Alarm Log

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The Alarm Log displays every performance violation found in your currently monitored databases. Unlike some products that only show you alarms for a particular database, Performance Analyst gives you the option to see all alarms for each database you are monitoring in one central log so you can see every problem in a single place. And, of course, you have the ability to determine alarm levels by setting the Threshold Properties.

To open an Alarm Log

• Open the Performance Analyst and then scroll down to Alarms on the drop-down menu.
• Move your mouse over the Performance Analyst toolbar and click the exclamation point (you’ll see Alarms appear in a tool tip under the hand icon).

Organizing the Alarm Log

You can arrange the data in the Alarm Log in several ways:

Note: Changes you make to one Alarm Log are not enacted globally. This allows you to customize each log based on your needs database by database if you want.

• Move columns left or right to place them in an order that makes the most sense to you. Do this by dragging-and-dropping a column heading to re-place it in the target location.
• Sort column rows up and down or sideways. Right-click a column heading and select:

• Sort Ascending: For example, you can see the alarms as they move from Critical to Cleared.
• Sort Descending: For example, you can see the alarms as they move from Cleared to Critical.
• Sort Multiple Columns: Lets you group multiple columns in ascending or descending order. You cannot mix and match, however. That is, you cannot sort some columns to present data in ascending order and others to present data in descending order.
• Sort Clear: Lets you clear the relationships you created if you sorted multiple columns.

The table below describes the columns of the Alarm Log:

Column	Description
Alarm Type	Displays alarm types: Cleared, Critical, Fair and Poor.
Datasource	Datasource where the alarm was identified.
DBMS Type	Datasource DBMS type.
Date/Time	Date/time of when the alarm was observed.
Category	Displays metric category: memory, I/O, space, objects, or users.
Statistic	Metric name.
Value	Value of the statistic that caused the violation.
Explanation	Displays a text explanation of the problem. These text explanations can be very generic in nature and just plug in certain threshold metrics, etc.

Alarm Log Activities

From within the Alarms Window, right-clicking any row gives you more opportunities to get the most out of what you see. The menu selections are:

• Applicable Page - Takes you to the row-specific Category page where you can see the problem metric and what’s happening with the surrounding statistics. For example, if you click a critical alarm in the Databases category, you connect immediately to the Databases home page.
• Options - Takes you to the Alarm Log Options dialog where you adjust some general alarm log properties and alarm filters.
• Clear List - When you select this, the alarm log is cleared of all entries.
• Help - Opens the Help discussion for the target element.
• Refresh - Refreshes the display to show you any updates.
• Copy - Places the data in the alarm log at that point in time on the Windows clipboard. From there you can paste it into a Word or Excel document.
• Save As - Lets you name and save the Alarm Log to the location of your choice as a Microsoft Excel worksheet. You can then manipulate the worksheet as you would any other.
• Print - Enables you to print the alarm log.

Alarm Log Options Dialog Box

The Alarm Log Options dialog is command central for how and where you display and manipulate previously configured alarms. Alarms themselves are configured in the Threshold Properties, but this is where you arrange the particulars of the Alarm Log your databases. Keep in mind that changes you make to this dialog box are reflected globally across all platforms.

The table below describes the columns of the Alarm Log Options dialog:

Option	Description
General Properties
Do not log alarms to the alarm log	When you select this option, alarms will not be saved to an alarm log. Depending on the filters you select, you will still see alarms in the alarm window.
Log alarms to the alarm log	This option lets you save alarms to an alarm log. You can type or browse to choose a directory where you want to save the log and you can also set the maximum alarm log size in KB.
Filters
Show alarms for only current datasource	When you select this option, you see only alarms for the current datasource in the alarm window. So, if you have multiple datasources open and you go from one to another, the alarm window will display only the alarms for the database you are observing at that very moment.
Show alarms for all currently modified datasources	This option lets you see what alarms are occurring across all databases you are connected to at the moment.
Show only active alarms	If you select this option, you’ll see only those alarms that are active at that moment in time. These are alarms that you decided to include as part of a threshold template.
Show only alarms where the Explanation contains the following text	Lets you fine-tune the alarms you see depending on what you are most interested in seeing. For example, if you are particularly interested in seeing Bottleneck alarms, type Bottlenecks. NOTE: The text search for this function is case-sensitive.
Show only alarms that are of the following severity	Select to display alarms that are critical, poor, fair, or cleared.