6.3

A gap occurs in a situation where the value is <=50% in one alert denition and >=75% in a second alert
denition. The gap occurs because when the percentage of volumes with high use falls between 50 percent
and 75 percent, the rst problem cancels but the second does not generate an alert. This situation is
problematic because no alert denitions are active to cover the gap.
Actionable Recommendations
If you provide text instructions to your users that help them resolve a problem identied by an alert
denition, precisely describe how the engineer or administrator should x the problem to resolve the alert.
To support the instructions, add a link to a wiki, runbook, or other sources of information, and add actions
that you run from vRealize Operations Manageron the target systems.
Understanding Negative Symptoms for vRealize Operations Manager Alerts
Alert symptoms are conditions that indicate problems in your environment. When you dene an alert, you
include symptoms that generate the alert when they become true in your environment. Negative symptoms
are based on the absence of the symptom condition. If the symptom is not true, the symptom is triggered.
To use the absence of the symptom condition in an alert denition, you negate the symptom in the symptom
set.
All dened symptoms have a congured criticality. However, if you negate a symptom in an alert denition,
it does not have an associated criticality when the alert is generated.
All symptom denitions have a congured criticality. If the symptom is triggered because the condition is
true, the symptom criticality will be the same as the congured criticality. However, if you negate a
symptom in an alert denition and the negation is true, it does not have an associated criticality.
When negative symptoms are triggered and an alert is generated, the eect on the criticality of the alert
depends on how the alert denition is congured.
The following table provides examples of the eect negative symptoms have on generated alerts.
Table 3‑1. Negative Symptoms Effect on Generated Alert Criticality
Alert Definition
Criticality
Negative Symptom
Configured Criticality
Standard Symptom Configured
Criticality
Alert Criticality When
Triggered
Warning One Critical Symptom One Immediate Symptom Warning. The alert
criticality is based on the
dened alert criticality.
Symptom Based One Critical Symptom One Warning Symptom Warning. The negative
symptom has no
associated criticality and
the criticality of the
standard symptom
determines the criticality
of the generated alert.
Symptom Based One Critical Symptom No standard symptom included Info. Because an alert
must have a criticality and
the negative alert does not
have an associated
criticality, the generated
alert has a criticality of
Info, which is the lowest
possible criticality level.
vRealize Operations Manager Customization and Administration Guide
48 VMware, Inc.