5.6

7 To make your changes take effect, restart the email filter plug-in.
a In vCenter Operations Manager, select Admin > Configure Outbound Alert.
b Select the email filter plug-in instance and click the Stop icon.
c Select the email filter plug-in instance and click the Start icon.
Configuring Mulitilevel Alert Rules
You can configure complex alert rules that evaluate multiple conditions on related resources. For example,
you can write a multilevel alert rule that generates an alert if the workload on a virtual machine exceeds A for
B cycles, health is below C, and the host's CPU use is above they dynamic threshold.
Because the hard threshold conditions in multilevel alert rules do not generate additional alerts, the multilevel
alert feature reduces the number of alerts and lets you focus only on important alerts.
Multilevel alert rules do not have a specific alert type in the vCenter Operations Manager user interface. The
user interface shows a multilevel alert as KPI HT alerts, but the alert description identifies the alert as Multi
Level Rule. Rule details and triggers appear in the Reason pane on the Alert Details page. Multilevel alerts are
also visible as KP HT Breach in the mashup chart for the alert and the INFO field shows the rule details.
Multilevel Alert Rules XML File Format
The multi-level-alert-rules.xml file contains elements and attributes that define multilevel alert rules.
The following sample multi-level-alert-rules.xml file contains a multilevel alert rule that includes nested
conditions and dynamic threholds.
<rules>
<rule alert="VirtualMachine" attributeKey="System Attributes|health" criticality="critical">
<cond operator="and">
<cond type="ht" operator="&lt;=" cancelCycles="5" waitCycles="3">
<token resourceKind="VirtualMachine" attributeKey="System Attributes|health" />
<value>100</value>
</cond>
<cond operator="and">
<cond type="ht" operator="&gt;" cancelCycles="5" waitCycles="3">
<token resourceKind="HostSystem" attributeKey="summary|workload" />
<value>0</value>
</cond>
<cond type="dt" operator="below">
<token resourceKind="VirtualMachine" attributeKey="cpu|usage_average" />
</cond>
</cond>
</cond>
</rule>
</rules>
<rule> Element
The <rule> element defines a multilevel alert rule. The <rule> element contains several attributes.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager Administration Guide
90 VMware, Inc.