Alarms cannot be disabled on a Folder in the vSphere Client inventory.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• You are trying to disable an alarm for all virtual machines in a VM folder in vSphere Client
• However, the "DISABLE" button under Configure > Alarm Definitions is inactive like in the screenshot below:

Resolution

This behavior is by design. You cannot disable specific alarms on a folder level. 

To disable the specific alarm for the virtual machines, you can either disable it for each single VM on its own, or alternatively, you can use the context menu for the folder to disable alarm actions in general for the folder and all objects it contains.

To do this, right-click the folder, then select Alarms > Disable Alarm Action:

This will not disable the alarms themselves, but it will prevent vCenter Server from taking any actions that are configured in the alarm configuration.