Documentation forSQL Sentry

SQL Sentry Conditions

Overview

Conditions describe the various states of an Event Object or associated Performance Counter. Configure actions to take place when a condition is met. All actions work on the principle of inheritance, meaning that configuring an action in response to a condition being met at the global level (Shared Groups) automatically passes it down to all applicable objects beneath it. This allows the user to define global actions for the most common issues across their environment once, and have those passed down to every monitored server automatically. Further refine actions at each level, as needed. 

For a general overview of the alerting and response system, see the Alerting and Response System topic. For a visual representation of how inheritance works within SQL Sentry, see the Alerting and Response System Hierarchy Diagram. 

Types of Conditions

SQL Sentry Condition pane Condition dropdown

Conditions fall into the following four categories:

  • General

  • Audit

  • Failsafe

  • Advisory

Condition Description
General Conditions

General Conditions are applicable to monitored Event Objects or associated Performance Counters. These are the most common conditions that you'll configure actions for in your environment. Not all General Conditions apply to all Event Object types. Condition settings are available for most General Conditions. Condition settings define additional rules that a condition must meet for the condition to be fully satisfied.

Example General Conditions include SQL Agent job failure, completed Event Chains, and Runtime Threshold conditions. For a complete list of General Conditions, see the General Conditions topic.

Configure actions in response to General Conditions being met at the global level (Shared Groups), site level, target level, instance level, and individual object level.
Failsafe Conditions

Failsafe Conditions fall into the following two categories: 

  • Instance Status
  • Error
Instance StatusFailsafe Conditions are met when an instance goes offline or online. ErrorFailsafe Conditions are met when there's an error detected in a SQL Sentry monitoring service or related monitoring process.

Failsafe Conditions falling under the instance status category include SQL Server Agent offline and Analysis Server offline. Example Failsafe Conditions of the error category include monitoring service errors and reporting services monitor errors. For a complete list of all Failsafe Conditions, see the Failsafe Conditions topic.

Configure actions in response to Instance StatusConditions being met at the global level (Shared Groups), site level, target level, or individual instance level. Configure actions in response to ErrorConditions being met at the global level (Shared Groups) or site level.
Audit Conditions

Audit Conditions are applicable to various activities carried out inside and outside of the SQL Sentry client. Audit Conditions provide a way to notify you when various settings are changed, or monitored objects are modified from within the SQL Sentry client.

Example Audit Conditions include changed settings, actions, or Response Rulesets. For a complete list of all Audit Conditions, see the Audit Conditions topic.

Configure actions in response to Audit Conditions being met at the global level (Shared Groups), site level, target level, or individual instance level.
Advisory Conditions Advisory Conditions allow for the creation of conditions that are customized to your environment as you see fit. For a complete list of all Advisory Conditions, see the Advisory Conditions Pack topic. 

Related Conditions topics