Configuring composite alarm policies

As a tenant administrator, use composite alarm policies to configure multi‑metric, condition‑based alarms that generate a single alert only when multiple conditions occur together in a single or multiple instances. 

You can create, edit, copy, enable, disable, and delete composite alarm policies, and validate time-series expressions to ensure that the configured conditions are accurate before the policy is saved.

To create a composite alarm policy

1. Log in to BMC Helix Operations Management.
2. Select Configuration > Composite Alarm Policies and then click Create.
   
3. In the Policy Details section, specify the policy name and the description.
4. In the Composite Alarm Trigger Conditions section, in the Expression box, define the conditions based on which the alarm will be generated.
   You can use the Show metrics list button to build the basic expressions.  
   For more information about defining the expressions, see Building composite alarm trigger conditions.
5. In the Generate box, select the severity from the drop-down list for the alarm to be generated.
6. In the Polls box, specify the number of times the expression should be run for the specified evaluation interval.
   You can add more conditions or clone an existing condition and modify it.
7. Click Validate all to validate the expressions.
   For more information about common validation errors, see Resolving validation errors.
8. In the Composite Alarm Details section, select one of the following options for Hostname:
   • Dynamic: Select this option when the system identifies common labels eligible to resolve the host name.
   • Static: Select this option when no common labels are identified that are eligible to resolve the host name.

     Tip: You can select the Static option for the host name even if the common host name labels are identified.

9. In Event message, specify the message to be displayed in the generated alarm.
   You can add variable values to event messages to generate dynamic alert messages.
10. In Evaluation interval, specify the time frequency at which the policy should re-evaluate the conditions to determine whether an alarm must be generated.
11. (Optional) Select Enable Policy.
    You can enable or disable the policy at any time from the Composite Alarm Policies page.
12. Save the policy.

To edit a composite alarm policy

1. Log in to BMC Helix Operations Management.
2. Select Configuration > Composite Alarm Policies and perform one of the following actions:
   • Select the policy and click Edit.
   • From the Actions menu of a policy, select Edit.
3. Modify the configuration details and click Save.

To copy a composite alarm policy

1. Log in to BMC Helix Operations Management.
2. Select Configuration > Composite Alarm Policies.
3. Click the action menu of the policy that you want to copy and select Copy. 
   The Create Composite Alarm Policy page displays the configurations of the copied policy. 
4. Modify the configurations to quickly create a new policy. 
5. (Optional) Select Enable Policy.
   You can enable or disable the policy at any time from the Alarm Policies page.
6. Save the policy.

To enable or disable a composite alarm policy

1. Log in to BMC Helix Operations Management.
2. Select the Configuration > Composite Alarm Policies.
3. On the Composite Alarm Policies page, perform one of the following actions:
   • Select the policy and click Enable or Disable.
   • From the Actions menu of a policy, select Enable or Disable.
   • Edit the policy and select or clear the Enable Policy check box.

When you disable an enabled policy, all alarms created for that policy are closed.

When you enable a disabled policy, new alarms are created based on the policy criteria with new event IDs.

To delete a composite alarm policy

1. Log in to BMC Helix Operations Management.
2. Select Configuration > Composite Alarm Policies.
3. On the Composite Alarm Policies page, perform one of the following actions:
   • Select one or more policies and click Delete, and click yes.
   • From the Actions menu of a policy, select Delete, and click Yes.

Related topics

Composite alarm policy management endpoints in the REST API

Composite alarm event class