Counter rules monitor performance counters on your Windows servers/workstations using the Goliath Intelligent Agent to alert on specified conditions in real-time.

Create a New Monitoring Rule

1. To create a new monitoring condition, navigate to the Management - Monitors page and click New.
2. For the Group dropdown, select a group in which to store the rule. This is for organizational purposes in the Monitors display.
3. In the Type dropdown, select Counter.
4. Name the Monitoring Rule via the Name field, as well as define the description and the severity.
5. In the Devices tab, select the devices to assign to the monitor.
   1. Please note, a machine can only be applied to one VMware ESX/ESXi Host monitoring rule type at a time.
6. The Options tab is where you will define condition(s) to be monitored.
   1. In the %CPU Used field, specify the percentage threshold for the Total % CPU Utilization to monitor and you will be alerted if the % CPU Utilization goes above this threshold.
   2. In the Memory Free field, specify the percentage threshold for the Physical Memory in units of either Percent (%) or Megabytes (MB), chosen via the radio buttons next to the field you would like to monitor and you will be alerted if the free space drops below this threshold.
   3. In the Network Interface KB/sec field, specify the transmitted and received bytes to alert on.
   4. In the Network Aggregate KB/sec field, specify the transmitted and received aggregate KBs to alert on.
   5. Add more detailed performance thresholds to the alert as needed based on the available options.
7. The Schedule tab of a monitoring rule allows users to define how frequently the rule will alert. This can be done by adjusting the following fields:

• Alert Every Time: Defines whether an alert is generated every time the conditions are on the previous tab are met.
  • When checked, an alert is generated every time the specified condition is met.
  • When unchecked, the alert is only generated if the alert conditions are met, and the Minimal Notification Interval, see below, is exceeded since the last alert for this type.
• Minimal Notification Interval: Defines the minimum amount of time that must elapse between events for the specified condition before another alert will be generated.
  • For example, if the interval is 15 minutes and the condition is being met every 3 mins, you will receive 1 alert every 15 minutes instead of being alerted at each occurrence.
    • However, each alert occurrence is considered unique based on the details. For example, an Event Log alert is considered the same based on being the same Event Type and ID, from the same server/workstation.
  • The Alert Every Time checkbox must be unchecked in order to use this option.
  • For ServerWatch IP Services, this also defines the minimum elapsed time since a service is first detected as down or failed before an alert is generated.
• Maximum Notification Interval: Defines the maximum number of times you want to be notified during a continuous failure situation.
  • The default value of '0' means infinite; no maximum is defined so you will continue to be notified according to your Alert Every Time and Minimal Notification Interval settings.
  • A non-zero value means that after you have been notified the number of times defined in the Maximum Alert Notifications, and according to your Alert Every Time and Minimal Notification Interval settings, you will not be notified again.
    • For example, if "5" is selected, the event will alert for the first 5 events and all additional events will be ignored.

• Notify On Restore: Defines whether a 'Restore' alert is generated if you have previously been alerted due to a failure.

  • For example, if CPU has been 90%, and then dropped below the alert threshold, the notify on restore email will inform you that the condition has returned to a normal state.
  • There is always a Notify on Restore for a ServerWatch type alerts.

   

Additional Configuration

For additional configuration options please see the following articles:

• Enabling Notifications:
  • Configure Email and Text Alert Notifications
  • Configure SNMP Alert Notifications
  • Configure Syslog Alert Notifications
• Configure Custom Remediation