Alarm exclusion using NAS pre-processing rules

Products

• DX Unified Infrastructure Management (Nimsoft / UIM)

Issue/Introduction

The NAS probe in DX Unified Infrastructure Management (UIM) may be used to suppresses specific alarms before they generate in the alarm console. This configuration is may be required when a server undergoes maintenance or when a probe generates undesirable alerts that cannot be disabled via local configuration. Examples include:

• Maintenance windows for backup servers where disks or filesystems are expected to be unavailable.
• Automated probe alarms that are unnecessary but cannot be disabled within the probe configuration.

Environment

• DX Unified Infrastructure Management (All Versions)
• nas probe (All Versions)

Resolution

If an alarm is unnecessary and cannot be disabled at the probe level, use a nas pre-processing rule to exclude the alarm so it is never created.  The example below shows one method to block "401 unauthorized" alarms from the url_response probe, using the regex format to identify the alarm.

1. Open the nas probe configuration.
2. Select the Pre-processing Rules tab.
3. Create a new rule and set the Filter Type to exclude.
   
4. Configure the Message String to identify the specific alarm. Use the regex format /.keyword./ to isolate strings (e.g., /.*401 unauthorized.*/).
5. Apply additional matching fields as needed to increase specificity.  ie: NMS Probe Name, NMS Robot Name, NMS Hub Name, etc
   Note:  These fields are case-sensitive.
6. Use the F2 key to test the message string against actual active alarms to verify the regex match.
   
7. Click OK and restart the nas probe to apply changes.