Topics | How To | Troubleshoot
Available Alerts and Entity Association
Alerts can inform you of conditions occurring within the CommNet domain that you may have otherwise not been aware of. These conditions can range from minor occurrences that do not require intervention to severe occurrences that need immediate intervention. Alerts are sent to a pre-determined set of users, and/or escalated to a different set of users (in the case of a severe condition).
Alerts are based on conditions which have occurred within the entity associated with the alert. This entity can be a CommNet Server, CommCell, client, agent, MediaAgent, or library. These entities, by default, are monitored at 20-minute intervals. If they meet the defined alert conditions, the alert (if configured) will be generated at this time.
You will be notified of the alert condition:
An SNMP Trap is used for alert notifications sent by the CommNet Server via the SNMP protocol to another computer that receives the SNMP trap using a trap receiver software. An SNMP Trap is sent just once each time the CommNet Server generates an alert. SNMP traps are sent in the Management Information Protocol (MIB) format.
A CommNet Server computer can send alerts via SNMP traps to multiple computers. These computers can receive these alerts even if they do not have the software installed. These alerts are sent only if the CommNet Server SNMP Enabler has been installed on the CommNet Server and alerts have been configured to be sent via SNMP traps.
In order for an alert to be sent as an SNMP trap:
All SNMP traps are sent in the Management Information Base (MIB) format. When the CommNet Server SNMP Enabler is installed, the MIB file is automatically installed on the CommNet Server computer and is located at \<Software Installation Directory>\Mib\Simpana.mib.
Part 1:
Agent Address: 172.19.61.216
OID Prefix: 1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2
Time Stamp: 26126615
Generic: 6
Specific: 5013
Part 2:
OID: 1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.1.0
The following table describes Part 1 of the example of the SNMP trap message:
| Field | MIB Definition |
| Agent Address 172.19.61.216 | Address of the computer generating the trap |
| OID Prefix: 1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2 | The first part of the OID Prefix indicates the vendor’s identification number of the network management system contained in the entity. In this example, this number is the Enterprise identification number. The last part of the OID Prefix, 2.2, indicates products and the software, respectively. |
| Time Stamp: 26126615 | The time in hundredths of a second since the network management portion of the system was last re-initialized. |
| Generic: 6 | The generic trap type. The number 6 means it is enterprise specific. |
| Specific: 5013 | The specific trap type. Each alert type will be sent using a unique identification number. The alert type (e.g., CommCells Unreachable, CommNet Database Disk Allocation, etc.) can be identified in the content of the trap message. |
The example that follows describes the OID field as identified as Part 2 of the SNMP trap message:
1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.1.0
The third to last number, number 4, represents the software product.
The second to last number of the OID identifies the object type. The following table lists the object types and their corresponding MIB definitions:
| Object Type | MIB Definition |
| 1 | Display name |
| 2 | Date and time of the alert detection |
| 3 | Creator of the alert |
| 4 | Alert type |
| 5 | Alert status |
| 6 | Alert actual threshold |
The following table provides a list of Trap Messages generated by the SNMP Enabler.
| Alert Number | OID | Notes (Feature generating the Alert) |
| 5001 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5001 | Drives Offline |
| 5002 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5002 | Libraries Offline |
| 5003 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5003 | MediaAgents Offline |
| 5004 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5004 | Job Failures over time |
| 5005 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5005 | Clients not protected over time |
| 5006 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5006 | Subclients not protected over time |
| 5008 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5008 | CommNet database space check |
| 5009 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5009 | CommCells Unreachable |
| 5010 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5010 | Consecutive Job Failures |
| 5011 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5011 | Cells Not Synchronized |
| 5012 | .1.3.6.1.4.1.14604.2.2.4.0.5012 | CommNet database backup check |
The following table includes the available alerts, their associated entities and criteria description. The alerts available are grouped into three categories:
| Alert Type | Entity | Criteria | Description |
| CommCells Unreachable | CommNet Server, CommCell | Criteria can only be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more CommCells are unreachable. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number or percentage of selected CommCells are not reachable. | ||
| CommNet Database Disk Allocation | CommNet Server | Criteria can only be value based. | Value of n can only be a whole number. |
| Detect when n MB of disk is used by the CommNet database. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified amount of disk space is being used by the CommNet database. | ||
| CommNet Database Backup Failure | CommNet Server | Criteria can only be value based. | Value of n can only be a whole number. |
| Detect when n days since last successful CommNet database backup. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of days have passed since the last successful CommNet database backup. | ||
| Cell Synchronization Failure Over Time | CommNet Server, CommCell | Criteria can only be value based. | Value of n can only be a whole number. |
| Detect when n or more cells have synchronization failure during the last n days. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of cells has had a synchronization failure during the last specified number of days. |
| Alert Type | Entity | Criteria | Description |
| Clients Not Protected Over Time | CommNet Server, CommCell, Client | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more clients have not been protected during the last n days. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of clients' data has not been backed up during the last specified number of days. | ||
| Include Entities Without Schedules | Include those entities that have no scheduled jobs. | ||
| Consecutive Job Failures |
Client Based Entity: CommNet Server, CommCell,
Client
Storage Policy Based Entity: CommNet Server, CommCell, Storage Policies |
Criteria can only be value based. | Value of n can only be a whole number. |
| Detect when n or more jobs have failed consecutively during the last n days. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of jobs have failed consecutively during the last specified number of days. | ||
| Job Failures Over Time | CommNet Server, CommCell, Client, Cell-Client Group | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more jobs have failed during the last n hours. | The CommNet Server software detects that the number of specified jobs have failed during the last specified number of hours. | ||
| Subclients Not Protected Over Time | CommNet Server, CommCell, Client, Cell-Client Group | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more subclients have not been protected during the last n days. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of subclients' data has not been backed up during the last specified number of days. | ||
| Include Entities Without Schedules | Include those entities that have no scheduled jobs. | ||
| Exclude Command Line Subclients | Exclude those subclients created via command line. |
| Alert Type | Entity | Criteria | Description |
| Drives Offline* | CommNet Server, CommCell, Library | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more drives are offline. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of drives are offline. | ||
| Libraries Offline | CommNet Server, CommCell, Library | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more libraries are offline. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of libraries are offline. | ||
| MediaAgents Offline | CommNet Server, CommCell, MediaAgent | Criteria can be percentage or value based. | Value of n can be a whole number or a percentage. |
| Detect when n or more MediaAgents are offline. | The CommNet Server software detects that the specified number of MediaAgents are offline. |
*The Drives Offline alert only supports the physical drive level.
For the Alerts node, tasks are available from the All Alerts Tasks or My Alerts Tasks section of the CommNet Browser. These tasks allow you to display information regarding important aspects of the alerts that are configured within the CommNet domain.
The following is a list of alert tasks:
The user account used to access the CommNet Browser when you created the alert is the owner of the alert. Only the owner, or a user who is associated with all of the objects associated with the alert, can modify it. Therefore, if the user account is deleted, ownership of the alert should be transferred to another user to enable it to be modified, if necessary. You can transfer ownership of an alert upon deletion of the owner's user account. For more information, see Delete a User.