Getting started with thresholds

Thresholds act as the trigger points for generating events or alarms based on the collected performance data. When these threshold values are breached, either above or below, or an abnormal condition occurs, the events are generated. In short, thresholds are useful mechanisms for setting up the policies to monitor the system resources or performing a probable cause analysis when a breach occurs. 

Based on the data collection choices made by the user, threshold settings can be either static or dynamic in nature. In addition to the threshold settings, a KPI can be combined to perform the analysis. Instead of merely triggering an event on a breach, the high and low baseline values can be introduced to perform intelligent threshold computation. Intelligent thresholds define an acceptable high and low values for the collected data.

Thresholds can be broadly grouped into two categories: Agent or PATROL Agent thresholds and Server or Infrastructure Management Server thresholds. Each of these categories can be further classified based on whether it is configured at the monitor type or monitor instance level.

• Agent thresholds are range-based thresholds defined on the BMC PATROL Agents. You can define range-based thresholds for the attributes of a monitor type (all monitor instances) or a single monitor instance on the PATROL Agents.
• Server thresholds are Infrastructure Management Server-side thresholds that use a combination of Baselines and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). You can define the server thresholds for the attributes of a monitor type (all monitor instances) or a single monitor instance.

Example scenarios

Threshold settings can be used to regulate the generation of a number of significant events that need immediate attention. There could be many different situations that might need your immediate attention, to understand the basics consider the following example scenario:

Example scenario: When the total CPU utilization of a Windows system crosses 80%, it may result in performance issues. In this case, you can specify an absolute threshold of 80% for the CPU Utilization attribute. Once the CPU utilization crosses the 80% limit, an event is triggered based on the combination of severity, minimum duration of breach, and other threshold settings.

Threshold management and user roles

To monitor and manage the thresholds settings, you must have the required permissions. Use this table to understand the mapping between areas and roles:

Views to configure and manage thresholds from TrueSight console

• The agent thresholds (both instance and global) can be configured from the Agent Threshold tab under TrueSight console Configuration > Infrastructure Policies > Create Policies > Create Monitoring Policy page.
• The server-side instance thresholds can be configured from the Server Threshold tab under TrueSight console Configuration > Infrastructure Policies > Create Policies > Create Monitoring Policy page.
• The server-side global thresholds can be configured from the TrueSight console Configuration > Global Thresholds page.