Foglight for Exchange 5.7.1 - User and Reference Guide

Exchange Rule Management dashboard

The Exchange Rule Management dashboard contains a sortable list of all the conditional severity rules used by the Foglight for Exchange. From this dashboard you can quickly see which conditional rules are enabled/disabled, the states (fatal, critical or warning) with active conditions, predefined alarm threshold values, rules with current alarms, and a brief description of each rule.

NOTE: The Rule Management dashboard does not display simple rules that do not have user-definable conditions defining when to raise an alarm. To edit the simple rules, use the Manage Rules dashboard.

Figure 48. Exchange Rule Management dashboard

The Exchange Rule Management dashboard includes the following tabs:

•	Exchange Monitoring. Displays information about the Foglight for Exchange rules.

•	Optional. Displays information about the Foglight for Exchangeoptional rules.

•	Host Monitoring. Displays information about the Host Monitoring rules.

 

NOTE: The host monitoring rules are only used if Foglight for Exchange is collecting the host metrics, as specified on the agent’s properties page. If the host metrics are being collected by Foglight for VMware or Foglight for Hyper-V, the host monitoring rules defined for the selected cartridge will be used instead.

 

Table 158. Exchange Rule Management dashboard information

Column	Description
	Use the selection check box column to select one or more rules in the list. Once selected, you can enable or disable the selected rules using the buttons at the top of the table. To select or clear all of the rules in the list, click on the check box in the heading row.
Enabled	Displays one of the following icons indicating whether the rule is enabled or disabled: - Enabled - Disabled Clicking the icon in this column will either disable or enable the selected rule.
Rule	Displays the name of the conditional rule. Selecting the rule name launches the rule editor where you can edit the selected rule, defining conditions on when to raise an alarm.
	Fatal Condition: • The icon indicates multiple registry values. Clicking this icon displays a dialog that allows you to view the fatal condition threshold for these variables. • A string value indicates a single registry value. Clicking this string displays a dialog allowing you to define a fatal condition for this rule. • The edit icon indicates that you can define a fatal condition for this rule. Clicking this icon launches the rule editor allowing you to define a fatal condition for this rule.
	Critical Condition: • The icon indicates multiple registry values. Clicking this icon displays a dialog that allows you to view the critical condition threshold for these variables. • A string value indicates a single registry value. Clicking this string displays a dialog allowing you to define a critical condition for this rule. • The edit icon indicates that you can define a critical condition for this rule. Clicking this icon launches the rule editor allowing you to define a critical condition for this rule.
	Warning Condition: • The icon indicates multiple registry values. Clicking this icon displays a dialog that allows you to view the warning condition threshold for these variables. • A string value indicates a single registry value. Clicking this string displays a dialog allowing you to define a warning condition for this rule. • The edit icon indicates that you can define a warning condition for this rule. Clicking this icon launches the rule editor allowing you to define a warning condition for this rule.
Alarms	Indicates the number of outstanding alarms for each rule. Selecting the number in this column displays the alarms popup. From the alarm list on this popup: • Clicking the alarm message, time or severity icon for an individual alarm displays the Alarm Details dialog from which you can acknowledge or clear the alarm. • Selecting the Info icon displays the Metrics and Troubleshooting dialog. • Selecting a server allows you to view the performance metrics in the Exchange Explorer or Quick View.
Available In	Indicates the Exchange version in which the rule is available.
Description	Provides a brief description of the rule.

Managing Foglight for Exchange rules

In addition to viewing the Foglight for Exchange rules, you can edit alarm thresholds, enable/disable rules, and filter rules Exchange version using the Exchange Rule Management dashboard.

To disable a rule:

1	Locate the rule to be disabled and click the icon in the corresponding Enabled column.

NOTE: To disable multiple rules, select the corresponding check boxes to the left of the rules to be disabled and select the Disable Rule toolbar button.

2	On the confirmation dialog, select Yes.

To edit the condition of a rule:

1	Select the rule in the Rule column or its corresponding graph icon in the Fatal, Critical or Warning columns.

NOTE: Hovering the cursor over a numeric value or graph icon will display the current condition that is defined.

NOTE: To define a condition for a rule, select the set rule icon in the corresponding Fatal, Critical or Warning columns.

2	On the Edit Rule view, edit the conditions, alarms, actions, schedules, behavior or rule variables as required. After making your edits, select Save All.

For more detailed information on editing rules, see the Foglight Administration and Configuration Help.

NOTE: In the browser interface, open the Help tab in the action panel. Navigate to Using Foglight > Administration and Configuration Help > Tuning Foglight for Optimal Performance > Using Foglight Rules to Report on Bottlenecks. Scroll to the bottom of that page to find a list of reference topics including procedures explaining how to perform a variety of tasks related to rules.

To edit the alarm threshold assigned to a rule:

1	Select the numeric value in the Fatal, Critical or Warning columns.

2	On the Threshold dialog, enter the new value and select Update.

To activate/deactivate a condition for a rule:

1	Select the deactivated value or graph icon in the corresponding Fatal, Critical or Warning columns.

•	If you selected a deactivated value, on the Threshold dialog, select the Activate check box and if desired modify the threshold value displayed. Select Update.

•

If you selected a deactivated graph icon, on the Edit Rule view, select the Activate check box on the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab. If necessary, edit the conditions, alarms, actions, schedules, behavior or rule variables as required. After activating and/or editing the condition, select Save All.

2	To deactivate a condition, select the rule, active value or chart icon in the corresponding Fatal, Critical or Warning columns.

•	If you selected a value, on the Threshold dialog, clear the Activate check box. Select Update.

•	If you selected a rule or a graph icon, on the Edit Rule view, clear the Activate check box on the Conditions, Alarms & Actions tab. After deactivating the condition, select Save All.

To filter rules by Exchange version:

•	To display the rules available only in certain Exchange version(s), select the Filter check box(es) corresponding to that (those) version(s): 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016.

•	To display the rules that are not available in certain Exchange version(s), select the Filter check box(es) corresponding to that (those) version(s): 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016, and also select the Not In check box.

Rules reference

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.

Foglight for Exchange includes several Exchange monitoring rules. In addition, this cartridge uses some of the Host Monitoring rules.

NOTE: The host monitoring rules are only used if Foglight for Exchange is collecting the host metrics, as specified on the agent’s properties page. If the host metrics are being collected by Foglight for VMware or Foglight for Hyper-V, the host monitoring rules defined for the selected cartridge will be used instead.

For more information, see the Foglight Administration and Configuration Guide or online help.

Running diagnostic tests

Foglight for Exchange provides diagnostics tests to help you detect and analyze Exchange problems. Using the Diagnostic Tests dashboard, which is available in Foglight for Exchange, you can view a list of diagnostic tests that are available as well as run a test immediately or define a schedule for when a test is to be run.

IMPORTANT: Running diagnostic tests may impact performance. The impact on performance depends on your environment (network bandwidth, speed, etc.), the number of servers being tested, and the number of tests being run. It is recommended to run individual tests against specific servers to analyze a particular problem.

This section describes the components of the Diagnostic Tests dashboard and explains the tasks that can be performed from this dashboard. It also provides a description of the diagnostic tests that are available in Foglight for Exchange to detect and analyze your Exchange environment.

•	Diagnostic Tests dashboard

•	Diagnostic Tests reference

•	Troubleshooting