5.8.5

Configuring Alert Notifications 7
vCenter Operations Manager generates an anomaly when a metric violates its threshold. If
vCenter Operations Manager determines that the current combination of anomalies indicates a real problem,
it generates an alert. An alert is a notification to inform you of an abnormal condition that might require
attention.
Alerts appear in the vCenter Operations Manager user interface on the Alerts Overview page, in the alert
watch list, and in the Alerts widget. If a vCenter Operations Manager administrator sets up the alert
notification feature, users can find out about alerts even when they are not using
vCenter Operations Manager.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“Configuring and Modifying Alert Handler Instances,” on page 79
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“Configuring Email Alert Notifications,” on page 83
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“Modifying Email Alert Notifications,” on page 93
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“Configuring Mulitilevel Alert Rules,” on page 97
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“Configuring Hint Text for Alerts,” on page 99
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“Configure Alerts for vCenter Server Events,” on page 103
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“Retrieve Keys from the vCenter Operations Manager Database,” on page 103
Configuring and Modifying Alert Handler Instances
An alert handler sends alert notifications. You can configure alert handler instances to send alert
notifications as email messages or SNMP traps, or to save alert notifications in a log file. If you use EMC
Smarts, you can configure an alert handler instance to send notifications to the SAMS Global Console. You
can create an unlimited number of alert handler instances.
An alert handler instance sends alert notifications for all new, updated, and canceled alerts. If an attempt to
send an alert notification fails, the handler continually retries the notification. After five minutes, if all alert
notification attempts fail, the handler generates an administrative system alert and continues to retry the
notification until it succeeds.
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Add or Edit an Email Alert Handler Instance on page 80
To send alert notifications to users in email messages, you must create an alert handler that sends alert
notifications to an email filter.
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Add or Edit an SNMP Trap Alert Handler Instance on page 81
An SNMP trap alert handler instance sends all alerts, of all types, as SNMP traps to a destination host
that you specify. Any filtering, by alert type or any other critieria, must be done on the destination
host.
VMware, Inc.
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