Configuring and managing Optimizer rules

As an administrator, use the Rules page to view and manage all the Optimizer rules that are configured in your system. 

To access the Rules page, click Administration > OPTIMIZER > Rules. The Optimizer rules page is displayed that lists all the configured rules and the following details:

• Id - A unique rule ID that is automatically assigned to a rule when it is created. 
• Name and Description - Name and short description as specified during rule creation.
• Status - Displays Active if the rule is enabled, else Inactive.
• Creation date - Date when the rule was created.

About Optimizer rules

Every alert or recommendation is generated based on the conditions and configurations that are defined in an Optimizer rule. For example, you can define a rule for VMware vSphere virtual machines (VM) that generates an alert when a VM has been idle for over 45 days, or has snapshots that are older than 60 days.

An Optimizer rule is primarily composed of the following items:

• A set of conditions on one or more resources. For example, identify a VM that has been inactive for more than 45 days as idle VM.
• A set of actions that are run if at least one condition is met. For example, send an email when a VM is detected to be idle.

Optimizer rules are defined per system type. You can specify the entities to which the rule applies and define its scope. For example, you can define a rule that applies to all entities of a specific domain or to specific entities only. A rule can contain multiple conditions. Each condition corresponds to an alert or a recommendation. You can modify the configurations in a rule to exclude certain entities or modify the parameters in a condition. 

The Optimizer task, a backend system task, evaluates the conditions in the Optimizer rule and threshold violations on the collected data and enables automatic alerting. Each condition is evaluated separately from other conditions of the same rule. The Optimizer task can be scheduled to run to re-evaluate alerts and recommendations. Each time the task runs, the rules are processed and the generated results overwrite the previous recommendation results. 

If you reconfigured a rule or modified a metric threshold that is used in the rule, and want to generate recommendations immediately, you can manually run the rule. Also, if you modified an indicator parameter or threshold that impacts multiple Optimizer rules, you can manually run the Optimizer task that is associated with these rules. On running the task, all the associated rules are triggered to run. For more information about configuring an Optimizer task, see Configuring the Optimizer task.

The Diagnostic - Self monitoring optimizer rule and rules for some technologies and environments are available out-of-the-box. These are based on predefined templates. The out-of-the-box rules for the following environments are available only when you install the associated view package:

• Virtualization technologies
  • AIX
  • Hyper-V
  • Solaris
  • VMware
• Cloud technologies
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP
• Systems for future saturation alerts
  
• OpenStack
• Kubernetes

You can modify the out-of-the-box rules or create new ones by using these templates. For example, for vSphere VMs that are hosting business-critical applications, you can define one rule that runs daily and sends you an alert email when the VM is detected to have resources that will soon saturate. For vSphere VMs that are hosting not-so-critical applications, you can define another rule that sends you a similar alert but runs on a weekly basis.  

The templates have preconfigured conditions based on the specific environment that they are defined for. For example, the AWS - Virtual Machines template includes a condition to generate recommendations for EC2 instances (or VMs) that are idle in your AWS environment. 

If the predefined templates do not meet your requirements, you can define rules with custom conditions. 

To add, modify, enable or disable, and run an Optimizer rule, ensure that the role assigned to your user group has the Optimizer - Edit activity associated with it.

Example of a rule based on preconfigured condition

Adding an Optimizer rule

1. In Administration, click OPTIMIZER > Rules.
2. In the Optimizer rules page, click Add new rule.
3. To add a rule by using the out-of-the-box templates, see Adding a template-based Optimizer rule. To add a custom rule, see Adding a custom Optimizer rule.

The rule is saved and enabled by default. The rule is listed in the Optimizer rules table. The rule is triggered to run based on the Optimizer task that is associated with the rule.

Modifying an Optimizer rule

1. Access the Rules page.
2. Click the name of the rule that you want to modify.
3. In the <Rule name> page, click Edit. 

If the rule is based on the out-of-the-box templates (Rule type field value is based on template), see Adding a template-based Optimizer rule for configuration options. Else, for a custom rule (Rule type field value is custom rule), see Adding a custom Optimizer rule.

When the associated Optimizer task runs, the reconfigured Optimizer rule is used to generate recommendations.

Deleting an Optimizer rule

1. Access the Rules page.
2. Click the name of the rule that you want to delete.
3. In the <Rule name> page, click Delete.

Enabling or disabling an Optimizer rule

1. Access the Rules page.
2. Click the name of the rule that you want to enable or disable.
3. Click Enable or Disable depending on the current status of the rule.
   

Running an Optimizer rule manually

1. Access the Rules page.
2. Click the name of the rule that you want to run.
3. In the <Rule name> page, click Run. The Optimizer rule is initiated to run immediately. It generates recommendations that override the existing recommendations.

Viewing results of an Optimizer rule

1. Access the Rules page.
2. Click the name of the rule that you want to view details for.
3. In the <Rule name> page, click the Generated alerts/recommendations link. The Generated alerts/recommendations table lists all the recommendations that the rule generated in the last run. For each recommendation, you can see the entity for which it was generated, a short description, the recommendation type, and the recommended actions.
   You can click the entity name in the table to view the entity details in the Workspace.