Thresholds in the SolarWinds Platform

Many SolarWinds Platform Web Console resources can display warning and critical states when a monitored value on a device exceeds a threshold. SolarWinds Platform products come with predefined static thresholds for monitored statistics, but you can override these and customize them for each object.

You can use thresholds to define trigger conditions for alerts.

SolarWinds Platform products provide two threshold levels: critical and warning. A value that crosses a warning threshold appears yellow, and a critical threshold appears red.

If you want to change the predefined value for a threshold, use a static threshold or a dynamic baseline threshold.

• A Static threshold is a constant value that you set for a threshold. For example, the warning threshold for response time might be 500 ms, and the critical value might be 1000 ms. You should be familiar with the performance of that object to know what a reasonable value for a static threshold is.
• A Dynamic baseline threshold uses deviations. Data for a statistic are collected for a week, and then used to calculate the mean and standard deviation. The warning and critical threshold values are defined as 2 and 3 standard deviations above the mean, respectively. For example, if the mean value for packet loss for a specific node is 0%, the warning threshold for packet loss would be 3% (+2 standard deviations) and the critical threshold would be 4% (+3 standard deviations).

The way baselines are calculated depends on installed SolarWinds Platform products. In SAM, baselines are calculated once, after data has been collected for a week. You can recalculate baselines on demand. Other SolarWinds Platform products use dynamic moving baselines which are constantly adjusting.