Managing Alarm Templates

Foglight uses alarm rules to define conditions that indicate problems in monitored systems. When these conditions are met, an alarm is triggered.

Alarm templates allow you to configure a set of alarm rules and apply these rules in bulk to targets in your environment. Using a customized template, you can modify the threshold values for triggering alarms, and enable or disable certain alarms for a set of targets.

Use the Alarm Templates dashboard to view the alarms and rules in the default factory template and customize those alarms as required for your environment.

For detailed, step-by-step configuration options, refer to the Foglight Alarm Template🔗 video.

This section covers the following key areas:

For better understanding of Alarm Templates, refer to the following concepts:

Alarms

Foglight uses rules to apply business logic to data collected from your environment. When pre-defined conditions are met, an alarm will be triggered. Using alarm templates, you can determine which alarms to apply to which targets, and configure threshold values as needed.

Domains

Foglight domains are components grouped together by a common technology. This can be a database type (such as DB2) or a general category (such as Infrastructure). Each domain has a default set of rules appropriate for the underlying technologies of that domain.

Understanding the Foglight Domain

The Foglight domain is a core component of the Foglight monitoring platform. It is designed to manage and trigger special alarms that are not associated with any specific agent type. These alarms typically relate to the overall health, performance, or internal operations of the Foglight system.

To view or configure alarms in this domain:

  1. In the left navigation pane, select Alarm Management > Alarm Templates.
  2. In the top menu, select Foglight. Unlike other domains that focus on specific technologies such as databases, virtual machines, or operating systems, the Foglight domain applies globally across the entire Foglight environment.

The following alarms are included in this domain:

  • Credential Alarm Generator - This alarm is triggered when there are issues with stored credentials used by Foglight agents or services. It alerts you when credentials are invalid, expired, or nearing expiration, allowing you to update them proactively and avoid disruptions in data collection.
  • Agent Health State - This alarm monitors the operational status of Foglight agents. It is triggered if an agent stops unexpectedly, fails to collect data for a defined period, or reports internal errors. This alarm helps ensure that agents are functioning correctly and that monitoring remains uninterrupted.

The Foglight domain behaves differently from other domains in the alarm template system. Most domains allow you to assign specific targets, such as individual servers or applications to customize alarm behavior. The Foglight domain does not support target assignment. Instead, it applies its configuration settings globally to all agents and monitored entities.

Although multiple alarm templates can include the Foglight domain, only one template can be designated as the default. The settings in this default template determine how Foglight domain alarms behave across the system. This approach ensures consistent alarm behavior, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.

Targets

Targets are infrastructure objects assigned to a template for monitoring. Targets can be assigned to only one template. Targets that are not assigned to a template are monitored by the default alarm rules in the factory template.

Default Templates

Foglight includes a factory template, which is used as the default template unless a different default is configured. You can select a default template for each domain, and it will be applied to objects in that domain without the need to add them as targets to the template.