Default Grooming Settings

The MOM 2005 grooming task automatically sets the status of Error, Warning, Inactive, Information, Service Unavailable, and Success alerts from New to Resolved if an operator has not assigned them a status. The OnePoint-Update Database job is responsible for changing the resolution state. This job affects records that are older than the values defined on the Database Grooming tab in the Global Settings dialog box.

Note

    Active alerts are not groomed.

When an alert is set to the Resolved status, either by an operator or by the Auto Resolve grooming task, it will remain in the database for 4 days by default. The OnePoint-Groom Alerts job will delete alerts older than the value defined in the Global Settings dialog box. This default value of 4 days can be changed to delete resolved alerts sooner. For more information, see the "Modifying Grooming Settings" section, later in this chapter.

Alerts Stored in the Database Some alerts that are not set to Resolved might remain in the database indefinitely. Only Error, Warning, Information, and Success alerts are automatically set to Resolved by the OnePoint-Update Database job. Unresolved alerts can consume database space, over time. Acknowledged alerts will not be automatically resolved and deleted from the database. The acknowledged alerts need to be manually set to Resolved for the grooming jobs, in order to delete them from the database.

Note

    While each grooming job has a maximum run time of 15 minutes, the OnePoint-Groom Events job consists of three jobs, and can total up to 45 minutes.

Table 4.5 shows the default database grooming settings:

Table 4.5 Default Database Grooming Settings

Querying the MOM Database

You can query the MOM database, directly, to determine if there are very large numbers of alerts and events waiting for grooming. This is helpful in determining whether you should adjust your grooming job frequency, and to help you ensure that your database grooming jobs are being completed in an appropriate timeframe.

To query the database for alerts awaiting grooming

1. In SQL Server Query Analyzer, create a new query.

2. In the Query window, type the following:

   SELECT COUNT(*) AS AlertsAwaitingGrooming

   FROM dbo.Alert

   WHERE (ResolutionState=255)

3. From the Query menu, select Change Database, and then select the OnePoint database from the drop-down menu.

To query the database for all specific alerts awaiting grooming

1. In SQL Server Query Analyzer, create a new query.

2. In the Query window, type the following:

   SELECT Name, Description, AlertLevel, RepeatCount, ResolvedBY, TimeResolved

   FROM dbo.Alert

   WHERE (ResolutionState=255)

3. From the Query menu, select Change Database, and then select the OnePoint database from the drop-down menu.

To query the database for events awaiting grooming

1. In SQL Server Query Analyzer, create a new query.

2. In the Query window, type the following:

SET @DaysOld = 90

**SET @CutTime = dbo.MOMXDateNoTime(getdate(), (-1 * @DaysOld))**

**SELECT Count(*) AS EventCount FROM Event WHERE TimeGenerated > @CutTime**

1. From the Query menu, select Change Database, and then select the OnePoint database from the drop-down menu.

Modifying Grooming Settings

MOM provides easy access to database grooming settings in the MOM Administrator console Global Settings dialog box. On the Database Grooming tab, you can change the retention time for automatic resolution of alerts. You can also set the retention time for events, alerts performance data, and logs.

To change database grooming in the Global Settings dialog box

1. From the Microsoft Operations Manager program folder, start the MOM Administrator console.

2. In the left pane, expand Microsoft Operations Manager, and then expand Administration.

3. In the left pane, click Global Settings.

4. In the right pane, right-click Database Grooming, and click Properties.

5. Specify the number of days data is retained, or

6. To specify when alerts are automatically resolved, click the alert type, and click Edit. Once you have specified the auto-resolve behavior, click OK.