Introducing Conditions, Actions, and Settings

The Onboarding Wizard

During the onboarding setup wizard, several global settings are configured for your installation. If you enter your SMTP settings and add a user, default conditions and actions are added to help you get started.

Alerting and Response System Concepts

Concept	Definition
Conditions	Conditions are the scenarios that are being evaluated. For example, is the % Processor Time on the monitored target greater than 90%?
Actions	Actions are what happen in response to a condition being met. For example, the % Processor Time was greater than 90%, so an email is sent to those configured on the email action. There are many actions available including executing SQL or PowerShell in response to a condition. See the full list of possibilities in the Actions article.
Settings	Defines criteria for when a condition is met. Certain settings known as source settings are used to define what events are collected by SQL Sentry.

Settings

There are a couple ways to see how settings and conditions or actions are configured for your SQL Sentry installation.

Select Reports to run the active settings list and configured actions list reports.
Select Reports > General, or view configured actions and settings directly in the Conditions pane (or Settings pane).

Note: The Conditions pane displays on the right side of the SQL Sentry client by default. If you do not see the Conditions and Settings pane, select View > Conditions to restore it.

Hierarchy

There are several levels within the SQL Sentry hierarchy where you can configure applicable actions and settings: Shared Groups Sites > Target Groups > Target > Instance > Object.

SQL Sentry Hierarchy diagram example

Refining actions in the hierarchy

To configure global actions or settings, confirm that the Shared Groups node is selected in the Navigator pane. The Shared Groups node is the global or root node of your SQL Sentry installation.

Important: The SQL Sentry alerting and response system uses the principle of inheritance, so any action or setting you configure at the Shared Groups node is passed down to all applicable objects beneath it. For example, if you configure a Send Email action for the SQL Server Agent Job: Failure condition (Shared Groups), you'll receive an email anytime a SQL Server Agent Job fails across your entire monitored enterprise.

Refine actions or settings at each level, as needed. For example, if you have a development server in your environment that you don't want to be alerted about, disable the Send Email action at the instance level. This configuration only applies to that instance, and it doesn't affect any other server in your environment. This level of control gives you the ability to determine what happens in response to events occurring on your monitored targets.