5.6

Table 7-1. <rule> Element Attributes
Attribute Description
alert Specifies the resource kind on which the alert is defined. vCenter Operations Manager checks all
resources of the specified resource kind if the resource or its parents satisfy the rule. For example,
the rule VirtualMachine cpu_usage > 50 AND HostSystem cpu_usage 50 defines an alert on
VirtualMachine.
attributeKey The attribute key of an attribute. You can obtain attribute keys from the
vCenter Operations Manager database. See “Retrieve Keys from the vCenter Operations Manager
Database,” on page 91.
criticality Criticality level of the alert. Valid values are critical, immediate, info, none, and warning.
<cond> Element
The <rule> element can contain one or more <cond> elements. Each <cond> element defines a condition. You
can nest <cond> elements.
The <cond> element contains several attributes.
Table 7-2. <cond> Element Attributes
Attribute Description
operator Arithmetic operator. Valid values are and and or. You can nest operators.
type Threshold type. Valid values are ht for hard threshold and dt for dynamic threshold.
Operators for ht are >, >=, <=, =, and !=. You must escape operators, for example, < is &lt.
Operators for dt are above, below, and abnormal.
Add a Multilevel Alert Rule
To add a multilevel alert rule, you define a rule in the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file.
Leaving the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file empty disables the multilevel alert rule feature.
Prerequisites
Become familiar with the syntax of the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file. See “Multilevel Alert Rules XML
File Format,” on page 90.
Procedure
1 Open the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file in the
vcenter-ops \user\conf\analytics directory.
In a vApp installation, the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file is in the Analytics virtual machine.
2 Add the rule to the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file.
3 Save your changes and close the multi-level-alert-rules.xml file.
4 Restart the Analytics service to make your changes take effect.
Retrieve Keys from the vCenter Operations Manager Database
You can obtain keys and identifiers for data fields by accessing the vCenter Operations Manager database and
running SQL queries.
NOTE If you are using version 1.0.1 or later, you can also use the HTTP Post Adapter interface to retrieve keys
and identifiers for data fields.
Chapter 7 Configuring Alert Notifications
VMware, Inc. 91