shows information about the rule activity, as it relates to each object instance. Selecting a table row shows additional statistics about the rule activity in the Rulette Details View.

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Long Name. The name of the object instance evaluated by the rule and its data type.

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Last Reset. The date and time of the most recent reset of the object’s state.

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Triggers. The total number of times the rule conditions evaluated the object instance.

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Fired. The total number of times the rule changed the state.

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Hit. The total number of times the rule conditions evaluated to True.

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Miss. The total number of times the rule conditions evaluated to False.

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Last Fired. The most recent date and time the rule changed the state.

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Last Hit. The most recent date and time a rule condition evaluated to True.

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Last Miss. The most recent date and time a rule condition evaluated to False.

Table 28. Rulette Details View

For the object instance selected in Rulettes for Rule View, this view shows detailed statistics about the rule execution, broken into severity levels.

Running the Rules and Registry Variables Report

Severities

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Severity. The severity level associated with the condition that was evaluated against the selected object instance.

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Fire. The total number of times the rule entered the severity level.

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Hit. The total number of times the condition associated with this severity level evaluated to True.

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Miss. The total number of times the condition associated with this severity level evaluated to False, or were not evaluated. If a condition is not defined for a severity level, it is not evaluated.

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Last State. The result of the most recent severity-specific condition evaluation. It can have one of the following values:
Hit: The condition evaluated to True.
Miss: The condition evaluated to False.
Not evaluated: The condition was not evaluated. If a condition is not defined for a severity level, it is not evaluated.

Observations

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Name. The name of the metric evaluated.

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Object Name. The name of the object instance to which the rule is bound.

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Object Type. The type of the object instance to which the rule is bound.

Where to go next

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Drill down on an entry in the Observations table. Displays a dwell that shows the health of the object instance the metric is associated with, identifies any agents or hosts related to this instance, and lists links to views that reference the object instance, including the Property Viewer and Metric Analyzer. From here, clicking a link under Related drills down to the selected view.

Running the Rules Report

Some Foglight dashboards have reports associated with them. This allows you to run a report based on the current dashboard. You can generate the report using the Reports menu in the top-right corner.

The Rule Management dashboard is associated with the Rules Report. Run this report by choosing Rules Report from the Reports menu, and specifying the input parameters in the report wizard.

Figure 88. The Rule Management dashboard with the Reports menu selected.

The report wizard provides more information about the Rules Report and instructions on how to set the input values. For more information about reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Help.

Some Foglight dashboards have reports associated with them. This allows you to run a report based on the current dashboard. You can generate the report using the Reports menu in the top-right corner.

The Rule Diagnostics dashboard is associated with the Rules and Registry Variables Report. Run this report by choosing Rules and Registry Variables Report from the Reports menu, and specifying the input parameters in the report wizard.

Figure 89. The Rule Diagnostics dashboard with the Reports menu selected.

The report wizard provides more information about the Rules and Registry Variables Report and instructions on how to set the input values. For more information about reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Help.

Getting started: view and edit rule definitions

Foglight uses flexible rules to apply your business logic to complex, interrelated data from multiple sources within your distributed system. A rule is a piece of business logic that links a condition with a result. It includes a scope and one or more conditional expressions, alarm messages, and actions.

A typical installation can include a large number of rules. You can create and manage multiple-severity rules using the Rule Management dashboard. The Rule Management dashboard lists the rules that exist in your environment and allows you to manage them.

Use this dashboard to drilldown on a rule and to view and edit its definitions. When you edit existing rules allows you can customize how Foglight notifies you of the status of desired metrics and specify what actions should be performed when their status changes.

To view and edit rule definitions:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Rules & Notifications > Rules.

On the Rules dashboard, click the Rule column of the row containing the rule whose definitions you want to view or edit.

In the menu that opens, click View and Edit.

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Management Server rules only. If the rule is defined in a cartridge that is comes included with the Management Server, the Confirm Edit Core Rule dialog box opens.

To avoid edits that can cause unwanted effects on parts of your monitored environments that may be affected by this rule, copy the rule and edit that copy. If required, you can change the rule name at a later time, and disable the original rule. In the Confirm Edit Core Rule dialog box, click Copy and Continue.

In the Copy dialog box, specify the new rule name (optional, a default name already appears), and indicate if you want to disable the original rule (default setting). Click OK.


	NOTE: Some browser versions do not support the nested rendering of the Edit Rule page that you are about to access. If you are using those browser versions, click Launch in the display area, as prompted, to open the Edit Rule page in a new window or tab.

The Rule Detail dialog box lists the registry and severity-level variables that are referenced in the conditional expressions of the rule.


	TIP: Click a value to view more information about the registry variable and to edit the value.

In the Rule Detail dialog box, in the upper-right corner, click Rule Editor.


	NOTE: Some browser versions do not support the nested rendering of the Edit Rule page that you are about to access. If you are using those browser versions, click Launch in the display area, as prompted, to open the Edit Rule page in a new window or tab.

Use the Edit Rule page to view and edit the rule definitions, as required. For more information, see Edit rule definitions.

Getting started: create a new rule

Many rules come included with Foglight and installed cartridges, including Agent Health State, BSM All Events, Catalyst Data Service Discarding Data, and many others. If the existing rules do not meet your needs, you can create a new one and add it to the rule collection.

By creating new rules or editing existing ones, you affect how Foglight notifies you of the status of desired metrics and specify what actions should be performed when their status changes.

To create a new rule:

Open the Create Rule dashboard. On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Rules & Notifications > Create Rule.

How rules are defined

Rule definitions specify the time at which they are evaluated, their complexity, and in some cases, the topology objects they evaluate. Rule definitions can be divided into the following categories:

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There are two types of rules in Foglight. Those types are Simple rules and Multiple-severity rules.

Simple rules

A simple rule has a single condition, and can be in one of three states:

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Fire

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Undefined

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Normal

If its condition is met, the state of the rule is set to Fire and any actions that are associated with this state are performed. If the condition is not met, the rule remains in the Normal state. If the rule’s condition cannot be evaluated because data is missing or unavailable, the state of the rule is set to Undefined and any actions that are associated with this state are performed.

The condition for a simple rule is regularly evaluated against monitoring data. Therefore, the state of the rule can change if the data changes. For example, if the collected data matches a simple rule’s condition, the rule enters the Fire state. If the next set does not match the condition, the rule exits the Fire state and enters the Normal state. You can configure a simple rule to perform one or more actions upon entering and/or exiting each state.

Multiple-severity rules

A multiple-severity rule is a more complex type of rule that can have up to five severity levels:

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When you create a multiple-severity rule, you must specify a condition for at least one severity level (Fatal, Critical, or Warning).

As with simple rules, the conditions for a multiple-severity rule are regularly evaluated against monitoring data. All conditions in a rule are evaluated; the severity state is set to the highest level for which the condition evaluates to True. If none of the conditions are met, the severity state is set to Normal. If a condition cannot be evaluated because data is missing or unavailable, the state is set to Undefined.

An alarm is generated each time a multiple-severity rule enters a new state. In addition, you can configure a multiple-severity rule to perform one or more actions upon entering and/or exiting each state.

Generated alarms can be viewed in Foglight dashboards that exist outside of the Administration module, such as the Alarms or Agents dashboards. In addition to viewing alarm details, these dashboards allow you to drill down to alarm details, and to clear and acknowledge alarms.

Figure 90. Drill down to the alarm details to clear or acknowledge an alarm.

The alarm list can show multiple alarms that are generated by the same rule. This is because rule conditions are evaluated repeatedly, after each data sampling interval. If rule conditions are met in subsequent sampling intervals, Foglight generates an alarm instance for each positive condition evaluation. These alarms can be of the same or different severity, depending on the value of the collected data. For example, a rule can produce multiple Warning alarms, or alarms whose severity ranges from Warning through Critical to Fatal.

Each alarm can be acknowledged or cleared. Acknowledging an alarm indicates that the Foglight operator is aware of the alarm. You can acknowledge a single alarm instance (by clicking Acknowledge in the alarm drill-down dialog box), or all consecutive alarms generated by the same rule (by clicking Acknowledge Until Normal).

Clearing an alarm indicates that the alarm is examined by the Foglight operator and that it is safe to remove it from the list. Along with cleared alarms, any acknowledged alarms can be removed from the list if required using the alarm filter.

For more information about working with alarms, see the Foglight User Guide.

Rule triggers

Rule triggers determine the time at which its conditions are evaluated against the collected data. A rule can have one of the following triggers:

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Time-driven trigger

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Data-driven trigger

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Event-driven trigger

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Schedule-driven trigger.

Unlike simple rules, that fire without raising any alarms, multiple-severity rules can generate alarms when their conditions are met. These alarms appear in many different dashboard. You can also create your own dashboards that display alarms. In order for alarms to work correctly in dashboards, they must be generated by multiple-severity, data-driven rules. Alarms generated by multiple-severity, time- or event- driven rules do not have the same functionality in dashboards as multiple-severity, data-driven rules.

Time-driven trigger

A time-driven trigger causes one or more of a rule’s conditions to be evaluated once per pre-defined interval. By default, time-driven rules are only evaluated if data for the evaluation of the condition is available, but you can override this behavior, if required.

Data-driven trigger

If a rule has a data-driven trigger, one or more if its conditions will be evaluated every time that new data associated with one or more topology types or objects to which the rule applies is sent to the Foglight Management Server. This option is selected as the default trigger.

Event-driven trigger

An event-driven trigger causes one or more of a rule’s conditions to be evaluated as a response to a certain event. There are four types of events that can act as rule triggers:

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AgentManagementSystemEvent: Foglight generates these types of events when an agent instance enters a certain state. Examples of agent states include New Instance, Registered, Unregistered, Activated, Deactivating, Data Collection Starting, Data Collection Stopping, and Obsoleted. These types of system events allow you to monitor the agents’ state and evaluate it in rule conditions.

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AlarmSystemEvent. Multiple-severity rules generate system events when a rule severity level is reached, such as the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state. Alarm-based system events allow you to trigger alarm-related rules. This type of events can be useful, for example, when forwarding alarms to an external system or when sending notifications.

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IncidentSystemEvent. Foglight creates an incident system event when an incident is created or modified. Incidents are used to group alarms based on a common parameter, and can result in ticket requests generated in an external system. The types of incident modifications you can evaluate in rule conditions include Create, Close, Acknowledge, Modify, and Delete.

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ReportGeneratedEvent. Report generation creates events. You can monitor those events as required and use them to trigger report-related events.The type of report properties that you can evaluate in rule conditions include name, reportId, user, templateName, and many others.

Schedule-driven trigger

A schedule-driven trigger causes one or more of a rule’s conditions to be evaluated during which a selected schedule is in effect. By default, schedule-driven rules are only evaluated if the data for the evaluation of the rule condition is available, but you can override this behavior, if required.

Rule scope

The scope of a rule defines the set of topology objects against which it runs. A rule can be scoped to a topology type and can optionally be scoped to specific topology objects of that type. If a rule is not scoped to specific objects, it applies to all instances of that type. The scope object is the object on which alarms will appear in the Foglight interface. The rule scope is specified using the query language. For more information, see Using the Query Language.

A rule can apply to a topology type or to one or more objects of that type. You can change the scope of a rule (the topology type or one or more specific topology objects to which it applies) after its creation.

Edit rule definitions

Use the Rule Definition tab to edit rule definitions. This tab allows you configure basic settings, such as the rule name, description, and alarm message. It also contains the settings for specifying the rule complexity, its trigger, and scope.

To edit rule definitions:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: create a new rule or Getting started: view and edit rule definitions.

Open the Rule Definition tab.

Provide a descriptive name for the rule.

On the Rule Definition tab, in the Rule Name box, type the rule name.


	IMPORTANT: The following rule names are reserved and should not be used: foglight_rule_name foglight_rule_comments foglight_rule_domain_query foglight_rule_id foglight_monitored_host_name foglight_monitoring_agent_name foglight_rule_alarm_link foglight_scoping_id. The foglight_monitored_host_name and foglight_monitoring_agent_name variables are only available for rules with scoping queries.

Optional — Describe the rule. In the Rule Description box, type the rule description.

Optional — Add information about the nature of the alarm message. In the Alarm Description box, type the information about the alarm that is generated by the rule when predefined thresholds are reached.

New rules only. Select the rule type.

Under Rule Type, select one of the following options: Simple Rule or Multiple-Severity Rule. The rule type determines the rule complexity. For more information, see Rule types.

Specify the rule trigger.

Rule triggers determine the time at which its conditions are evaluated against the collected data. For more information, see Rule triggers.

Time-driven triggers only.

Under Rule Triggering, select the Time Driven option.

Specify the recurrence interval for the trigger in the hh:mm:ss format.

To evaluate the rule conditions on each interval, regardless of the existence of data, select Enable Trigger Without Data.

Data-driven triggers only.

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Under Rule Triggering, ensure that the Data Driven option. This is the default setting.

Event-driven triggers only.

Under Rule Triggering, select the Event Driven option.

Specify the event that you want to use as the rule trigger.

Click Event Name and select one of the following events: AgentManagementSystemEvent, AlarmSystemEvent, IncidentSystemEvent, or ReportGeneratedEvent.


	NOTE: These four event types are part of the core Management Server rules. Other event types may appear depending on which cartridges you have installed on the Management Server.

Schedule-driven triggers only.

Under Rule Triggering, select the Schedule Driven option.

Specify the schedule that you want to use as the rule trigger.

Click Triggering Schedule and select a schedule from the list that appears.

The list contains the schedules that exist on your system. Foglight ships with a set of predefined schedules. You can modify the existing schedules, or create new ones that suit your business needs. For more information, see Associate Metric Calculations with Schedules.

To evaluate the rule conditions each time the selected schedule is active, regardless of the existence of data, select Enable Trigger Without Data.

In the Rule Scope area, define the rule scope.

The scope of a rule defines the set of topology objects against which it runs. For more information, see Rule scope.

Edit rule-level and severity-level variables

Rule expressions can reference different types of variables:

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Foglight registry variables

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Trigger-specific rule system variables

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Rule-level variables

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Severity-level variables

About Foglight registry variables in rule expressions

Foglight registry variables can be used in rule conditions, derived metric expressions, and rule-specific actions. A registry variable can have a global value that is available to all topology types and objects. It can also have one or more values associated with specific topology types or objects, or calendar dates. For more information, see Working with Foglight Registry Variables.

About trigger-specific system variables in rule expressions

Foglight includes trigger-specific rule variables that can be used in conditional expressions of rules with certain trigger types. Each variable contains the information relative to the rule in which it is used. For example, if you create Rule A and use the rule-level variable foglight_rule_name as a parameter in an action that you add to Rule A, that parameter uses the actual rule name, Rule A.

Rules in Foglight can be triggered by data, time, or events. Different trigger types, such as time, data, and event triggers, have different rule-level variables available to them. For example, in an event-driven rule you can reference the properties of the system alarm event that triggers the rule directly.

Most of the rule variable are available in all contexts within a rule. However, foglight_rule_alarm_link, foglight_monitored_host_name, foglight_monitoring_agent_name and foglight_severity_message are not available in rule condition scripts. Also, foglight_severity_message is also not available at rule level. It is available only as severity level.

Table 29. All rule-level variables and their availability with different trigger types.
Variable	Description	Trigger Type
Variable	Description	Event	Data	Time
args	A collection of arguments provided to the script. Unused and empty in rule condition/message evaluation.	Yes	Yes	Yes
cartridgeName	The name of the cartridge this rule is deployed in, if available	Yes	Yes	Yes
cartridgeVersion	The version of the cartridge this rule is deployed in, if available	Yes	Yes	Yes
currentEvalTime	The time at which the script is executing. For data driven rules this is the latest timestamp in the incoming batch of observations. For time-driven rules this is the time at which the rule fired.	Yes	Yes	Yes
event	System event.	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_is_transition	Indicates if the alarm is transitioning from the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state to Warning, Critical, or Fatal (as applicable). For more information, see isTransition.	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_next_severity_level	The target severity level the alarm is transitioning to. For more information, see nextSeverityLevel.	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_previous_severity_level	The previous severity level the alarm is transitioning from. For more information, see previousSeverityLevel.	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_rule_alarm_link	Link for the alarm causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_rule_comments	The comments for the rule causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_rule_id	The ID of the rule causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_rule_name	The name of the rule causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_severity_level	The severity level (0-4) causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_foglight_severity_level_name	Name of the severity level causing the event	Yes	No	No
event_scope	Event scope	Yes	No	No
extensionContext	An extension registry used to access interfaces provided by other cartridges	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_rule_alarm_link	Link for the alarm	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_rule_comments	Comments for the rule	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_rule_domain_query	Rule domain query	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_rule_id	Rule ID	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_monitoring_agent_name	Name of the agent monitoring the scoping topology object. Not all cartridges provide the data for this variable.	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_rule_name	Rule name	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_scoping_id	ID of the topology object	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_severity_level	Severity. Value is an integer in the 0-4 range (inclusive)	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_severity_level_name	Name of the severity level	Yes	Yes	Yes
foglight_severity_message	Message on the severity level is used to generate alarms	Yes	Yes	No
rule	Current Rule object	Yes	Yes	Yes
rulette_data	Rulette level persistence map. This data is preserved between rule invocations, but is lost on server restart	Yes	Yes	Yes
scope	The scoping topology object, if one has been set.	Yes	No	Yes
server	A reference to the server and its public API	Yes	No	Yes


	NOTE: Foglight prevents you from creating a rule variable with the same name as a system variable. However, the variable name can change if you change the trigger type. In this instance, a warning icon will appear in the Rule Variables and Severity Level Variables listings.

About rule-level and severity-level variables in rule expressions

Unlike severity-level variables, that can only be referenced in the expression associated with the severity level in which the variables are defined, rule-level variables can be referenced in any severity level.

There are two types of rule-level and severity-level variables:

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Expressions. An expression is used to retrieve data. It can contain a registry variable or a function.

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Messages. A message is typically a text string that can include other severity-level variables, displaying dynamically-supplied data about your monitored system.

Table 30. Examples of expressions and messages in rule- or severity-level variables.
Rule
Name	Value	Type
var1	scope.get("agent/host/name")	Expression
var2	#CPU_Utilization#	Expression
var3	#Run_Queue_Length#	Expression
Text	@var1: CPU Utilization	Message
Subject	CPU Utilization is at @var2% and the number of process in the run queue is @var3. A CPU Bottleneck is being detected on @var1. Check the top processes (using the Top_CPU_Table) to determine which processes are the greatest contributors to CPU Loads, or follow the Foglight online help to find out if the system is CPU constrained. Please use the following URL to obtain alarm details. @foglight_rule_alarm_link	Message

Edit a rule-level variable

Rule-level variables can be referenced in conditional expressions in multiple severities. When your threshold requirements change, you can create new or edit the existing rule-level variables. Editing an existing rule-level variable affects the outcome of any rule conditions or alarm messages that reference that variable. If you plan to write or edit a conditional expression or an alarm message that includes one or more rule-level variables, ensure that those variables exist prior to writing the expression.

To edit a rule-level variable:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Rule Variables tab.

Define the type of the rule-level variable by selecting one of the following Type options on the right: Expression or Message.

Name the severity-level variable.

Variable names are unique. You cannot give the same name to more than one expression or message in the same scope. If you give the same name to two expressions or messages in different scopes, only the severity-scoped one will appear in the Rule Variables table.

In the Name box, type the name of the variable.


	IMPORTANT: The following names are reserved and should not be used: foglight_severity_level and foglight_severity_level_name.

Specify the variable value.

Expressions can contain registry variables or functions while messages are text strings that can make use of the existing severity-level variables.

Table 31. Examples of expressions and messages using registry variables.
Severity-Level Variables
Name	Value	Type
var1	scope.get("agent/host/name")	Expression
Text	@var1: CPU Utilization	Message

In the Expression/Message box, type the value of the variable.

Click Add.

The Rule Variables pane refreshes, showing the newly-added variable.

To delete a rule-level variable from the list, select the row containing that variable in the Rule Variables pane, and click Delete Selected.

Edit a severity-level variable

Severity-level variables can be referenced in conditional expressions associated with the severity level in which the expression is defined. When your threshold requirements change, you can create new or edit the existing severity-level variables. Editing an existing severity-level variable affects the outcome of any rule conditions or alarm messages that reference that variable. If you plan to write or edit a conditional expression or an alarm message that includes one or more severity-level variables, ensure that those variables exist prior to writing the expression.

To edit a severity-level variable:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Conditions, Alarms, and Actions tab (multiple-severity rules) or Conditions and Actions tab (simple rules).

Choose the severity level (multiple rules) or the state (simple rules) for which you want to define the severity-level variables.

If you are defining a simple rule, click Fire.

If you are defining a multiple-severity rule, click one of the following bars: Fatal, Critical, or Warning.

A pane containing the severity-level condition definitions expands under the severity bar with the Condition tab open.

Select the Severity Level Variables tab.

The Severity Level Variables tab appears in the severity-level definition pane.

Define the type of the severity variable by selecting one of the following Type options on the right: Expression or Message.

Name the severity-level variable.

In the Name box, type the name of the variable.


	IMPORTANT: The following names are reserved and should not be used: foglight_severity_level and foglight_severity_level_name.

Specify the variable value.

Expressions can contain registry variable or functions while messages are text strings that can make use of the existing severity-level variables.

Table 32. Examples of expressions and messages using registry variables.
Severity-Level Variables
Name	Value	Type
var1	scope.get("agent/host/name")	Expression
Text	@var1: CPU Utilization	Message

In the Expression/Message box, type the value of the variable.

Click Add.

The Severity Level Variables pane refreshes, showing the newly-added variable.

To delete a severity-level variable from the list, select the row containing that variable in the Severity Level Variables pane, and click Delete Selected.

About conditional expressions and alarm messages

A condition is the part of a rule that is evaluated against monitoring data. When it evaluates to True, the rule is said to fire, causing any actions that are associated with the rule or severity level to be performed.

When you create a simple rule, you specify a single condition for it. You can edit this condition after you create the rule. When you create a multiple-severity rule, you must specify a condition for one or more of its severity levels, Fatal, Critical, and Warning, along with an alarm message that is associated with each condition.

Conditional expressions

A conditional expression can be either true or false. Conditional expressions can reference registry, Groovy functions, and metrics associated with the one or more topology types or their topology objects to which the rule is scoped.

Additionally, conditional expressions can reference properties of topology objects that are related (within the hierarchy of the topology model) to one or more topology objects to which the rule is scoped. For example, the condition for a simple rule that is associated with a specific JVM can reference properties of the server on which the JVM is running (such as the server name), or properties of the cluster to which the server belongs.

Furthermore, event-driven rules can retrieve data generated by report- and alarm-related events.

Expressions can be simple—for example, an expression can consist only of a metric name—but they can also be defined using very complex syntax.

Conditional expressions make use of the query language. For more information, see Using the Query Language.

Alarm Messages

Foglight generates an alarm message when the conditional expression associated with a multiple-severity rule evaluates to True. An alarm message is typically a text string that can include other severity-level variables, displaying dynamically-supplied data about your monitored system.

Simple rules do not generate alarms. They fire when the condition for their Fire state is met. Multiple-severity rules generate alarms each time they enter a severity state.

Expression scope

Expressions and messages can be set with one of two distinct scopes: Rule-scoped expressions and messages and Severity-scoped expressions and messages.

Rule-scoped expressions and messages

They can be referenced by the actions set for the Fire and Undefined states of a simple rule and for all severity levels (Fatal, Critical, Warning, Normal, and Undefined) in a multiple-severity rule.


	NOTE: It is a best practice that rule-scoped expressions are used until there is a need for more finely scoped expressions.

Severity-scoped expressions and messages

They can only be referenced by the actions set for the specific rule level at which the message is defined. For example, if an expression is defined for the Fatal level of a multiple-severity rule, it can only be referenced by the actions that are set for that severity level.

Writing conditional expressions for time-, data-, or schedule-driven rules

To write a conditional expressions for a time-, data-, or schedule-driven rule:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

On the Conditions and Actions tab (simple rules) or Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab (multiple-severity rules), open the Conditions tab.

Write the conditional expression.

In the Condition tab, use the Condition area to write the conditional expression.

You can type the condition directly into the Condition box, or use the operator controls and the Condition Editor to add logical operators, registry variables, metrics, or Groovy functions.


	IMPORTANT: Conditional expressions that reference metric properties using the syntax scope.get("aMetric") or metrics using the service layer (for example, server["DataService"].retrieveLatestValue(…)) prevent data-driven rules from firing. Similarly, failing to include a metric reference prevents data-driven rules from triggering. To reference a metric directly use the "#aMetric#" syntax.

For details about the query language or how to create an expression, see Writing rule conditions and derived metric expressions.


	IMPORTANT: If you change the metrics, registry variables, or topology object properties that are referenced in the condition, ensure that the new items are available for the topology type or one or more objects to which the rule is scoped.

To separate multiple lines in conditional expressions, use a semicolon followed by a carriage return. In conditional expressions consisting of a single line, using a semicolon to end the line is optional.

Table 33. Examples of multi-line and single-line expressions.
Multi-line expressions
	Example A
		Correct
			println @event.dump(); @event.get("report/name") == "MyReport";
		Incorrect
			println @event.dump() @event.get("report/name") == "MyReport";
		NOTE: The first line is missing a semicolon which causes the expression to result in an error.
Single-line expressions
	Example B
		Correct
			println @event.dump();
	Example C
		Correct
			println @event.dump()
NOTE: Using a semicolon to end the line in a single-line expression is optional, therefore both expressions are valid.

Multiple-severity rules. Activate the condition by selecting Activate.

You must activate the condition for a severity level in a multiple-severity rule before you can save it. If the Activate check box is cleared when you click Save, the condition that you specified will be discarded, as will any expressions or actions that you set in the sub-tabs of the tab for that severity level.


	IMPORTANT: Do not clear the Activate check box if you want to temporarily disable a rule. To temporarily deactivate the alarms and actions for an entire rule, follow the instructions in Suspending or resuming rule alarms. You can also configure the behavior of the alarms and actions for the rule. See Configure alarm and action behaviorfor more information.

Multiple-severity rules. Define the alarm message associated with the newly-defined condition.

In the Alarm box, type the alarm message.

Multiple-severity rules (Optional). To reference a rule-level variable or a system variable in the alarm message, in the Alarm Message box, click the location in which you want to add the variable, and then click the Alarm Message Editor button (

) above the Alarm Message box.

•

To add a rule-level variable, in the Alarm Message Editor dialog box, on the Rule Variables tab, select the rule-level variable and click Insert.

•

To add a system variable, on the System Variables tab, select the system variable and click Insert.

The newly-added variable appears in the Alarm Message box.

When you finish adding variables to the alarm message, close the Alarm Message box by clicking Close.

Save the newly-defined rule condition by clicking the Save button above the Condition tab.

Write a conditional expression for an event-driven rule

When you write conditions for event-driven rules, in addition to variables, topology object metrics, and Groovy functions, you can use events and their properties to trigger rule actions.

Event-driven rules allow you to monitor the events generated every time a pre-defined event occurs. There are several types of events that can act as rule triggers: AlarmSystemEvent, DatabaseMaintenanceEvent, IncidentSystemEvent, and ReportGeneratedEvent.

AlarmSystemEvent

Multiple-severity rules generate system events when a rule severity level is reached. Foglight creates an AlarmSystemEvent object instance for each alarm system event. The types of rule severity include Undefined, Normal, Warning, Critical, or Fatal state. The change property of an AlarmSystemEvent object instance indicates the rule severity. Alarm-based system events allow you to trigger alarm-related rules. This can be done by evaluating the values of AlarmSystemEvent properties in rule conditions.

Table 34. The AlarmSystemEvent object properties, their data types, and descriptions
Property	Data Type	Description
alarmID	String	Contains the ID of the alarm that generates the event.
alarmLink	String	Contains the URL to the alarm.
clearedTime	Date	Specifies the time at which the alarm is cleared.
change	AlarmChangeType	Specifies the alarm change type: Fire, Clear, Acknowledge or UserDefinedData.
createdTime	Date	Specifies the time at which the alarm is created.
isAcknowledged	Boolean	Determines if the event is acknowledged. It can be set to True or False.
isCleared	Boolean	Determines if the event is cleared. It can be set to True or False.
isTransition	Boolean	Indicates if the alarm is transitioning from the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state to Warning, Critical, or Fatal (as applicable). For new and clearing alarms, this value is always False. Foglight creates events for newly-created alarms, cleared alarms, or existing alarms transitioning to a new state, as follows: Clearing alarms generate a single Clear event with isTransition set to False. New alarms generate a single Fire event with isTransition also set to False. Existing alarms transitioning from the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state to Warning, Critical, or Fatal (as applicable) generate two events: a Clear event for the old severity, and a Fire event for the new severity. The isTransition flag in both events is set to True. External systems can make use of this behavior when evaluating events, to distinguish between clearing and non-clearing alarms.
nextSeverityLevel	Integer	Indicates the target the alarm is transitioning to. For clearing alarms, the next severity level is always 0 (Normal). Foglight creates events for newly-created alarms, cleared alarms, or existing alarms transitioning to a new state, as follows: Clearing alarms generate a single Clear event with the next severity level of 0 (Normal). New alarms generate a single Fire event with the next severity level of 2 (Warning), 3 (Critical), or 4 (Fatal). Existing alarms transitioning from the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state to Warning, Critical, or Fatal generate two events: a Clear event for the old severity, and a Fire event for the new severity. The next severity level in both events is set to the target severity (Warning, Critical, or Fatal). External systems can make use of this behavior when evaluating Clear events, to distinguish between clearing and non-clearing alarms.
message	String	Contains the alarm message.
previousSeverityLevel	Integer	Indicates the previous severityLevel the alarm is transitioning from. For new alarms, the previous severity level is always 0 (Normal). Foglight creates events for newly-created alarms, cleared alarms, or existing alarms transitioning to a new state, as follows: Clearing alarms generate a single Clear event with the previous severity level of 2 (Warning), 3 (Critical), or 4 (Fatal). New alarms generate a single Fire event the previous severity level of 0 (Normal). Existing alarms transitioning from the Warning, Critical, or Fatal state to Warning, Critical, or Fatal (as applicable) generate two events: a Clear event for the old severity, and a Fire event for the new severity. The previous severity level in both events is set to the original severity (Warning, Critical, or Fatal). External systems can make use of this behavior when evaluating Fire events, to distinguish between clearing and non-clearing alarms.
ruleComments	String	Contains any comments associated with the rule that generates the alarm.
ruleID	String	Contains the ID of the rule that generated the alarm.
ruleName	String	Contains the name of the rule that generated the alarm.
severityLevel	Integer	Contains a number that identifies the severity level: 0: Normal 1: Fire 2: Warning 3: Critical 4: Fatal
severityName	String	Contains one of the following values that identify the severity level: Undefined, Normal, Warning, Critical, or Fatal.
sourceID	String	Contains the ID of the entity that generated the alarm. If the alarm is triggered by a rule, this is the rule ID.
sourceName	String	Contains the name of the entity that generated the alarm. If the alarm is triggered by a rule, this is the rule name.
topologyObjectID	String	Contains the ID of the scoped topology object. If the alarm is triggered by a rule, this is the ID of the topology object to which the rule is scoped.
userDefinedData	DataObject	Contains a data object that includes any additional information about the alarm. This data can be used when creating event-related dashboards. For more information about creating dashboards, see the Foglight User Guide.

Each AlarmSystemEvent object instance contains an AlarmChangeType object instance that stores information about the incident type. You can reference AlarmChangeType property values in rule conditions. For example:

@event.get("change/value") == 2

@event.get("change/name").equals("Acknowledge")

Table 35. The AlarmType object properties, their values, and descriptions.
Property Name	Property Value	Description
Fire	0	Indicates that the alarm is in the Fire state
Clear	1	Indicates that the alarm has been cleared
Acknowledge	2	Indicates that the alarm is acknowledged
UserDefinedData	3	Indicates that the alarm is in a user-defined state

DatabaseMaintenanceEvent

Foglight creates a DatabaseMaintenanceEvent as it performs maintenance operations during the nightly maintenance window. An event will be sent before each operation is run, and after it ends. The operationName property in the event specifies the operation that is being performed. The server also sends a started event for the "DatabaseMaintenance" operation before it runs the individual maintenance operations, and sends a ended event for "DatabaseMaintenance" operation after all the individual operations have been run.

Table 36. The DatabaseMaintenanceEvent object properties, their data types, and descriptions.
Property	Data Type	Description
createdTime	Date	The time that the event was fired.
eventType	DatabaseMaintenanceEvent	An enumeration object that specifies whether this is a “Started” or “Ended” event.
startTime	Date	The time that the operation started.

Table 37. Properties available only for Ended events.
Property	Data Type	Description
endTime	Date	The time that the operation ended.
completed	Boolean	A flag indicating whether the operation completed. An operation will not have completed if it failed or stopped due to time constraints.
errorMessage	String	If a task fails, this property contains the associated error message.

IncidentSystemEvent

Foglight creates an incident system event when an incident is created or modified. Incidents are used to group alarms based on a common parameter, and can result in ticket requests generated on an external system. For each incident, Foglight creates an IncidentSystemEvent object instance. The types of incident modifications include Create, Close, Acknowledge, Modify, and Delete. The type of incident modification is indicated in the IncidentSystemEvent object’s change property. Incident-based system events allow you to trigger incident-related rules. This can be done by evaluating the values of IncidentSystemEvent properties in rule conditions.

Table 38. The IncidentSystemEvent object properties, their data types, and descriptions.
Property	Data Type	Description
acknowledgedBy	String	Contains the name of the Foglight user who acknowledged the incident.
acknowledgedTime	Date	Contains the date and time at which the incident was acknowledged.
affectedObjects	TopologyObject	Contains the topology object that is affected by the incident.
change	IncidentChangeType	Indicates the type of change made to the incident. There are several types of changes: Create, Close, Acknowledge, Modify, and Delete. For more information about these change types, see their descriptions in the table below.
createdBy	String	If the incident is created manually, as opposed to being generated by the system, this property contains the name of the Foglight user who created the incident.
endedBy	String	If the incident is created manually, as opposed to being generated by the system, this property contains the name of the Foglight user who ended the incident.
endTime	Date	Contains the actual date and time at which the incident ended. If an operator overrides the system-reported end time, this property contains the end time override, stored in endTimeOverride. If no end time override takes place, it contains the system-reported end time, stored in endTimeReported.
endTimeOverride	Date	If an operator overrides the system-reported end time, this property contains the end time override.
endTimeReported	Date	Contains the date and time at which the incident ended, as reported by the system.
incidentID	String	Contains the incident ID.
isAcknowledged	Boolean	Determines whether the incident is acknowledged (True) or not (False).
isEnded	Boolean	Determines whether the incident has ended (True) or is still taking place (False).
lastUpdated	Date	Contains the date and time at which the incident was last updated.
lastUpdatedBy	String	Contains the name of the Foglight user who most recently updated the incident.
linkedAlarmIDs	String	Contains one or more IDs of the alarms that are grouped by the incident.
message	String	Contains a message associated with the incident.
parentID	String	Identifies the parent node in the incident object tree.
problemTicketIDs	String	Contains the ticket ID associated with the incident.
severity	Integer	Contains a number that identifies the severity level: 0: Undefined 1: Normal 2: Warning 3: Critical 4: Fatal
startTime	Date	Contains the actual date and time at which the incident started. If an operator overrides the system-reported start time, this property contains the start time override, stored in startTimeOverride. If no start time override takes place, it contains the system-reported start time, stored in startTimeReported.
startTimeOverride	Date	If an operator overrides the system-reported start time, this property contains the start time override.
startTimeReported	Date	Contains the date and time at which the incident started, as reported by the system.
type	String	Contains the incident type.

Each IncidentSystemEvent object instance contains an IncidentChangeType object instance that stores information about the incident type. You can reference IncidentChangeType property values in rule conditions. For example:

@event.get("change/value") == 2

@event.get("change/name").equals("Acknowledge")

Table 39. The IncidentChangeType object properties, their values, and descriptions.
Property Name	Property Value	Description
Create	0	Indicates that the incident is created
Close	1	Indicates that the incident is closed
Acknowledge	2	Indicates that the incident is acknowledged
Modify	3	Indicates that the incident is modified
Delete	4	Indicates that the incident is deleted

ReportGeneratedEvent

Report generation creates system events. Foglight creates a ReportGeneratedEvent object instance for each report generation event. The type of report properties that you can evaluate include name, reportId, usertemplateName, and many others. Report properties are contained in the ReportGeneratedEvent object’s report property. Report-based system events allow you to trigger report-related rules. This can be done by evaluating the values of ReportGeneratedEvent properties in rule conditions.

Table 40. The ReportGeneratedEvent object properties, their data types, and descriptions.
Property	Data Type	Description
createdTime	Date	Specifies the time at which the event is created.
report	Report	Contains an object of the Report type. For complete information about creating and scheduling reports in Foglight, see the Foglight User Guide.

Each ReportGeneratedEvent object instance contains a Report object instance that stores information about a report. You can reference Report object properties in rule conditions. The following table lists the

Table 41. The Report object properties, their data types, and descriptions.
Property	Data Type	Description
dateRun	Date	The date on which the report is run.
emailRecipients	String	The email recipients to which the report is to be sent.
errorMessage	String	An error message associated with the report.
isEnabled	Boolean	Specifies whether the report generation is enabled.
name	String	The report name.
numResultsRetained	Integer	The number of records in that are retained in the report.
reportId	String	The report ID.
scheduleId	String	The ID of the schedule that is associated with the report.
scheduleName	String	The name of the schedule that is associated with the report.
size	Integer	The report size in bytes.
templateId	String	The ID of the template used to create the report.
templateName	String	The name of the template used to create the report.
user	String	The name of the Foglight user who created the report.

Write a conditional expression for an event-driven rule

A conditional expression is the part of a rule that is evaluated against monitoring data. When it evaluates to True, the rule is said to fire, causing any actions that are associated with the rule or severity level to be performed. In addition to variables, topology object metrics, and Groovy functions, a conditional expression associated with an event-driven rule can also reference the properties of the event that acts as the rule trigger. For example, you can write a condition for an event-driven rule that fires when Foglight generates a report.

To write a conditional expressions for an event-driven rule:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

On the Conditions and Actions tab (simple rules) or Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab (multiple-severity rules), open the Conditions tab.

Write the conditional expression.

In the Condition tab, use the Condition area to write the conditional expression. using the following syntax:

some_value.equals(@event.get("[object/]property");

Where

•

report indicates that you want to use the ReportGeneratedEvent in the conditional expression.

•

object is the name of the event's property object whose property value you want to retrieve.

•

property is the name of the event property that you want to use in the comparison.


	TIP: For a complete list of event properties and the information they contain, see the property definitions in AlarmSystemEvent, DatabaseMaintenanceEvent, IncidentSystemEvent, and ReportGeneratedEvent.

•

some_value contains the value that is to be compared with the specified property value.


	IMPORTANT: The data type of the value you specify here must match the data type of the property with which you compare this value.

For example, to write a condition that triggers an event-driven rule to fire when Foglight generates a report whose name is System Resources, write the following expression:

@event.get("report/name") == "System Resources";

Additionally, report attachments are not stored in ReportGeneratedEvent object properties. To retrieve a report attachment in a rule condition, use the following syntax:

byte[] pdf_object =

server.get("ReportingService").getReportData(@event.get

("report/reportId"));

Where pdf_object is the name of the report file that you want to retrieve.


	IMPORTANT: To separate multiple lines in conditional expressions, use a semicolon followed by a carriage return. In conditional expressions consisting of a single line, using a semicolon to end the line is optional. For more information, see Examples of multi-line and single-line expressions..

Multiple-severity rules. Activate the condition by selecting the Activate check box.

You must activate the condition for a severity level in a multiple-severity rule before you can save it. If the Activate check box is cleared when you click Save, the condition that you specified is discarded, as are any severity-specific expressions or actions.


	IMPORTANT: Do not clear the Activate check box if you want to temporarily disable a multiple-severity rule. To temporarily deactivate the alarms and actions for an entire rule, follow the instructions in Suspending or resuming rule alarms. You can also configure the behavior of the alarms and actions for the rule. See Configure alarm and action behavior for more information.

Multiple-severity rules. Define the alarm message associated with the newly-defined condition.

In the Alarm box, type the alarm message.

Multiple-severity rules (Optional). To reference a rule-level variable or a system variable in the alarm message, in the Alarm Message box, click the location to which you want to add the variable, and then click the Alarm Message Editor button (

) above the Alarm Message box.

•

To add a rule-level variable, in the Alarm Message Editor dialog box, on the Rule Variables tab, select the rule-level variable and click Insert.

The Rule Variables tab lists all of the rule-level variables, including expressions and messages.

•

To add a system variable, on the System Variables tab, select the system variable and click Insert.

The newly-added variable appears in the Alarm Message box.

When you finish adding variables to the alarm message, close the Alarm Message box by clicking Close.

Save the newly-defined rule condition by clicking the Save button above the Condition tab.

Copying conditional expressions and alarms in multiple-severity rules

In some cases you may need to copy the conditions from an existing severity level. A condition is comprised of a conditional expression and an alarm message, both of which can be copied.

Copying a condition can be useful in situations when the conditional expressions of different severities are similar, so instead of writing and validating them for each severity level you can copy an existing expression and modify it to suit your needs.

While you are editing the rule, any unsaved changes to the conditional expressions or alarm messages that you want to copy will be carried over to the destination condition. For example, if you edit a conditional expression for the rule’s Warning severity without saving it, and then proceed to copy that condition in the Critical pane, any unsaved edits of the Warning condition will be carried over to the Critical condition.

Copying a conditional expression from one severity to another without modifying it results in multiple conditions with the same expression. While this type of rule configuration is allowed, a confirmation message appears to make you aware of that. When such a condition is met, it triggers the higher severity. For example, if both Warning and Critical conditions have the same expressions, when that condition is met, the rule enters the Critical severity. An exception to this case is when the expressions resolve the same condition using a slightly different combination of characters. For example, abc>1, abc >1, and abc > 1 are considered different expressions, and as such are evaluated separately.

To copy conditional expressions and alarms:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab.

On the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab, open the Conditions tab.

Choose the severity level from which you want to copy the conditional expression.


	IMPORTANT: You can only copy the conditions from those severity levels that are already defined. Attempting to copy a condition for a rule that has no conditions defined results in an error.

Click the Copy condition/alarm button above the Condition tab.

A list appears, showing those severity levels for which the conditions have been defined. For example, if you are defining a condition for the Critical severity, and the conditions for the Fatal and Warning levels have already been defined, the list shows two options: Fatal and Warning.


	IMPORTANT: Attempting to copy a condition for a rule that has no conditions defined results in an error.

Select the severity level whose condition you want to copy.

Save your changes to by clicking Save.

Associate a rule with an action

An action is a particular operation that is performed when a rule enters or exits a state when its condition is met. Simple and multiple-severity rules can be associated with multiple actions. Additionally, each severity level in a multiple-severity rule can have one or more actions. Actions can be added to a rule after it is created.

For example, you can associate an email action with a rule condition. When the rule condition evaluates to True, Foglight sends an email to the selected recipient, with the alarm message in the email body.

Foglight action types

There are two types of actions in Foglight:

•

Entering. It causes the action to be performed when a simple rule or a severity level in a multiple-severity rule enters the state in which the condition for that rule or severity level is met.

It is a best practice that Entering actions be used by default.

•

Exiting. It causes the action to be performed when a simple rule or a severity level in a multiple-severity rule exits the state in which the condition for that rule or severity level is met.

Use of the Exiting action should be restricted to cases where an action specific to the state is needed. For example, if an Entering action starts a script, then the Exiting action can be used to stop the script.

Foglight actions

The actions available in Foglight are as follows:

•

BSM actions. Business Service Management (BSM) actions send alarm data to external systems such as Tivoli.

•

SNMP trap actions. They cause alarms to be forwarded as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps to a management system that supports SNMP (such as Tivoli® NetView®, Micromuse NetCool® or HP® Vantage Point®) when the rule fires. Various parameters can be set for sending the SNMP trap, including the community, the host and port for the monitoring service.


	IMPORTANT: Before you associate a trap action with a rule, you need to ensure that trap actions are configured in Foglight. For details about configuring trap actions, see Configure trap actions. IMPORTANT: SNMP trap actions do not work with data-driven rules.

•

Email actions. They cause email messages to be sent to a specified recipient when the rule fires. For more information about viewing the settings related to email actions and configuring email actions in Foglight, see Configuring email notifications

•

Command actions. They cause an external action to be executed on the computer on which the Foglight Management Server is installed. For example, a command action can run an executable that starts a service. Various parameters can be set for this action. The mandatory parameter is COMMAND_LINE which contains the name of the executable, along with one or more arguments. Optionally, you can also set OS environment variables (separated by exclamation marks).

•

Remote command actions. They cause an external action to be executed on a monitored host. Various parameters can be set for this action including the mandatory parameter COMMAND_LINE.

•

Script actions. They cause an arbitrary script, deployed inside the server (such as a Groovy script), that runs when the rule fires. This is to be used for any integration not available through built-in actions. Various parameters can be set for this action, such as script name (mandatory), scoping topology ID, scripting object ID, and arguments (up to ten) associated with the script. The number and order of arguments (0-9) specified as action parameters must match the script requirements. There is currently no validation facility for script actions.

To associate an action with a rule:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

In the Conditions and Actions tab (simple rules) or Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab (multiple-severity rules), open the Action tab.

Define the action type.

Foglight can initiate an action when the rule exits or enters the state associated with severity level in which the action is defined. For more information, see Foglight action types.

Select one of the following Action Type options: Entering or Exiting.

Specify the action that you want to initiate when the rule enters the selected severity level, such as a command action or an email action, amongst others.

Click Action and select an action from the list that appears. There are several actions to choose from: BSMAction, CommandAction, EmailAction, RemoteCommandAction, ScriptAction, and Send SNMP Trap Action. For more information about each of these actions, see Foglight actions.


	IMPORTANT: If you choose to associate an SNMP trap action with rule, ensure that trap actions are already configured. For more information, see Configure trap actions.

Optional — Add information about the selected action.

In the Description box, type the action description.

Click Add.

From here, you can edit the action parameters as required. For more information, see Editing rule action parameters.

Editing rule action parameters

Each rule action includes a set of action parameters that can define its behavior. Some action parameters are mandatory while others are optional.

When you add an action to a rule, you must configure the action’s mandatory parameters to ensure its execution when the rule reaches the severity level for which the action is defined. Action parameters can contain Foglight registry variables, rule-level variables, or any custom value. The data type of the specified value must match the action parameter’s data type.

For example, a command action must have the command name associated with it, and in some cases, one or more environment variables. The command name is a mandatory parameter, while the environment variables are optional parameters. However, failing to specify environment variables related the command prevents the command action from being executed.

Table 42. Parameters associated with action types.
Parameter	Required?	Description
BSM Actions
Alarm system event	Yes	The alarm system event generated by Foglight. Syntax: <alarm event> Example: [alarmEvent]/Rule/System Variable Setting this event to the alarmEvent Rule System variable selects all alarms.
alarm.notification.service.backToNormal	Yes	Indicates whether or not send a email notification when the service is back to normal. The recipient will be the same as the one defined in registry variable mail.alias.alarmRecipients.
alarm.notification.service.backToNormal.body	Yes	The body message of the alarm that will be sent when the service is back to normal. The serviceName variable of the service that triggers this alarm will be overwritten.
alarm.notification.service.backToNormal.subject	Yes	The subject of the alarm that will be sent when the service is back to normal.The serviceName variable of the service that triggers this alarm will be overwritten.
BSM URL	Yes	The URL of the BSM system to which to send the data. Syntax: <BSM_URL> Example: http://www.example.com
Event Attributes Managed Control Attributes Technology Level Agreement Attributes	No	Event Attributes, Managed Control Attributes, and Technology Level Agreement Attributes are optional attributes to pass to the BSM system. The BSM action automatically uses the alarm attributes to populate these values, however, it is possible to overwrite them using these parameters. For more information about these attributes, see the Service Discovery and Dashboards documentation. Syntax: <attribute_1>=<value_1>!<attribute_2>=<value_2>!…!<attribute_n>=<value_n> Example: Service=Performance!Value=90
Command Actions
COMMAND_LINE	Yes	The native command that you want to run on the local system where the Management Server is installed. Syntax: <command> [arg_1] … [arg_n] Example: C:\notepad.exe This command starts the Notepad executable on the C drive. If the command is not accessible from the <Foglight_home> directory, you need to specify its path.
ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES	No	A list of environment variables that you want to reference on the command line. Multiple environment variables can be separated by exclamation marks ‘!’. Syntax: <var_1>=<value_1>!<var_2>=<value_2>!…! <var_n>=<value_n> Example: MY_PROFILE=C:\Users\jsmith!MY_SHARE=\\example.com\home\jsmith
Email Actions
mail.attachement	No	The name of the file to be added as an attachment to the email. Example: Report1.pdf
mail.attachement.file.name	Yes	The file name of the email attachment that you want to send in the email. Syntax: <file.extension> Example: test.docx
mail.attachement.mime.type	Yes	The MIME type of the email attachment, specified using the <application>/<file type> format. Syntax: <application>/<file type> Example: Acrobat/pdf Supported MIME types do not depend on the Management Server settings, but on the email server.
mail.bcc	No	A list of email addresses to send as a Blind CC list. Uses a comma ‘,’ as a separator. Syntax: <email_address_1>,<email_address_2>,…,<email_address_n> Example: jsmith@example.com,ldoe@example.com
mail.cc	No	A list of email addresses to send as a CC list. Uses a comma ‘,’ as a separator. Syntax: <email_address_1>,<email_address_2>,…,<email_address_n> Example: jsmith@example.com,ldoe@example.com
mail.content.type	Yes	This parameter can be set to text/plain or text/html. Syntax: <text/plain>\|<text/html> Example: text/html
mail.message	No	The text of the email message. Syntax: <email_text> Example: This is an email message from Foglight.
NOTE: When the condition of a simple rule is met, the rule enters the Fire state. By default, simple rules do not generate alarms when their conditions are met. Some simple rules that ship with Foglight create observation alarms that are not directly associated with the original rule. This is accomplished by calling the checkObservationAlarms() function in the rule condition. When the condition of a simple rule includes a call to the checkObservationAlarms() function, and the rule includes an email action, in the message body of the resulting email, the following text always precedes the value specified by the mail.message parameter: The following alarms have been raised. Please use the provided URLs to obtain alarm details. For more information about the checkObservationAlarms() function, see Using Functions in Conditions and Expressions.
mail.recipient	Yes	The email address of the recipient to whom you want to send the email message. It overrides the value set by the global mail.recipient registry variable. Syntax: <email_address> Example: jsmith@example.com
mail.subject	No	The subject line of the email message that you want to send. Syntax: <email_subject> Example: Email message from Foglight.
Remote Command Actions
COMMAND_LINE	Yes	The command that you want to execute on the monitored system. Syntax: <command> [arg_1] … [arg_n] Example: C:\notepad.exe This command starts the Notepad executable on the C drive of the monitored system. If the command is not accessible from the <Foglight_home> directory, you need to specify its path.
ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES	No	A list of environment variables that you want to reference on the command line. Multiple environment variables can be separated by exclamation marks ‘!’. Syntax: <var_1>=<value_1>!<var_2>=<value_2>!…! <var_n>=<value_n> Example: MY_PROFILE=C:\Users\jsmith!MY_SHARE=\\example.com\home\jsmith
HostName	Yes	The name of the host computer on which the command is to be executed. Syntax: <host_name> Example: Host1
MatchAll	No	When set to true, the command is executed on all hosts matching the selection criteria. When set to false, the command executes only on the first matching host. Syntax: <true\|false> Example: true
PlatformInfo	No	The target platform specification. Syntax: <OS_name> <OS_version> <OS_architecture> Example: windows 5.0 ia32
RemoteInstallationId	No	The installation ID of the Agent Manager. This information is useful if there are multiple remote agents that support remote command execution. Syntax: <Agent Manager installation ID> Example: 6624671a-e5b5-4bd5-9278-4e5ecc1ff173 This ID can be found in the <Agent_Manager_home>\state\default\config\fglam.config.xml file, between the <config:id> tags.
RemoteWorkingDir	No	Working directory on the remote machine. Syntax: <directory_path> Example: C:\Users\jsmith
UseRegExp	No	Indicates whether the values specified by the HostName, PlatformInfo, and RemoteInstallationId parameters are regular expressions. Syntax: <true\|false> Example: true
Script Actions
Argument 1-10	No	Since the script action executes a custom script, the meaning of these arguments depends on the script requirements. For example, if the script requires a host name and an agent name in that order, then Argument 1 should contain the host name and Argument 2 should be the agent name. Syntax: <Argument> Example: Host1.example.com
Scoping object id	No	The ID of the scoping object. Syntax: <topology_object_ID> Example: 01db-dc768-36ad-48b4-d33c-76bdc3145cbd
Script name	Yes	The name of the script. Syntax: <script_name> Example: myScript
NOTE: Any scripts you reference here must be imported into the server as a persistable script using a monitoring policy import action. Only then the script can be selected for use with a script action. The script has to be wrapped in an XML structure that uses the following syntax: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <foglight-config version="1.0.2.0" exported-on="2010-08-31T19:50:57.344Z"> <persistable-script> <script_name>RecoverDeadAgents</script_name><![CDATA[ YOUR SCRIPT HERE script-meta-information> <script-property name="script_description"><![CDATA[Recover Dead Uncontrolable Agents]]></script-property> </script-meta-information> </persistable-script> </foglight-config> The XML can be imported into the server using the util:configimport command. For more information about this and other fglcmd commands, see the Command-Line Reference Guide.
Send SNMP Trap Actions
CommunityString	Yes	The SNMP community string.
SNMPVersion	Yes	The SNMP version. Syntax: <1\|2> Example: 2
TargetAddress	Yes	One or more trap target addresses, comma-separated. Syntax: <host_1>,<host_2>,…,<host_n> Example: myHost
TargetPort	Yes	The target port of the trap receiver. Syntax: <port_number> Example: 162
AgentIDOID	No	The object ID of the agent ID that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.3
AgentIDValue	No	Agent ID value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file.
AgentNameOID	No	The object ID of the agent name that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.4
AgentNameValue	No	Agent name value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file.
AgentTypeOID	No	The object ID of the agent type that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.2
AgentTypeValue	No	Agent type value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file.
AgentMessageOID	No	The object ID of the agent message that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.1
AgentMessageValue	No	Agent message value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file.
DateTimeOID	No	The object ID of the date and time format that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.14
DateTimeValue	No	Date/time value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file.
HostIPOID	No	The object ID of the host IP that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.11
HostIPValue	No	Host IP value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <IP_address> Example: 168.212.226.204
HostMACOID	No	The object ID of the host MAC address that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.12
HostMACValue	No	Host MAC value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <MAC_value> Example: 00-0B-C2-78-76-BA
HostnameOID	No	The object ID of the host name that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.10
HostnameValue	No	The host name value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <host_name> Example: myHost
RuleIDOID	No	The object ID of the rule ID that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.5
RuleIDValue	No	The Rule ID value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <rule_ID> Example: 630861d6-fa0d-45f0-9a64-47b617df9c5e
RuleNameOID	No	The object ID of the rule name that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.6
RuleNameValue	No	The rule name value associated with the trap in the MIB file. Syntax: <rule_name> Example: Agent Health State
SeverityOID	No	The severity object ID defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.9
SeverityValue	No	The severity value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <severity> Example: Warning
TopologyObjectIDOID	No	The object ID of the topology object ID that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.7
TopologyObjectIDValue	No	The topology object ID value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <topology_object_ID> Example: 01db-dc768-36ad-48b4-d33c-76bdc3145cbd
TopologyObjectNameOID	No	The name of the topology object ID that is defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.8
TopologyObjectNameValue	No	The topology object name associated with the trap in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_name> Example: Host1.example.com
URLOID	No	The object ID of the URL value defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <object_ID> Example: 1.3.6.1.4.1.7572.1.4.13
URLValue	No	The URL value of the trap variable defined in the MIB file. Syntax: <URL> Example: example.com

The following rules apply to the command syntax for Command and Remote Command actions:

•

The executable command must point to a path which can be understood and executed by the native operating system (such as a a Windows batch file or a binary executable file). For example:

\\my_domain\my_server\my_group\my_user_account\hello.bat

Incorrect

Unix

ssh -l user1 "ls"

Windows

P:\hello.bat (where P: is a mapped drive)

Only those commands that point to a specific batch file on a physical drive produce a command output in the Command Prompt window (Windows) or the terminal window (Unix). That is because command actions invoked by a script do not read back from the stream nor print the command output to the console, waiting for the command to finish. In the above examples, only C:\hello.bat generates a command-line output.

Invoking command actions through ssh on Unix systems is supported. However, keep in mind that most Unix servers prompt for a password when ssh is used, which interrupts the command execution. Therefore, using ssh in command actions is not recommended.

•

The executable command should be separated from the arguments by one or more space characters, and the arguments should similarly be separated by one or more space characters.

•

If the executable or an argument contains one or more space characters, it should be quoted with double quotation marks (“). Command actions do not recognize single quotation marks. Do not use a back slash (\) as an escape character for single or double quotation marks as it has no effects in command actions. For example:

"arg one" arg2

"arg \"one"

•

If the command or an argument is quoted and has to contain one or more double quotes, the embedded double quotation mark must be escaped by using two adjacent quotes (““) or using a back slash and quote (\”), whichever is suitable to the underlying OS.

•

Triple quotes (“““) are recognized as one quotation mark. This is useful in dealing with Windows batch files.

•

Triple quotes are not allowed in a quoting context.

To edit a severity-level action parameter:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Associate a rule with an action.

On the Action tab, in the Actions table, click the action name.

Observe the Type column of the row containing the parameter that you want to edit.


	IMPORTANT: The Type column shows the parameter’s data type. When changing the parameter value, ensure that the value you specify matches that data type.

Each action comes with its own set of action parameters. For details about the parameters associated with each action, see BSM Actions, Command Actions, Email Actions, Remote Command Actions, Script Actions, and Send SNMP Trap Actions.

In the Action Parameters pane, in the row containing the parameter that you want to edit, click the Default link of that appears in the row’s Value column.

Specify the parameter value by completing one of the following steps in the Action Parameter Editor dialog box.


	IMPORTANT: When specifying the parameter value, ensure that the value you specify matches the parameter’s data type. For more information, see Step 2.

•

Set the parameter to a Foglight registry variable.

In the Variable tab, in the Registry Variables table, select the row containing the Foglight registry variable to which you want to set the parameter.

•

Set the parameter to a rule system variable.

In the Variable tab, in the Rule/System Variables table, select the row containing the rule system variable to which you want to set the parameter. The list of available variables depends on the rule trigger type.

•

Set the parameter to a custom value.

Open the User Defined tab and type a value for the action parameter.

Click Change.

The Action Parameter Editor dialog box closes and the Action Parameters table refreshes, showing the newly-modified parameter value in the Value column of the parameter’s row.

When you finish making changes to the action parameters, click Go to Action List to return to the list of actions.

The Actions pane refreshes, showing the newly-edited action.

Configure trap actions


	CAUTION: SNMP trap actions do not work with data-driven rules. For more information about different types of rule triggers, see Rule triggers.

In Foglight, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap actions can be configured to forward alarms to an SNMP trap receiver. Trap definitions are specified in a Management Information Base (MIB) file. MIB files contain data structures that define the types of events that are being monitored and controlled.

Configuring SNMP trap actions assumes that you plan on sending SNMP traps from your monitoring environment to an external SNMP trap receiver. The process of forwarding SNMP traps is triggered by rules. This means that a rule that has an SNMP trap action assigned to it can cause Foglight to send an SNMP trap to a trap receiver when the rule’s condition is met.

There are several ways that you can use to configure SNMP trap actions. The simplest and probably most convenient way is to edit the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule that is included with a core installation of Foglight.

This rule relies on the definitions of the MIB file, quest-foglight.mib. Both the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule and the quest-foglight.mib file are included in the Send-SNMP-Trap-Action cartridge, deployed during the Foglight Management Server startup.

Figure 91. You can download the quest-foglight.mib file using the Components for Download dashboard.

This type of configuration involves editing the SNMP community string and the trap receiver’s IP address defined in the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule. When configured, the rule sends traps that are formatted according to the settings specified in the SNMP trap action parameters. The rule contains an entering Send SNMP Trap Action with a set of pre-defined parameters that are compatible with the MIB file.

In addition to editing the SNMP community string and the trap receiver’s IP address, it is possible to define advanced SNMP settings, such as the trap target address or variable bindings using this rule. You can either edit, or copy and edit the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule to meet your needs. Another option is to define SNMP traps in new or existing rules by adding an entering or exiting Send SNMP Trap Action to a rule, and edit the action’s parameters. This process typically requires advanced knowledge of the SNMP protocol and is beyond the scope of this guide. For more details, consult your SNMP documentation.

To configure trap actions using the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Rules & Notifications > Rule Management.

On the Rule Management dashboard, locate the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule entry.

Start editing the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule. On the Rule Management dashboard, click the Rule column of the row containing the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule.

In the menu, click View and Edit.

In the Confirm Edit Core Rule dialog box, click Continue

In the Rule Detail dialog box, in the upper-right corner, click Rule Editor.


	NOTE: Some browser versions do not support the nested rendering of the Edit Rule page that you are about to access. If you are using those browser versions, click Launch in the display area, as prompted, to open the Edit Rule page in a new window or tab.

The Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule is a simple rule, which means that it only contains one state—Fire. The settings for the rule’s Fire state appear by clicking the Fire bar in the Conditions and Actions tab.

View the settings of the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule’s Fire state.

On the Conditions and Actions tab, click the Fire bar.

View the action settings of the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule.

In the Fire pane, open the Action tab.

View the action parameters.

In the Action tab, in the Actions table, click the Send SNMP Trap Action entry.

Edit the CommunityString and TargetAddress action parameters.

•

Set the CommunityString parameter to contain your SNMP community string of the trap receiver. This test string acts as a password used to authenticate messages. For more information, refer to your SNMP documentation.

•

Set the TargetAddress parameter to the IP address of the trap receiving computer.

To edit the value of each of the above action parameters, complete the following steps.

In the Action Parameters table, click the Value column of the parameter that you want to edit.

For example, to edit the CommunityString or TargetAddress parameters, in the row containing those entries, click its Value column (initially set to public and localhost, respectively).

The Action Parameter Editor allows you to reference registry or rule-level variables (Variable tab) or to specify a literal string (User Defined tab). The target address of the SNMP receiver and the SNMP community string are not referenced in any system or rule-level variables and do not change over time and are therefore specified as literal text string in the User Defined tab of the Action Parameter Editor dialog box.

Open the User Defined tab and type the SNMP community string (CommunityString parameter) or the SNMP trap receiver IP address (TargetAddress parameter), followed by clicking Change in the dialog box.

The Action Parameter Editor dialog box closes and the Action Parameters table refreshes, showing the newly-edited parameter after you edit a parameter value.

When you finished configuring both parameters to desired values, CommunityString and TargetAddress, those values can be viewed in the Action Parameters table.

Save the changes to the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule.

In the Edit Rule view, in the lower-left corner of the Condition and Actions tab, click Save All.

You have successfully configured the SNMP trap actions using the core Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule and enabled the forwarding of SNMP traps to your trap receiver.

Copying severity-level variables and actions in multiple severity rules

In some cases you may need to copy the severity-level variables and actions from an existing severity level of the same rule. Each severity level can have its own actions and severity-level variables.

While you edit rules, any unsaved changes to the severity-level variables or actions that you want to copy will be carried over to the destination severity. For example, if you edit an action for the Warning condition of a rule without saving it, and then proceed to copy that action in the Critical pane, the unsaved edits of the Warning action will be carried over to the Critical severity.

Copying severity-level actions and variables can be useful in situations when those definitions are identical or similar. Instead of writing and validating them for each severity level you can copy existing ones and modify them, if required.

To copy variables and actions from an existing severity level:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab.

On the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab, open the Conditions tab.

The Condition tab appears in the display area.

Choose the severity level whose variables and actions you want to copy.


	IMPORTANT: You can only copy variables and actions from those severity levels that are already defined. Attempting to copy a condition for a rule that has no conditions defined results in an error.

Click Copy variables/actions.


	IMPORTANT: Attempting to copy a condition for a rule that has no conditions defined results in an error.

Select the severity level whose condition you want to copy.

The Condition tab refreshes.

Verify the settings of the newly-copied severity-level variables and actions in the Severity Level Variables and Action tabs.

Save your changes to the rule condition by clicking the Save button above the Condition tab.

Associate a rule with a schedule

You can associate a rule with an effective schedule or a blackout schedule. An effective period is a schedule during which you want a rule to be evaluated. For example, you might want to set your company’s hours of operation as the effective period for a rule.

You can also set blackout periods for a rule. A blackout is a schedule during which evaluation of the rule is suspended for set intervals. For example, you might want to set the times when regularly scheduled maintenance is performed on a server as the blackout period for a rule.

If a rule has no schedules associated with it, then it is always active. If you only add effective schedules to a rule, then it is automatically inactive at all times other than those specified by the effective schedules. Conversely, if you only add blackout schedules to a rule, then it is automatically active at all times other than those specified by the blackout schedules.

If you add both effective and blackout schedules to a rule, then it will be active only at the times specified by the effective schedules minus the times specified by the blackout schedules. This is because blackout schedules take precedence over effective schedules. For example, suppose you add two schedules to a rule: an effective schedule that runs Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, and a blackout schedule that runs every Tuesday from 10am to 11am. The rule will be active every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to 5 pm but will only be active from 9am to 10am and from 11am to 5pm on Tuesdays.

To associate a rule with schedules:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Schedules tab.

Assign effective schedules.

In the list of schedules that appears at the top, select one or more schedules that you want to assign as effective schedules.

The list shows all schedules that exist in Foglight, including the schedules that ship with Foglight, and any schedules that you create. For information on how to add or remove schedules, see Associate Metric Calculations with Schedules.

Click Add on the right.

The Effective Schedules list on the right refreshes, showing the newly-added schedules.

Assign blackout schedules.

In the list that appears in the lower-left corner, select one or more schedules that you want to assign as blackout schedules.

Click Add on the right.

The Blackout Schedules list on the right refreshes, showing the newly-added schedules.


	NOTE: Adding the Always entry to the list of blackout schedules does not create a black out for the rule. It has no effect on the rule’s blackout schedule.

Do not add the same schedule as both an effective schedule and a blackout schedule. If you do so, the schedule will only count as a blackout schedule (because blackout schedules take precedence over effective schedules).

Configure alarm and action behavior

Foglight allows you to configure rule behavior to ensure it does not fire repeatedly. Defining the behavior of rule alarms and actions can help you avoid being overwhelmed with alerts when a rule condition is met many times within a short period.

The following options are available:

•

Fire action if x consecutive evaluations are true. Sometimes, observations are high-strung, causing a single match in the evaluation to lead to more actions than desired. With this option it is possible to enforce a certain number of positive evaluations before a rule finally fires.

Setting this option to x causes the rule’s actions (simple and multiple-severity rules) and alarms (multiple-severity rules only) to execute when the number of evaluations defined by x are true.

Example: A rule that checks the current CPU utilization is evaluated every 5 minutes. To avoid having short spikes leading to a firing rule, you can configure a damper mechanism to prevent actions and alarms from occurring until a certain number of matches is reached, such as, for example, three consecutive evaluations. That means that three times in 15 minutes (because the rule is evaluated every five minutes) the evaluation has to resolve to true before the rule fires.

•

Fire actions if x out of y evaluations are true. Similar to the above setting, this option allows to enforce a pattern of the evaluation behavior. When the frequency of positive evaluations matters less than their reoccurrence, this option allows for a less strict damper mechanism.

Setting this option to x out of y causes the rule’s actions (simple and multiple-severity rules) and alarms (multiple-severity rules only) to execute after x out of y evaluations are true.

Example: A fixed number of positive evaluations in a row is not missing positives matches, however their pattern of 2-0-2-1-0-2 consecutive positive evaluations is not identified. Setting this option to 4 out of 8 allows for identification of a problem across multiple evaluations while not relying on them being consecutive.

•

Wait at least [hh:mm:ss] hh:mm:ss after first evaluation. Sometimes when evaluations are performed immediately after a topology object creation, or the Foglight Management Server re-start, a number of false positives can occur. There might be a startup-time factor or the monitored entity simply needs to calm down for a minute or two, before reliable analysis can be performed. This option specifies that the first evaluation and all evaluations in the given time frame afterwards are ignored before evaluation results are considered.

Setting this option causes the rule’s actions (simple and multiple-severity rules) and alarms (multiple-severity rules only) to execute after the specified period.

Example: When a new host becomes available online, a high network utilization is expected, while updates are downloaded or application synchronization commences. To avoid having newly-discovered hosts generate alarms on their bandwidth usage, you can specify a time window, for example, 15 minutes, during which the rule evaluating the network conditions is on hold.

To define alarm and action behavior:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Getting started: view and edit rule definitions or Getting started: create a new rule.

Open the Behavior tab.

Configure the desired options for the behavior of rule alarms and actions by selecting any of the following check boxes.

If multiple options are selected, the actions associated with the rule execute if all of the selected options are true.

Table 43. All selected alarm and action behaviors must be true in order for the rule to fire.
Rule condition met at:	Selected alarm and action behavior options	Behavior condition met?		Rule fires?
Rule condition met at:	Selected alarm and action behavior options	A	B	Rule fires?
1:00		Yes	No	No
1:15		Yes	No	No
1:20		Yes	No	No
1:50		Yes	No	No
2:00		Yes	Yes	Yes

In the above example, even though the first behavior condition is met at 1:00, the second behavior condition dictates that the rule waits an hour from the first time it is evaluated before it fires. The rule fires at 2:00, only after both behavior conditions are met.

Rules included with the Foglight Management Server

Foglight allows you to create flexible rules that can be applied to complex, interrelated data from multiple sources within your distributed system. You can associate several different actions with a rule, configure a rule so that it does not fire repeatedly, and associate a rule with schedules to define when it should and should not be evaluated.

Different types of data can be used in rules, including registry variables, raw metrics, derived metrics, and topology object properties.

There are two types of rules in Foglight: simple rules and multiple-severity rules. A simple rule has a single condition, and can be in one of three states: Fire, Undefined, or Normal. A multiple-severity rule can have up to five severity levels: Undefined, Fatal, Critical, Warning, and Normal.

Rule conditions are regularly evaluated against monitoring data (metrics and topology object properties collected from your monitored environment and transformed into a standard format). Therefore, the state of the rule can change if the data changes. For example, if a set of monitoring data matches a simple rule’s condition, the rule enters the Fire state. If the next set does not match the condition, the rule exits the Fire state and enters the Normal state.

A rule condition is a type of expression that can be true or false. When it evaluates to true, the rule is said to fire, causing any actions that are associated with the rule or severity level to be performed. You can configure a rule to perform one or more actions upon entering or exiting each state. When a multiple-severity rule fires, an alarm also appears in Foglight.

For more information see Configure Rules and Metric Calculations to Discover Bottlenecks .

The Foglight Management Server includes some built-in rules that monitor the health of your application server environment. Rules in this section:

•

Agent Health State rule

•

BSM All Events rule

•

Catalyst Agent Type License Checker rule

•

Catalyst Credential Check rule

•

Catalyst Data Service Discarding Data rule

•

Catalyst Database Space Checking rule

•

Catalyst Free Space Checking for Oracle Tablespaces rule

•

Catalyst Garbage Collector rule

•

Catalyst License Monitoring rule

•

Catalyst Memory Usage Check rule

•

Catalyst Topology Size Limit rule

•

Clear Old LogFilter Alarms rule

•

DiagnosticAgentDiscovery rule

•

Email Reports Sample rule

•

Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule

•

Idle Agents rule

•

Remote Agent Manager State per Host rule

•

ServiceLevelEvaluation – FMSServiceSLP rule


	NOTE: The Foglight Management Server also includes a rule that can be used to configure SNMP Trap Actions. For more information about this rule, see Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule. Foglight includes two kinds of trap actions: SNMP Trap Actions and Send SNMP Trap Actions. Both trap action technologies are currently supported, however the Send SNMP Trap Action is a new version of trap actions, and is recommended by Quest over the use of SNMP Trap Actions. Similar to SNMP Trap Actions, Send SNMP Trap Action can be configured using the Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule, described in this topic.

Both trap action technologies are currently supported, however Quest recommends the use of Foglight Trap Actions over SNMP Trap Actions.

Agent Health State rule

This rule monitors the health of all agents in the monitoring environment. It generates an alarm if it finds an agent whose health is deteriorating (Warning) or is down (Critical).

Agent : agentID != "0"

Table 44. Agent Health State Rule Definition
Conditions	State
An agent’s health is in decline	Warning
An agent is down	Critical

BSM All Events rule

This rule sends all alarms from Foglight to the Service Discovery and Dashboards product.

The BSM All Events rule includes an entering BSM action which includes two mandatory action parameters: Alarm system event and BSM URL. These parameters must be set in order for the BSM rule to work properly. By default, Alarm system event is set to the alarmEvent rule-level expression, while the BSM URL action parameter points to the BSM URL Foglight registry variable. To ensure this rule works as expected, you need to configure the BSM URL Foglight registry variable to the destination address, followed by enabling this rule (it is disabled by default).

For more information about the Service Discovery and Dashboards, see the product documentation.

Catalyst Credential Check rule

None

This rule monitors the credentials that have the Validity Window policy set. It fires when it finds any credentials that are about to expire.

Catalyst Data Service Discarding Data rule

CatalystServer

Table 45. Catalyst Credential Check Rule Definition
Conditions	State
A credential is currently valid but is to expire in five days or earlier.	Warning
A credential is no longer valid.	Critical

This rule monitors the observations and generates an alarm if the Data Service starts discarding any observations. This can happen when the Foglight Management Server is overloaded, or when there is a difference, or the difference in the system time between the monitored system and the Foglight Management Server. This alarm indicates the server is overloaded and cannot keep up with the incoming data.

Catalyst Database Space Checking rule

CatalystDataService

Table 46. Catalyst Data Service Discarding Data Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The Data Service discards one or more observations within a 15 minute interval	Warning

This rule monitors the size of the database, checking whether the database size is higher than the predefined threshold, set by the DBSMon.MaxDatabaseSize registry variable. By default, this value is set to 100 Gb. If required, you can increase this value.

Catalyst Free Space Checking for Oracle Tablespaces rule

CatalystDatabase

Table 47. Catalyst Database Space Checking Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The size of the Foglight database exceeds 75% of the maximum database size.	Warning
The size of the Foglight database exceeds 90% of the maximum database size.	Critical
The size of the Foglight database exceeds 100% of the maximum database size.	Fatal

This rule checks the space that is currently available to the Oracle database against the thresholds defined in the Foglight registry. It generates alarms when the Oracle table space becomes too large. The thresholds for generating alarms are set by the following variables:

•

DBSMon.WarningFreeTablespaceSize

•

DBSMon.CriticalFreeTablespaceSize

•

DBSMon.FatalFreeTablespaceSize

Database administrators should provide values for these thresholds in order to get notified when the database starts growing out of bounds.

Clear Old LogFilter Alarms rule

CatalystTablespace

Table 48. Catalyst Free Space Checking for Oracle Tablespaces Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The size that is available to the Oracle database exceeds the threshold set by the DBSMon.WarningFreeTablespaceSize registry variable.	Warning
The size that is available to the Oracle database exceeds the threshold set by the DBSMon.CriticalFreeTablespaceSize registry variable.	Critical
The size that is available to the Oracle database exceeds the threshold set by the DBSMon.FatalFreeTablespaceSize registry variable.	Fatal

This rule periodically clears old LogFilter alarms.

DiagnosticAgentDiscovery rule

None

This periodically looks for new agent instances that are connecting to the Foglight Management Server. It rebuilds the topology if it detects new agents.

Email Reports Sample rule

CatalystServer

This rule directs all scheduled reports to their email recipients. A scheduled report can have one or more email recipients.

Catalyst Agent Type License Checker rule

None

Checks whether the CPU count of an agent type exceeds the licensed number of agents. It generates a Warning alarm if it finds that the number of monitored hosts an agent is currently monitoring is higher than the number allowed by your license.


	NOTE: This rule only applies to Foglight servers with a limited license.

Catalyst Garbage Collector rule

AgentTypeLicense

Table 49. Catalyst Agent Type License Checker Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The number of monitored hosts is higher than the number allowed by the license.	Warning

This rule checks the amount of time the Foglight Management Server spends for garbage collection and generates alarms if that time exceeds pre-defined thresholds, defined by a set of registry variables for each severity state: Warning, Critical, and Fatal.

(CatalystServer).jvm.garbageCollectors where name not like '%copy%'

Table 50. Catalyst Garbage Collector Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The amount of time spent on garbage collection exceeds the threshold set by the registry variable FMSMon.gcWarn. The default value of that variable is 10.	Warning
The amount of time spent on garbage collection exceeds the threshold set by the registry variable FMSMon.gcCritical. The default value of that variable is 30.	Critical
The amount of time spent on garbage collection exceeds the threshold set by the registry variable FMSMon.gcFatal. The default value of that variable is 90.	Fatal

Catalyst License Monitoring rule

This time-driven rule checks the validity of the current licenses, and generates alarms if it finds that a license is about to expire within a certain time period.

Catalyst Memory Usage Check rule

CatalystServer

Table 51. Catalyst License Monitoring Rule Definition
Conditions	State
A license expires in the number of days set by the LicenseExpirationDaysWarning registry variable. By default, this number is 30.	Warning
A license expires in the number of days set by the LicenseExpirationDaysCritical registry variable. By default, this number is 7.	Critical
A license expires in the number of days set by the LicenseExpirationDaysFatal registry variable. By default, this number is 2.	Fatal

This rule checks the memory that is available to the Foglight Management Server and generates a Critical alarm if the server is in danger of running out of memory, defined as 95% memory utilization. If this alarm is generated and cleared occasionally, this does not indicate any potential problems, however, if the alarm stays active without clearing, or if it is generated and cleared frequently, this indicates that you need to increase the memory allotment.

Catalyst Topology Size Limit rule

(CatalystServer).jvm

Table 52. Catalyst Memory Usage Check Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The amount of memory that is available to the Foglight Management Server exceeds 95% of the total memory usage.	Critical

The setting of this threshold protects against volatile, untuned topology models. This can be often caused by JavaEE Request URL tuning. If this rule fires, in most situations agent tuning is required to make the data less volatile.

Checks if any attempts to create topology objects are failing because the topology size limit has been reached. This number is defined by the foglight.limit.instances registry variable whose global default value is set to 10,000. You can change this value if required.


	CAUTION: Increasing the default value of the foglight.limit.instances variable may cause performance issues on the Foglight Management Server. If you need to increase this value, contact Quest Support for further instructions.

CatalystTopologySizeConstraintService

Table 53. Catalyst Topology Size Limit Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The attempts to create topology objects are failing because the maximum number of topology objects exceeds the value set by foglight.limit.instances.	Warning

Forward Alarms as SNMP Traps rule

You can use this rule as a template when creating rules with SNMP trap actions. For more information about viewing the settings related to SNMP trap actions and their configuration in Foglight, see Configure trap actions .

This is a template rule that can direct all incoming SNMP traps to an SNMP trap receiver, once the rule’s Send SNMP Trap Action parameters, CommunityString and TargetAddress are set to point to the desired SNMP trap receiver.

This rule periodically checks whether there are any idle agents. An agent is considered idle if it is running but the Foglight Management Server does not register any data associated with that agent for a pre-defined period of time, defined by a registry variable for each severity state: Warning, Critical, and Fatal

Remote Agent Manager State per Host rule

Agent

Table 54. Idle Agents Rule Definition
Conditions	State
The agent is idle for the number of hours set by the registry variable IdleAgent.Warning. The default value of that variable is 1.0 hours.	Warning
The agent is idle for a period of time set by the registry variable IdleAgent.Critical. The default value of that variable is 24.0 hours.	Critical
The agent is idle for a period of time set by the registry variable IdleAgent.Fatal. The default value of that variable is 168.0 hours.	Fatal

This rule checks whether at least one instance of the Foglight Agent Manager is running on a monitored host.

Host : detail instanceof RemoteClient

Table 55. Remote Agent Manager State per Host Rule Definition
Conditions	State
No instance of the Foglight Agent Manager on a monitored host.	Warning

ServiceLevelEvaluation – FMSServiceSLP rule

Foglight monitors each service (either implicit or user-defined) for service level compliance. The ServiceLevelEvaluation – FMSServiceSLP rule checks the availability of each service and raises an alarm if the availability is lower than the a predefined threshold during a period of one hour.

Editing derived metric permissions

FSMServiceLevelPolicy

Table 56. ServiceLevelEvaluation - FMSServiceSLP Rule Definition
Conditions	State
An average availability during one hour period is below 95%.	Warning
An average availability during one hour period is below 85%.	Critical
An average availability during one hour period is below 70%.	Fatal

Manage Derived Metrics and Create Derived Metrics

Foglight allows you to control access to derived metrics. For each derived metric you can grant or deny read, write, or control access to roles or users. For more information about security concepts in Foglight, see Managing Users and Security.

Foglight employs the following behavior when it comes to permissions of derived metrics:

•

If no one has a permission to the derived metric, everyone has a permission.

•

If one has a permission to the derived metric, others with undefined permission do not have any permission.

•

Final permission is based on a combination of the role, user, and derived metric defined on the server side.

To grant a permissions to a derived metric:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Manage Derived Metrics.

On the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard, in the row containing the rule whose permissions you want to edit, click the Edit Permissions for Derived Metric button (

To add permissions to a derived metric, complete the following steps.

Click the role or user to which you want to assign permissions.


	TIP: The Not Assigned icons in the Permissions columns indicate that the role has no permissions assigned to it.

In the dialog box that appears, use the Read, Write, and Control check boxes to assign permissions as required, and click Save.

The dialog box closes and the selected entry refreshes, showing three check marks in the Permission columns, one for each of the read, write, and control permissions.

To edit or delete permissions for a rule, complete the following steps.

Click the role or user whose permissions you want to edit.


	TIP: Three check marks in the Permissions columns indicate that the role already has permissions assigned to it.

To edit permissions, ensure that Edit is selected and use the Read, Write, and Control check boxes as required.

To delete permissions, select Delete.

Click Save.

The dialog box closes and the selected entry refreshes, showing the newly-edited permissions.

Copying or deleting derived metrics

Copying a derived metric is useful in situations when you need to quickly create a modified version of an existing derived metric. Instead of re-creating the metric’s expressions, simply copy a similar metric and edit its calculations.

If you have any derived metrics that are no longer referenced in rule conditions or derived metric expressions, you can delete them from the list. When a derived metric is deleted, all references to that metric in rule conditions and expressions become invalid. This may cause the rule to fail to evaluate. If this occurs, you must manually modify the rule condition or expression.

To copy a derived metric:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Manage Derived Metrics.

On the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard, in the row containing the derived metric that you want to copy, click Copy Derived Metric (

In the Copy Derivation dialog box, click OK.

Provide a unique name for the destination metric.

In the Create Derived Metric view, in the Derived Metric Name box, type the name of the derived metric.

If required, edit the settings of the newly-copied derived metric.

For more information, see View and edit derived metrics.

To delete a derived metric:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Manage Derived Metrics.

On the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard, select the row containing the derived metric that you want to delete.

Click the Delete Selected button at the bottom.

In the Delete Derivation dialog box, click OK.

The Delete Derivation dialog box closes.

Observe the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard.

The newly-deleted derived metrics no longer shows in the list.

Exploring derived metric diagnostics

The Derived Metrics Diagnostics dashboard lists all derived metrics that exist in your environment, including the derived metrics available with the server and any installed cartridges. Use this dashboard to better understand how the existing derived metrics are being calculated and to debug any derivation-related problems.

For each rule, the Derived Metrics Diagnostics dashboard shows the following information:

•

A summary view, at the top. This view shows you at-a-glance information about the amount of derived metrics that are processed in your system and their health. For example, a high ratio of erroneous derivations and their instances can indicate inaccuracies in metric calculations. The view contains the following information:

•

Derived Metrics: The number of all derived metrics defined in your system.

•

Derived Metrics with Errors: The number of erroneous derived metrics.

•

Derivation Rulettes: The number of object instances to which the derived metrics are bound.

•

Derivation Rulettes with Errors: The number of erroneous derivation instances (rulettes).

•

Derivation Metrics without Rulettes: The number of derived metrics that are not bound to any object instances.

•

Name: The derived metric name.

•

Unit: The unit in which the derived metric is expressed, one of billion, billionth, bit, byte, celsius, count, day, exabyte, gigabyte, hour, kilobyte, megabyte, microsecond, million, millionth, millisecond, minute, month, nanosecond, percent, petabyte, revolution, second, terabyte, thousand, thousandth, trillion, trillionth, or year.

•

Scope: The derived metric scope. This can give you a better idea on the effect the derived metric has on your monitored system. The scope identifies one or more topology objects that the derived metric calculates. If the scope is not defined, the derived metrics runs against the entire data set which can have a negative effect on overall performance. A derived metric can be scoped to a topology type and can optionally be scoped to specific topology objects of that type. For more information, see Setting the rule or derived metric scope on page 462.

•

Rulettes: A rulette is a derived metric instance that represent the state of the monitoring object to which the derived metric expression applies. This column contains two sub-columns:

•

Count: The number of scoped objects to which the derived metric is bound.

•

In Error: The number of erroneous derivation instances (rulettes). Clicking this column shows a list of the object instances to which the error applies.

•

Cartridge: Identifies the cartridge in which the rule is defined, if applicable. For any rules that you create, this column is blank.

•

Name: The name of the cartridge in which the rule is defined, including the cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those rules that you create.

•

Version: The version of the cartridge in which the rule is defined, including cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those rules that you create.

•

Error: If a derived metric is in error, this is usually caused by one of its derived metric calculations being in error. Inspecting individual error messages associated with different derivation instances can often help you diagnose the problem. Start this flow by drilling down on the In Error column and then, in the dwell that appears, clicking the Error column, as described above.

Click the Error column on the Derived Metrics Diagnostics dashboard to open a dwell that contains additional information about the derivation.

•

Last Modified: The most recent date and time at which the derived metric was modified.

From here, you can drill down to a derived metric to see detailed diagnostics about that metric.

Figure 92. Click the row containing a derived metric and, in the dwell that opens, under Go to, click Diagnostic Details.


	TIP: To edit rule definitions, in the dwell, click Edit Derived Metric and edit the derived metric, as required. For more information, see Get started: create derived metrics.

For more information about the Diagnostic Details view that appears, see View derived metric diagnostic details.

View derived metric diagnostic details

The Diagnostic Details view contains detailed run-time information about a selected derived metric. Use this view to determine which objects the derived metric is bound to and as a debugging tool to help you understand any derivation-related problems. Drill down to this view from the Derived Metrics Diagnostics dashboard.

Figure 93. The View Derived Metric Diagnostic Details view.

This composite view contains the following embedded views:

•

Top-Level View

•

Derived Metric Calculations View

•

Rulette Statistics View

•

Last Evaluation Result Tab

•

Observations Tab

Table 57. Top-Level View

Shows the derived metric definitions.

•

Name. The derived metric name.

•

Unit. The unit in which the derived metric is expressed, such as billion, billionth, bit, byte, celsius, count, day, exabyte, gigabyte, hour, kilobyte, megabyte, microsecond, million, millionth, millisecond, minute, month, nanosecond, percent, petabyte, revolution, second, terabyte, thousand, thousandth, trillion, trillionth, or year.

•

Value Type. A derived metric take over the form of the Foglight metric or an observation type. The range of available observations depends on the number of installed cartridges.

•

Cartridge. The name of the cartridge in which the derived metric is defined, including the cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those derived metrics that you create.

•

Cartridge Version. The version of the cartridge in which the derived metric is defined, including cartridges included with the server, and any installed cartridges. This column is empty for those derived metrics that you create.

•

Description. Contains the Derived Metric Calculations View.

Table 58. Derived Metric Calculations View

Shows the derived metric calculations.

•

Scope. The derived metric scope. This can give you a better idea on the effect the derived metric has on your monitored system. The scope identifies one or more topology objects that the derived metric calculates. If the scope is not defined, the derived metrics runs against the entire data set which can have a negative effect on overall performance. A derived metric can be scoped to a topology type and can optionally be scoped to specific topology objects of that type. For more information, see Setting the rule or derived metric scope on page 462.

•

Expression. Contains the derived metric expression.

•

Trigger Type. The trigger type. This value affects the frequency at which Foglight processes the metric’s calculations. The trigger gives you a general idea of the metric’s activity. For example, a default data-driven trigger causes Foglight to process the metric’s calculations every time the data associated with the derived metric is collected. For more information, see Trigger derived metrics.

•

Error. If the derived metric has any errors associated with it, this column contains the error indicator.

Table 59. Rulette Statistics View

Lists one or more object instances to which the derived metric is bound, and shows information about the derived metric activity, as it relates to each object instance. Selecting a table row shows additional details about the derived metric on the Last Evaluation Result Tab and Observations Tab.

•

Object. The name of the object instance used in the derived metric expression and its data type.

•

Enabled. Indicates if the object is enabled.

•

Error. If a derived metric instance has any errors associated with it, this column contains the error indicator.

•

Evaluations. The number of times the object instance was used in the derived metric calculation.

•

Reset Time. The date and time of the object’s most recent reset.

•

Last Evaluation. The date and time the most recent derived metric calculation took place.

Where to go next

•

Drill down on an entry in the Object column. Displays a dwell that shows the health of the object instance, identifies any agents or hosts related to this instance, and lists links to views that reference the object instance, including the Property Viewer and Metric Analyzer. From here, clicking a link under Related drills down to the selected view.

•

If a derived metric instance has any errors associated with it, the Error column contains the error indicator. Drill down on an error indicator. Displays a message that can help you diagnose the problem.

Table 60. Last Evaluation Result Tab

Shows the property values associated with the bound object instance.

•

Last Eval Result. Shows the most recent values of following object properties:
Sum of Squares: Sum of the squares of all metric values collected in the most recent sampling interval.
Standard Deviation: Standard deviation of all metric values collected in the most recent sampling interval.
Maximum: Maximum value of all metric values collected in the most recent sampling interval.
Count: Count of all metric values collected in the most recent sampling interval.

Table 61. Observations Tab

Shows information about the object to which the derived metric is bound.

View and edit derived metrics

•

Name. The name of the metric evaluated by the derived metric expression.

•

Object Name. The name of the object instance to which the derived metric is bound.

•

Object Type. The type of the object instance to which the derived metric is bound.

Where to go next

•

The Manage Derived Metrics dashboard shows all of the derived metrics that exist in your monitoring environment. This includes the derived metrics that come with the Foglight Management Server and installed cartridges, and also any derived metrics that you create. From here, you can drill down to view the settings for a derived metric, and edit them, as required.

To view or edit derived metric:

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Manage Derived Metrics.

On the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard, click the Derived Metric Name column of the row containing the derived metrics whose definitions you want to view.

The Edit Derived Metric view shows the derived metric settings, such as the derived metric name, cartridge name and version (if applicable), modification date, and the derived metric calculations.


	TIP: If a derived metric comes with the Foglight Management Server or any installed cartridge, the Cartridge Name and Cartridge Version values indicate the cartridge name and its version. Otherwise, if a derived metric is created using the Create Derived Metric dashboard, this value is blank.

Observe the metric definitions.

Edit the derived metric as required.

•

To edit the name of derived metric, type the desired value into the Derived Metric Name box

•

To make additional modifications, such as adding calculations, see Add calculations to derived metrics for complete instructions.

Get started: create derived metrics

A metric is a specific value that is measured over time. Many derived metrics come included with Foglight and installed cartridges, including activeAgentCount, availability, avg_inserts_per5min, and many others. If none of the existing derived metrics meet your needs, you can create a new one and add it to the derived metric collection.

There are many reasons for using derived metrics in your setup. First, derived metrics make the process of managing rules simpler. For example, using the same expression in multiple rules requires editing each expression when your requirements change. Instead, define a derived metric and edit its expression, instead of editing multiple conditions.

Derivation definitions also allow multiple scoping query/expression pairs under a single definition. For each topology object, the expression paired with the first scoping query which matches the object will be calculated. This allows you to override a derivation definition based on the scoping query where multiple derivations definitions exist.

Use the following guidelines to decide when to use one derivation with multiple scopes, or when to use multiple derivation definitions:

•

Choose a single derivation definition when you need the overriding behavior. If you have a subset of a topology object type that requires a derivation to be calculated differently, use a single derivation definition with additional scope/expression pairs.

For example, you have a derivation freeMemory for topology type OS, with a subtype Unix that requires a different freeMemory calculation. Define a single derivation freeMemory create two scope/expression pairs (one for OS and the other for Unix).

•

Choose a multiple derivation definition when you are using the same observation name for unrelated scoping queries.

For example, if you have a derivation freeMemory for the types OS and JVM, create two separate derivations to avoid coupling the definitions.

•

Choose multiple derivation definitions when you have alternate ways of calculating the same observation for the same topology objects. If you keep the calculations in the same derivation definition, only the first calculation in the list will take effect.

Derived metrics can also help you optimize performance by reducing the number of calculations that need to be performed at run-time. For example, if there are multiple rules that need to use the same complex metric expression in their conditions, creating a derived metric with this expression and using it in these rules’ conditions would have a positive impact on performance: the calculation specified in the metric expression would only need to be performed each time an instance of the derived metric is created instead of each time the rule is evaluated.

To get started with creating a derived metric:

Open the Create Derived Metric dashboard by completing one of the following steps:

•

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Manage Derived Metrics.

In the Manage Derived Metrics dashboard that appears in the display area, click the Add Derived Metric button in the lower-left corner.

•

On the navigation panel, under Dashboards, choose Administration > Data > Create Derived Metric.

Provide a descriptive name for the derived metric.

On the Create Derived Metric dashboard, in the Derived Metric Name box, type the name that you want to assign to the derived metric.

From here, you can proceed to Add calculations to derived metrics.

Add calculations to derived metrics

The scope of a derived metric defines the set of topology objects against which Foglight calculates it. A derived metric is scoped to a topology type and can optionally be scoped to specific topology objects of that type. If a derived metric is not scoped to specific objects, it applies to all instances of that type. You specify the derived metric scope using the query language. You can change the scope of a derived metric (the topology type or one or more specific topology objects of that type to which it applies) after its creation.

A derived metric can contain one or more calculations. Foglight processes derived metric calculations in the order they are listed, starting with the first one. Changing their order affects the behavior of the actions that are associated with the derived metric.

For example, if there are two calculations whose conditions evaluate to True, the first calculation takes precedence, causing one or more actions that are associated with that metric to be generated before the next one.

For detail information on how to scope a rule or derived metric to one or more topology objects, see Setting the rule or derived metric scope.

To add calculations to a derived metric:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from View and edit derived metrics or Get started: create derived metrics.

New derived metrics only. In the Derived Metric Calculations area, click Add Calculation.

Use the Derived Metric Scope and Expression areas to specify the scope of the derived metric.


	IMPORTANT: If you change the topology type or one or more objects to which the derived metric is scoped, you may need to reconfigure the derived metric expression: the metrics specified in the existing expression may not be available for the new topology type or object. Likewise, if you change the metrics that are specified in the Expression field, ensure that the new metrics are available for the topology type or one or more objects to which the derived metric is scoped.

When you finish adding calculations to derived metrics, ensure that the order in which they appear is valid.

Foglight evaluates derived metric calculations in the order they are listed, starting with the first one. Changing their order affects the output of actions that are associated with those calculations.

To change the order of calculations, use the Move up (

) or Move down (

) buttons.

Specify the unit of the derived metric.

Use one or a combination of the two Unit boxes under the Derived Metric Calculations list to specify the unit. Each box contains the following choices: billion, billionth, bit, byte, celsius, count, day, exabyte, gigabyte, hour, kilobyte, megabyte, microsecond, million, millionth, millisecond, minute, month, nanosecond, percent, petabyte, revolution, second, terabyte, thousand, thousandth, trillion, trillionth, and year.

For example, to set the unit o the derived metric to a number of days per month, click the left Unit box, and select day from the list that appears, then click the right Unit box and select month, as illustrated bellow.

Optional — Add comments about the newly-created derived metric.

From here, you can proceed to Trigger derived metrics.

Trigger derived metrics

An instance of a derived metric is created when its definition is triggered. A derived metric is configured to have one of the following triggers:

•

Schedule-Driven Derived Metric. A schedule-driven derived metric is evaluated based on an existing schedule. For more information about schedules, see Associate Metric Calculations with Schedules.

There are three trigger timing options for schedule-driven derived metrics:

•

Enter and Exit. Causes the derived metric to be evaluated when the period defined by the schedule begins and ends.

•

Enter only. Causes the derived metric to be evaluated when the period defined by the schedule begins.

•

Exit only. Causes the derived metric to be evaluated when the period defined by the schedule ends.

•

Time-Driven Derived Metrics. A time-driven trigger causes the derived metric to be evaluated once per pre-defined interval.

•

Data-Driven Derived Metrics. If a derived metric has a data-driven trigger, it will be evaluated every time that data that is used in the expression for the derived metric is sent to the Foglight Management Server.

To assign a schedule-driven trigger to a derived metric:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Add calculations to derived metrics.

In the Expression area, under Trigger Type, select the Schedule Driven option.

Choose the schedule during which you want the derived metric to be triggered.

Click Schedule and select a schedule from the list that appears.


	NOTE: The list shows all schedules that exist in Foglight. For more information about schedules, see Associate Metric Calculations with Schedules.

Select the trigger timing option to specify the point in time in which Foglight evaluates the derived metric in relation with the newly-specified schedule.

Click Trigger Timing and select one of the following options from the list that appears: Enter and Exit, Enter only, or Exit only.

To evaluate the derived metric expression in each collection interval, regardless of the existence of data, select Enable Trigger without Data.

To assign a time-driven trigger to a derived metric:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Add calculations to derived metrics.

In the Expression area, under Trigger Type, select the Time Driven option.

Specify the recurrence interval for the trigger in the hh:mm:ss format.

To evaluate the derived metric expression in each collection interval, regardless of the existence of data, select Enable Trigger without Data.

To assign a data-driven trigger to a derived metric:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Add calculations to derived metrics.

In the Expression area, under Trigger Type, select the Data Driven option.

From here, you can proceed to Setting the derived metric type.

Setting the derived metric type

When you define the scope and trigger of the derived metric, you can specify the value type for the derived metric. The value type for a derived metric affects its appearance in dashboards. You can set the derived type to a metric, and specify its unit of measurement, or to an observation.

To set the value type for a derived metric:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Trigger derived metrics.

In the area immediately below the Derived Metric Calculations list, click Value Type and select Metric from the list that appears.

Select the units of measurement.

Use one or both of the Unit boxes on the left of Unit Type as required.

For example, percent or count / second.


	NOTE: You cannot change the value type of a derived metric unless you also change the name of the derived metric. You can change the unit of measurement for a derived metric, but only to a compatible unit. For example, you could change the unit from megabyte to kilobyte, but you could not change it from megabyte to percent without also changing the name of the derived metric.

To set the value type to an observation:


	NOTE: This procedure continues from Trigger derived metrics.

In the area immediately below the Derived Metric Calculations list, ensure that both of the Unit boxes are blank.

Specify the observation that you want to use as the value type for the derived metric.

Click Value Type on the right and select an observation from the list that appears.

Optional — Add comments about the value type.

Type your comments in the Comments box.