Investigate Alerts

Applies To: Operations Manager 2007 R2, Operations Manager 2007 SP1

You can review and investigate alerts in the Monitoring pane of the Operations console or the Web console. The Web console displays the same alert information as the Operations console, but it provides fewer tools to deal with the alert because it does not support the Tasks feature.

To view an alert

1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring.

2. In the Monitoring pane, expand Monitoring, and then click Active Alerts.

3. In the Active Alerts pane, click the alert to highlight it.

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 displays the Alert Details in the details pane at the bottom of the screen. Details include which monitor is involved and information about the alert and what can cause it.

The Actions pane on the right of the screen contains links to tools and scripts that can be used to diagnose and resolve the alert. Click Actions on the toolbar to display the Actions pane if the pane is not visible. The Actions pane includes links to the settings of the monitor, Operations Manager Health Explorer, controls for Maintenance Mode, tasks for the monitor, and additional resources and help.

Using Health Explorer

Use Health Explorer to find out what monitor is reacting and to review knowledge about the monitor and possible causes for actions related to it. Click the alert to highlight it. The Health Explorer link under Alert Actions becomes active.

By default, when the Health Explorer window opens, all monitors in a failed state are expanded. If a monitor contains other monitors, as in the case of a roll-up monitor, Health Explorer shows all monitors in a hierarchical layout, displaying monitoring data for all dependent services and applications. To view more information about any dependent monitor, you can right-click that monitor, and then click Monitor Properties to open another Health Explorer window.

For more information about Health Explorer, see Operations Manager 2007 Help.

Using Tasks

In the Actions pane on the right of the screen, the Operations console provides tasks to troubleshoot individual alerts.

Click an alert to highlight it to see tasks for that alert. Click a task to run the task.

Different alerts, which are raised by different monitors, offer different tasks for investigating and resolving the alert. For some examples of using tasks, see the Resolve a Heartbeat Alert section of this guide.

Closing Alerts

Monitors can be configured to automatically close alerts that have been resolved. You also have the option of manually closing an alert.

To view an alert

1. In the Operations console, click Monitoring.

2. In the Monitoring pane, expand Monitoring, and then click Active Alerts.

3. In the Active Alerts pane, right-click the alert, and then click Close Alert.

   Note

   Select multiple alerts by pressing and holding down the CTRL key when clicking alerts.

Using Monitor Properties

After you investigate the cause of an alert, you can improve the process of dealing with similar alerts.

You can record knowledge about the alert in the Company Knowledge tab. You can view and edit company knowledge by highlighting an alert, clicking View or edit the settings of the monitor, and then clicking the Company Knowledge tab.

You can also create tasks to diagnose and recover from alerts. Diagnostic and recovery tasks can run automatically when an alert is created. You can manage diagnostic and recovery tasks by highlighting an alert, clicking View or edit the settings of the monitor, and then clicking the Diagnostic and Recovery tab.

Overriding a Monitor

You can use overrides to refine the settings of a monitoring object in Operations Manager 2007. As you fine-tune your monitors, many useless alerts will be avoided.

To override a monitor

1. In the Operations console, click the Authoring button.

2. In the Authoring pane, expand Management Pack Objects and then click Monitors.

3. In the details pane, expand an object type completely, and then click a monitor.

4. On the Operations Manager toolbar, click Overrides, and then point to Override the Monitor. You can choose to override this monitor for objects of a specific type or for all objects within a group. After you choose which group of object type to override, the Override Properties dialog box opens, enabling you to view the default settings contained in this monitor. You can then choose whether to override each individual setting contained in the monitor.

   Note

   If the Overrides button is not available, make sure you have selected a monitor and not a container object in the Monitors pane.

5. Select each setting that you want to override. When you complete your changes, click OK.