Time differentiated configuration sets - a.k.a. Light maintenance mode

[Martin Stevnhoved]

Hi.

We have the idea, that it would be great if you could define two separate configurations sets for a server. The second set could be a transparent version of the real configuration set, but with possibility to disable every notification fine grained. Then it should be possible to set up a week schedule for when to use each configuration set, like "service hours" and "off-service hours".

Perhaps also an option to "postpone notifications durring off-service hours" to first let them be send, when entering service hours again.

Today most of our servers is not services 24/7, and we get a lot of performance notifications durring night, related to backup (like, cpu, memory and disk i/o).
We have thought about setting servers in maintenance mode for nights and weekends, but we are afraid of missing backup errors (that we monitors through eventlog monitoring).

Do you have any thoughts about this. How is everyone else handling this?

Best Regards,
Martin Stevnhoved

[Chris]

Hi Martin,

Thank you for your feedback. What we usually do is put the phone on Priority notifications only (Operating System feature) to only be notified on phone calls outside office hours, this way you don't get disturbed by the notifications when you don't want to. Also you could turn off PUSH notifications from the mobile app at night as well.

Chris

[Martin Stevnhoved]

It sounds pretty manually to turn of notifications on phone every night, and clearing notifications in the morning .... every day.

It is like we do now.

 

Br, Martin.

[Chris]

HI Martin,

We'll see if we can automate this.

Chris

[Martin Stevnhoved]

You could also add a plus-list under the scheduled maintenance window, where we could select what notification what should be allowed under maintenance mode.
I think that might be the most simple way to do it.

Eg.

- Event log filter: "<userdefined>"
- Service state: "<userdefined>"
- Free disk space
- SNMP: "<userdefined>"

Br, Martin

 

[Martin Stevnhoved]

Hi.

When I earlier were using the "BMC Patrol" monitoring software, we found good use of this blackout module:
http://www.sentrysoftware.net/Products/Blackout_Overview.asp

You could get some realy good ideas for improving your blackout/mantenance function in Pulseway, by look at the features and screenshots.

Quote

Key Features

• Temporarily blackout a whole KM or a single object
• Plan periodic blackouts to handle backup operations: daily, weekly or monthly
• Plan "one shot" blackouts to handle maintenance operations
• Trigger a blackout upon the start/stop of a process, service, or file presence
• Near real-time precision!
• Completely disable monitoring or only disable alert thresholds
• Control blackouts from an external scheduler or from your backup scripts

Key Benefits

• Avoid false alerts triggered by maintenance operations (backups, upgrades, etc.)
• Help your operators stop wasting their time sorting out real problems from false alerts
• Improve the efficiency of your monitoring solution and have more time to fix real problems
• Maximize the availability of your IT infrastructure by improving the accuracy of your PATROL-based monitoring solution

Best Regards,
Martin Stevnhoved