Creating, Editing, and Deleting IT Services

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To define an IT Service policy in SL1, you must perform the following tasks:

  1. Define a service name and basic settings. For example, we could define an IT Service policy that monitors Email service. We could call this IT Service "Email". The basic settings for an IT Service include how often SL1 will evaluate the state, availability, and risk of the IT Service and the data retention settings for the metrics associated with the IT Service.

  1. Define a list of devices (the model) for the IT Service that includes all the devices associated with the IT Service. For example, if you want to monitor Email service, you could create a device group that includes Exchange servers, DNS servers, and devices that run Email round-trip policies. You can manually assign devices to the IT Service, or you can use membership rules, like you would for a dynamic device group.
  2. Optionally, define device subsets. You can manually assign devices to a subset, or you can use membership rules, like you would for a dynamic device group. For example, you could define two subsets: Exchange Servers, defined by device class, and DNS servers, defined by the ports that are open on each device.
  3. Define metrics. A metric is based on your business processes and examines all devices or one or more subsets to evaluate the state of the IT Service. For each IT Service, SL1 provides a default metric called Average Device Availability , based on the availability of all devices in the IT Service. You can define additional metrics, based on any performance data collected by SL1, including availability, latency, CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, interface utilization, data collected by a Dynamic Application, and data about network interfaces, TCP/IP ports, system processes, Windows services, Email round-trip time, web content, SOAP/XML transactions, and DNS availability. You can specify that SL1 should evaluate the metric against all devices in the IT Service or against one or more subsets in the IT Service.
  4. Define Key Metrics. Key Metrics are the standard method for describing the status of an IT Service. Key metrics allow you to quickly gauge the status of multiple IT Services, even if those IT Services require very different metrics that aggregate very different performance data.The Key Metrics are Health, Availability, and Risk. When you define a Key Metric, you are specifying how the value for a metric you created in step 4 translates to one of the standard Key Metric values. By default, all three Key Metrics are based on the default Average Device Availability metric.
  5. Define alerts and associated events. Each alert and its associated event is triggered by a metric. Although not all metrics must trigger an alert, all alerts and events for an IT Service are triggered by a metric.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

  • To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
  • To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

Prerequisites

To create an IT Service policy, you should first determine:

  • the devices that affect the service.
  • the conditions that you want to monitor. These will be based upon your business processes. For example, if you provide Email service, then a failure of your primary SMTP server and backup SMTP server would constitute a critical state.

Basic Mode and Advanced Mode

When you define the basic properties for an IT Service policy, you can specify Configuration Mode. Choices are:

  • Basic Interface. The Basic Interface allows you to quickly set up an IT Service policy.
  • Advanced Interface. The Advanced Interface displays additional tabs for more granular control when defining metrics, alerts, and device groups.

If you are unsure, you can select Basic Interface and use the Advanced button to change to Advanced Interface if necessary.You can use the Advanced button from any sub-tab in the IT Service Editor page to toggle between Basic Interface and Advanced Interface.

Sub-tabs

To create or edit an IT Service policy, you must access the IT Service Editor page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager > Create).

The IT Service Editor page includes the following sub-tabs, under the page title:

The editing mode (either Basic Interface or Advanced Interface) affects the sub-tabs that appear.

  • Properties. This sub-tab appears in both the Basic Interface mode and the Advanced Interface mode. This sub-tab allows you to define the basic parameters (name, access permissions, collection frequency, data retention) for an IT Service policy. For details, see the section on Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy.
  • Model. This sub-tab appears in both the Basic Interface mode and the Advanced Interface mode. This tab allows you to define the list of devices (device group) to include in an IT Service policy and also allows you to define Device Subsets (smaller groups of devices within the device group), and Dependencies (relationship between one or more IT Service policies). For details, see the section on Defining Device Groups, Subsets, and Dependencies.
  • Collection. This sub-tab appears only in the Advanced Interface mode. This sub-tab allows you to fine-tune the collection and aggregation for each metric. For details, see the section on Editing Collection and Aggregation for a Metric in Advanced Mode.

  • Metrics. This sub-tab appears in both the Basic Interface mode and the Advanced Interface mode. This sub-tab allows you to define the performance parameters you want to monitor for a specific IT Service and also define alerts for that parameter. For example, you might want to monitor the availability of the DNS service on each DNS server and send an alert if the DNS service is not available. For details, see the section on Defining Metrics.
  • Alerting. This sub-tab appears only in the Advanced Interface mode. This sub-tab allows you to add details to an existing alert. For details, see the section on Editing Alerts and Events in Advanced Mode.
  • Schedule. This sub-tab appears in both the Basic Interface mode and the Advanced Interface mode. This sub-tab allows you to put the IT Service policy into "maintenance mode". SL1 will continue to collect information from the devices in the IT Service but will not collect and aggregate information specific to the IT Service policy. During maintenance mode, SL1 will not evaluate or generate events about the IT Service policy. For details, see the section on Scheduling Downtime for One or More Devices in an IT Service.

The following additional fields appear when you select Advanced Interface:

  • In the Model sub-tab, the following additional panes appear in Advanced Interface mode:
  • Service Dependencies. A dependency is another IT Service policy.
  • Device Subsets. A sub-group of devices, selected from the list of all devices in the IT Service policy. You can manually assign devices to a subset, or you can use membership rules, like you would for a dynamic device group. For example, you could define a list of Exchange Servers, defined by device class, and then you could define a subset of unhealthy Exchange Servers, based on device state.

  • In the Metrics sub-tab, when you edit an existing metric (select the wrench icon ), the Service Metric Editor modal page appears.
  • In Advanced mode, the Service Metric Editor modal allows you to define a formula for the metric, using aggregation objects and arithmetic operators (for example, devices running DNS service / devices available). In Advanced mode, you can define a metric using a page like the one for alert objects or presentation objects.
  • In Advanced mode, you must separately edit the collection object (defines data to collect and devices to collect from), the aggregation object (defines how frequently to "crunch" collected data and what to calculate from crunched data) , and the alert. You cannot edit the metric, its objects, and its alerts from a single page, like you can in Basic mode. To edit the collection object and the aggregation object, select the Collection sub-tab. To edit the alert, select the Alerting sub-tab

Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy

To define the basic properties of an IT Service policy:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).
  2. Select the Create button.
  1. Notice that by default the Administration tab is selected and the Properties sub-tab is selected. The IT Service Editor page is displayed.
  2. To create a new IT Service policy, supply values in the following fields:
  • IT Service Name. Name of the IT Service policy.
  • IT Service Owner. Automatically populated with your username.
  • Change Owner. The Change Owner button allows you to change the owner of an IT Service. Selecting the Change Owner button opens the Select IT Service Owner modal where you can choose a new owner by selecting the blocks icon (). The owner of an IT Service policy and the Sharing Permissions setting defines the users that can view and use the IT Service policy.

  • The Basic Interface allows you to quickly setup an IT Service policy.
  • The Advanced Interface displays additional tabs for more granular control when defining metrics, alerts, and device groups.
  • If you are unsure, you can select Basic Interface and use the Advanced button to change to Advanced Interface if necessary. By default, each tab in the IT Service Editor page will use the configuring mode you select in this field. However, you can change the configuration mode for each individual tab.

  • Sharing Permissions. Specifies whether other users can view and use the IT Service policy, in both the IT Service Manager page, IT Service Editor page, and in the pages in SL1 where the IT Service is visible. Choices are:
  • Shared with users in your organization. The IT Service policy can be viewed and used by other users who belong to the same organization as the owner.
  • Private (visible only to you). The IT Service policy can be viewed only by the owner and Administrator users.
  • Permission Keys. If you selected Shared with users in your organization in the Sharing Permissions field, you can specify the required Permission Keys that an user must have to view the IT Service policy.
  • Operational Status. Specifies whether aggregation is enabled or disabled.
  • Aggregation Frequency. Frequency at which SL1 will collect data from all devices in the IT Service and aggregate the data for each metric into a single value.
  • Raw Data Retention. Specifies how long SL1 should store the raw data for the IT Service policy. You can accept the default, system-wide setting from the Data Retention Settings page (System > Settings > Data Retention) or you can specify a custom value that applies only to this IT Service policy. The custom value will override the system-wide value.
  • Hourly Rollup Retention. Specifies how long SL1 should store the "hourly" normalized data for the IT Service policy. You can accept the default, system-wide setting from the Data Retention Settings page (System > Settings > Data Retention) or you can specify a custom value that applies only to this IT Service policy. The custom value will override the system-wide value.
  • Daily Rollup Retention. Specifies how long SL1 should store the "daily" normalized data for the IT Service policy. You can accept the default, system-wide setting from the Data Retention Settings page (System > Settings > Data Retention) or you can specify a custom value that applies only to this IT Service policy. The custom value will override the system-wide value.
  • Description. Description of the IT Service policy.
  1. Select the Save button to save the properties for the new IT Service policy.

Creating a New IT Service Based on an Existing IT Service

To define a new IT Service based on an existing IT Service, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).
  2. In the IT Service Manager page, find the IT Service you want to use as a template to create a new IT Service. Select its wrench icon ().
  3. In the IT Service Editor page, supply a new value in the IT Service Name field.

If you do not enter a new value in the IT Service Name field, SL1 will save the new IT Service under the same name as the existing IT Service. In some cases, this could make management of IT Services difficult. Best practice is to supply a new name for the new IT Service.

  1. Edit one or more fields, if desired.
  2. Select the Save As button.
  3. The new IT Service will appear in the IT Service Manager page.

Defining the List of Devices for an IT Service

After Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy, you must next determine the devices to include in your IT Service policy. You do this in the Model sub-tab. When you define the list of devices to include in your IT Service policy, that list of devices appears as a device group throughout SL1.

You must align at least one device or device group to your IT Service policy. Failure to do so could result in false negative health reports.

For example, if you want to monitor Email service, you could create a list of devices that includes Exchange servers, DNS servers, and devices that run Email round-trip policies.

You can manually assign devices and device groups to the IT Service device group, or you can use membership rules, like you would for a dynamic device group.

You can define optional device subsets. A device subset is a sub-group of devices from the list of all devices in the IT Service policy. You define device subsets in the Model sub-tab. A Device subset is helpful if you want to examine only some devices for a particular metric, for example, all database servers in a group of servers.

You can manually assign devices to a subset, or you can use membership rules, like you would for a dynamic device group. For example, you could define a list of Exchange Servers, defined by device class, and also define a device subset of unhealthy Exchange servers, based on device state.

Defining the List of Devices

There are three ways to add one or more devices to the list of devices for the IT Service policy:

  • Add a device group to the list of devices for the IT Service policy.
  • Add a static list of one or more devices to the list of devices for the IT Service policy.
  • Add a dynamic list of one or more devices to the list of devices for the IT Service policy.

To create the list of devices for the IT Service policy:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Either create a new IT Service policy (Create button) or edit an existing policy (wrench icon ).
  2. After Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy, select the Model sub-tab.
  3. The following sections explain how to add device groups, a static list of devices, or a dynamic list of devices to an IT Service policy.

Adding Device Groups to the IT Service Policy

  1. To add a device group to the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the Device Groups pane.
  2. Select the Add button.
  3. The Device Group Alignment modal page appears and displays a list of all devices in SL1.
  4. In the Device Group Alignment modal, select the checkbox of each device group you want to include in the IT Service policy.
  5. Select the Add/Remove button in the lower right.
  6. The selected device groups will appear in the Device Groups pane.
  7. To remove a device group from the list of devices for the IT Service policy, return to the IT Service Editor page, select the Model tab, select the checkbox for the device group, and then select the Del button.

Adding a Static List of Devices to the IT Service Policy

  1. To add a static list of one or more devices to the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the Static Devices pane.
  2. Select the Add button.
  3. The Device Alignment modal page appears and displays a list of all devices in SL1.
  4. In the Device Alignment modal, select the checkbox of each device group you want to include in the IT Service policy. Select the Add/Remove button in the lower right.
  5. The selected devices will appear in the Static Devices pane.
  6. To remove a device from the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the IT Service Editor page, select the Model tab, select the checkbox for the device group, and then select the Del button.

Adding a Dynamic List of Devices to the IT Service Policy

  1. To add a dynamic list of one or more devices to the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the Dynamic Device Rules pane.
  2. Select the Add button. The Device Group Rule Editor modal page appears.
  1. In the Device Group Rule Editor modal page, define one or more criteria to include in the rule.
  2. Select criteria from the Active Selectors field.
  3. The selection appears in the Selector Definitions pane.
  4. If you unselect a criteria in the Active Selectors field, the selection no longer appears in the Selector Definitions pane.
  5. In the Selector Definitions pane, each criteria can include a list of selections and/or operators and wildcards:

  • Organization. Displays a list of all organizations in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more organizations, SL1 will search for devices that are members of at least one the selected organization(s) and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two organizations, all devices from each organization will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not members of the selected organization(s) and include those devices in the device group.

  • Device Class. Displays a list of all device classes in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more device classes, SL1 will search for devices that are members of the selected device class(es) and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two device classes, all devices from each device class will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not members of the selected device class(es) and include those devices in the device group.

  • Device Category. Displays a list of all device categories in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more device categories, SL1 will search for devices that are members of the selected device categories and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two device categories, all devices from each device category will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not members of the selected device categories and include those devices in the device group.
  • Device Name. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices with matching device names. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices with a device name that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any device name that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any device name that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any device name that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any device name that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any device name that contains either "term1" or "term2".
  • Device IP. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices with matching IP addresses. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices with a device IP that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any device IP that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any device IP that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any device IP that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any device IP that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any device IP that contains either "term1" or "term2".
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that do not have a matching IP address and include those devices in the device group.

  • Device State. Displays a list of all device states in SL1 (Notice, Healthy, Minor, Major, Critical). Each device's state is the same as the highest severity event associated with the device..
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more device states, SL1 will search for devices that are members of the selected device states and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two device states, all devices from each device state will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that do not have the selected device state and include those devices in the device group.

  • Collection State. Displays a list of all collection states in SL1 (Active, NOT Active, User-Disabled, NOT User-Disabled, Unavailable, NOT Unavailable, Maintenance, NOT Maintenance, System-Disabled, NOT System-Disabled)..
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more collection states, SL1 will search for devices that are members of the selected device states and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two collection states, all devices with the first collection state and all devices with the second collection state will be included in the device group.

  • Collector Group. Displays a list of all Collector Groups in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more Collector Groups, SL1 will search for devices that are members of the selected Collector Groups and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two Collector Groups, all devices from each Collector Group will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not members of the select Collector Group(s) and include those devices in the device group.

  • Open TCP Ports. Displays a list of all open TCP ports that SL1 has discovered on at least one device.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more ports, SL1 will search for devices have that have those ports open and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two collection ports, all devices where the first port is open and all devices where the second port is open will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that do not have the selected port(s) open and include those devices in the device group.

  • Running Process. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that are running a matching system process. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices running a process that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any process name that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any process name that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any process name that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any process name that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any process name that contains either "term1" or "term2".
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not running the selected processes open and include those devices in the device group.

  • Windows Service. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that are running a matching Windows service. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices running a Windows services that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any Windows Service name that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any Windows Service name that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any Windows Service name that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any Windows Service name that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any Windows Service name that contains either "term1" or "term2".
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not running a matching Windows service and include those devices in the device group.

  • Subscribed Product. Displays a list of all product SKUs in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more SKUs, SL1 will search for devices that subscribe to at least one the selected SKU(s) and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two SKUs, all devices that subscribe to one of the two SKUs will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that do not subscribe to the selected SKU(s) and include those devices in the device group.

  • Active Event. Displays a list of all active events in SL1.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more active events, SL1 will search for devices for which that event is currently active and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two events, all devices for which one of the two events is active will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices for which the event is not currently active and include those devices in the device group.

  • Aligned Dynamic App. Displays a list of all Dynamic Applications that are currently aligned with one or more devices.
  • To filter the list, you can enter a string in the field under the title.
  • If you select one or more aligned Dynamic Applications, SL1 will search for devices that are aligned with those Dynamic Applications and include those devices in the device group. For example, if you select two Dynamic Applications, all devices that are aligned with each of the Dynamic Applications will be included in the device group.
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that are not aligned with the selected Dynamic Application(s).

  • Asset Make. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Make field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Make field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset make that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset make that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset make that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset make that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset make that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Model. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Model field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Model field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset model that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset model that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset model that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset model that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset model that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Function. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Function field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Function field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset function that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset function that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset function that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset function that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset function that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Owner. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Management Type field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Management Type field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset owner that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset owner that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset owner that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset owner that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset owner that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Location. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Facility/Data Center field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Facility/Data Center field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset location that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset location that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset location that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset location that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset location that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Serial. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Serial field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Serial field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset serial that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset serial that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset serial that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset serial that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset serial that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Tag. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value in the Asset Tag field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have an Asset Tag field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any asset tag that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any asset tag that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any asset tag that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any asset tag that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any asset tag that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Software Title. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching Software Title field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Software Title field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any software title that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any software title that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any software title that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any software title that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any software title that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Asset Software Version. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching Software Version field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Software Version field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any software version that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any software version that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any software version that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any software version that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any software version that contains either "term1" or "term2".

    Asset Model Number. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching Model Number field in their asset records (SL1 automatically creates an asset record for each device during nightly auto-discovery). If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Model Number field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any software version that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any software version that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any software version that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any software version that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any software version that contains either "term1" or "term2".

  • Software Title. Displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching title and version in the list of software defined in the Licenses tab in the asset record for the device. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices that have a Software Title field that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any software title and/or version that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any software title and/or version that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any software title and/or version that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any software title and/or version that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any software title and/or version that contains either "term1" or "term2".
  • If you select the Invert checkbox, SL1 will search for devices that do not have a matching software title or version in the list of software and include those devices in the device group.

  • Custom Attribute. The Active Selectors field includes an entry for each custom attribute defined in your SL1 system. When you select a custom attribute, the Selector Definitions pane displays a field in which you can enter a string. SL1 will use the string to search for devices that have a matching value for this custom attribute. If you do not use wildcard characters, SL1 will return only devices with a custom attribute that exactly matches the string. You can use the following syntax in the field:
  • term*. SL1 searches for any attribute value that begins with "term".
  • *term. SL1 searches for any attribute value that ends with "term".
  • te?m. SL1 searches for any attribute value that contains the text "te[any single character]m".
  • !term. SL1 searches for any attribute value that does not include the text "term".
  • term1, term2. SL1 searches for any attribute value that contains either "term1" or "term2".

If you input !* in to the Dynamic Rule Operator Selector Definition field, your search returns all devices that have an empty value for that attribute.

  1. After you have selected an Active Selector and the Selector Definitions, you can specify that you want to include children devices, all descendent devices, parent devices, or all ancestor devices. To do this, do not select the OK button. Instead, select the Select related devices link next to the OK button.
  2. If you selected the Select related devices link, the Relationship Selection modal page appears. In this modal page you can select devices by relationship. The Matched Devices pane displays all the devices that match all the criteria in the rule. The list of devices changes as you add and remove criteria.
  3. The OK button saves the new dynamic rule or saves changes to an existing dynamic rule.
  4. The new rule appears in the Dynamic Rules pane.

If a single dynamic rule includes multiple criteria, a device must match all the criteria to be included in the device group (like the SQL AND operator). If an IT Service policy includes multiple dynamic rules, a device must match only a single rule to be included in the device group (like the SQL OR operator). To view a list of devices that are currently included in the dynamic rules, select the wrench icon () for a dynamic rule.

  1. To remove a dynamic rule from the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the IT Service Editor page, select the Model tab, select the checkbox for the rule, and then select the Del button.

The Relationship Selection Page

If you click the Select related device link in the Device Group Rule Editor page, the Relationship Selection page appears.

The Relationship Selection page includes the following panes:

  • Relationship Selector. You can choose to include child devices, all descendent devices (children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc.), parent devices, or all ancestor devices (parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc.). You can also choose to further filter by including only the children, descendents, parents, and ancestors devices that are related to the "Seed Devices" through one or more selected Dynamic Applications.

NOTE: For details on building relationships with Dynamic Applications, see the section on Dynamic Application Development.

  • Seed Devices. This is the list of devices you defined in the Device Group Rule Editor page. You can include these devices in the device group or include only the children, descendants, parents, ancestors.
  • Matched Devices. This is the list of devices that will be included in the device group when you click the OK button.

NOTE: As SL1 discovers devices and component devices that meet the criteria for the dynamic device group, SL1 will automatically add those devices and component devices to the device group.

Relationship Selectors

In this pane, you can specify devices to include in the device group based on their relationships to the Seed Devices:

  • Children of. If you select this checkbox, all child devices of the Seed Devices are included in the device group.
  • Descendents of. This checkbox is enabled only if you select the Children of checkbox. If you select this checkbox, all child devices, grandchildren devices, great grandchildren devices, etc of the Seed Devices are included in the device group.
  • Parents of. If you select this checkbox, all parent devices of the Seed Devices are included in the device group.
  • Ancestors of. This checkbox is enabled only if you select the Parents of checkbox. If you select this checkbox, all parent devices, grandparent devices, great grandparent devices, etc of the Seed Devices are included in the device group.

  • Related by. This checkbox is enabled only if you select the Children of checkbox or the Parents of checkbox. You can further filter the devices in the device group by including only the children, descendents, parents, and ancestors devices that are related to the Seed Devices through one or more selected Dynamic Applications. If you select this checkbox, you can select one or more Dynamic Applications from the list of Dynamic Applications that can create relationships. Only those devices that meet all the criteria will be included in the device group.

  • Include seed devices. This checkbox is enabled only if you select the Children of checkbox or the Parents of checkbox. If you select this checkbox, the related Seed Devices are included in the device group. Seed Devices with no relationships are not included in the group.

Seed Devices

This is the list of devices you defined in the Device Group Rule Editor page. You can include these devices in the device group or include only the children, descendants, parents, and ancestors of these devices.

For each Seed Device, the Relationship Selection page displays.

To sort the list of devices, click on a column heading. The list will be sorted by the column value, in ascending order. To sort by descending order, click the column heading again.

  • Device Name. Name of the device. For devices running SNMP or with DNS entries, the name is discovered automatically. For devices without SNMP or DNS entries, the device's IP address will appear in this field.
  • Category. The ScienceLogic category assigned to the device. Categories include servers, routers, switches, firewalls, printers, etc. The category is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the Device-Class/Sub-Class.
  • Class / Sub-class. The manufacturer (device class) and type of device (sub-class). The Device-Class/Sub-Class is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the Category.
  • ID. Device ID. This is a unique number automatically assigned to the device by SL1.
  • Organization. The organization to which the device is assigned.
  • Collection State. The current condition of data collection for the device. The device can have one or more of the following Collection States:
  • Active. SL1 is collecting data from the device.
  • Unavailable. SL1 cannot connect to the device, and will not collect data from the device until the device becomes available. A physical device falls back to executing the availability ping every five minutes, unless you have critical ping enabled. Component devices get their availability calculated by the component discovery Dynamic Application of the parent device.
  • User-Disabled. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because the user has disabled collection.
  • System-Disabled. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because the system has disabled collection.
  • Maintenance. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because it is currently in scheduled maintenance mode.
  • User-Initiated-Maintenance. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because it has manually been put into maintenance mode by a user.
  • Component Vanished. The component device has vanished, i.e. is not currently being reported by its root device. SL1 cannot collect data from the device at this time.

Depending on the circumstances, more than one collection state might appear for a single device. For example, if a device is in a scheduled maintenance mode, the Collection State might be Unavailable / Maintenance / System-Disabled.

  • Tools. Displays icons for managing devices. The choices are:
  • Device Management (). Leads to the Device Summary page, where you can see reports and logs related to the device. From the Device Summary page, you can also access the other pages in the Device Management tools.

Matched Devices

This is the list of devices that match all the criteria in the Relationship Selection page.

For each Matched Device, the Relationship Selection page displays:

To sort the list of devices, click on a column heading. The list will be sorted by the column value, in ascending order. To sort by descending order, click the column heading again.

  • Device Name. Name of the device. For devices running SNMP or with DNS entries, the name is discovered automatically. For devices without SNMP or DNS entries, the device's IP address will appear in this field.
  • Category. The ScienceLogic category assigned to the device. Categories include servers, routers, switches, firewalls, printers, etc. The category is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the Device-Class/Sub-Class.
  • Class / Sub-class. The manufacturer (device class) and type of device (sub-class). The Device-Class/Sub-Class is automatically assigned during discovery, at the same time as the Category.
  • ID. Device ID. This is a unique number automatically assigned to the device by SL1.
  • Organization. The organization to which the device is assigned.
  • Collection State. The current condition of data collection for the device. The device can have one or more of the following Collection States:
  • Active. SL1 is collecting data from the device.
  • Unavailable. SL1 cannot connect to the device, and will not collect data from the device until the device becomes available.
  • User-Disabled. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because the user has disabled collection.
  • System-Disabled. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because the system has disabled collection.
  • Maintenance. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because it is currently in scheduled maintenance mode.
  • User-Initiated-Maintenance. SL1 is not currently collecting data from the device because it has manually been put into maintenance mode by a user.
  • Component Vanished. The component device has vanished, i.e. is not currently being reported by its root device. SL1 cannot collect data from the device at this time.

Depending on the circumstances, more than one collection state might appear for a single device. For example, if a device is in a scheduled maintenance mode, the Collection State might be Unavailable / Maintenance / System-Disabled.

  • Tools. Displays icons for managing devices. The choices are:
  • Device Management (). Leads to the Device Summary page, where you can see reports and logs related to the device. From the Device Summary page, you can also access the other pages in the Device Management tools.

Click the OK button to accept all changes and exit the Relationship Selection page.

Defining a Device Subset

If you select the Advanced button or are already in Advanced mode you can define device subsets for your IT Service policy. A device subset is a smaller group of devices from the list of all devices in the IT Service policy.

You can apply metrics to these device subsets, instead of applying a metric to all devices in the IT Service Policy. For example, you might want to examine only the status of the database servers in a specific IT Service. In this case, you could create a device subset that contains only the database servers. You could later apply a metric only to the database servers (for example, monitoring latency of the database servers).

To define a device subset:

  1. Go to IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Either create a new IT Service policy (Create button) or edit an existing policy (wrench icon ).

  1. After Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy, select the Model sub-tab. If you are not already in Advanced mode, select the Advanced button:

  1. To add a device subset to the IT Service policy, go to the Device Subsets pane.
  2. Select the Add button. The Device Subset Editor modal appears.

  1. To add a static list of one or more devices to the device subset, go to the Static Devices pane:

  • Select the Add button.
  • The Device Alignment modal appears and displays a list of all devices in SL1.
  • In the Device Alignment modal, select the checkbox of each device group you want to include in the IT Service policy. Select the Add/Remove button in the lower right.

  • The selected devices will appear in the Static Devices pane.
  • To remove a device from the list of devices in the device subset, select its checkbox and then select the Del button.

  1. To add a dynamic list of one or more devices to the list of devices for the device subset, go to the Dynamic Rules pane:

  • Select the Add button. The Device Subset Rule Editor modal appears.
  • In the Device Subset Rule Editor modal, define one or more criteria to include in the rule. For details, see the section on Adding a Dynamic List of Devices to the IT Service Policy
  • The new rule appears in the Dynamic Rules pane.
  • To remove a dynamic rule from the list of devices for the IT Service policy, go to the IT Service Editor page, select the Modelsub-tab, select the checkbox for the rule, and then select the Del button.

NOTE: If a single dynamic rule includes multiple criteria, a device must match all the criteria to be included in the device group (like the SQL AND operator). If an IT Service policy includes multiple dynamic rules, a device must match only a single rule to be included in the device group (like the SQL OR operator). To view a list of devices that are currently included in the dynamic rules, select the wrench icon () for a dynamic rule.

Defining a Service Dependency

A service dependency allows you to use a metric and list of devices from an external IT Service Policy when calculating the metrics in the current IT Service policy. In the service dependency example, the Acme company uses the device availability metric from an IT Service policy for Acme East Coast and the device availability metric from an IT Service policy for Acme West Coast to determine the device availability for all devices in all locations.

To define a Service Dependency:

  1. Go to IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Either create a new IT Service policy (Create button) or edit an existing policy (wrench icon ).
  2. Select the Model sub-tab. If you are not already in Advanced mode, select the Advanced button.

  1. To add a service dependency, go to the Service Dependencies pane.

  1. Select the Add button. The Service Dependency Alignment Editor modal appears.

  • In the Service Dependency Alignment Editor modal, select the checkbox of each external IT Service policy you want to reference in the current IT Service policy. Select the Add/Remove button in the lower right.
  • The selected IT Service policies will appear in the Service Dependencies pane.
  • To remove an IT Service policy from the list of service dependencies, select its checkbox and then select the Del button.

You can now use the metrics in each service dependency when defining the metrics for your IT Service policy. For an example, see the service dependencies example.

Defining Metrics

A metric is a performance measurement associated with an IT Service. One or more metrics are used to define the Service Health, Service Availability, and Service Risk for an IT Service.

For each IT Service, SL1 provides a default metric called Average Device Availability. This metric tells SL1 to collect availability data from all the devices in the IT Service and calculate the average availability.

You can define additional metrics, based on any performance data collected by SL1, including:

  • Device Availability
  • Device Latency
  • Overall CPU Usage
  • Physical Memory Usage
  • Swap Usage
  • Device State (Condition of the device, based upon the most severe event generated by the device.)
  • Device Count
  • Presentation Objects from Dynamic Applications
  • Network Interface Data
  • TCP/IP Port Monitors
  • System Process Monitors
  • Windows Service Monitors
  • Email Round-Trip Monitors
  • Web Content Monitors
  • SOAP/XML Transaction Monitors
  • Domain Name Monitors
  • An Aligned Service Dependency

NOTE: When SL1 evaluates a metric, it performs an aggregation, that is, SL1 evaluates the data for all devices specified in the definition of the metric, over a specified time period (the Aggregation Frequency). Depending on the definition of the metric, SL1 can calculate the average, maximum, minimum, sum, standard deviation, count value or percentile for all devices specified in the definition.

To create a new metric:

  1. Go to IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Either create a new IT Service policy (Create button) or edit an existing policy (wrench icon ).
  2. After Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy and Defining the Devices for the IT Service Policy, select the Metrics sub-tab.

  1. Select the Add button. The Service Metric Editor modal page appears.

  1. Supply a value in each field of the Service Metric Editor modal page.
  • Service Metric Name. Enter a name for the metric.
  • Metric Classification. Specifies whether the metric will be displayed in the IT Service Summary page in widgets that display vital metrics. Choices are:
  • Service Vital Metric. This metric will appear in widgets that display vital metrics.
  • Standard Metric. This metric will not appear in widgets that display vital metrics.

  • Active State. Specifies whether SL1 should currently collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric. Choices are:
  • Enabled. SL1 will collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric.
  • Disabled. SL1 will not collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric.
  • Metric Type. Specifies the type of performance data you want to use for the metric. Choices are
  • Internal. The metric will use data that SL1 automatically collects for each device (availability, latency, CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, device state, and device count).
  • Dynamic App. The metric will use data collected by a specified Dynamic Application.
  • Network Interface . The metric will use data collected from network interfaces. For an example that uses the Network Interface metrics, see the interface tags example.
  • TCP/IP Port Monitor. The metric will use data collected using a TCP/IP port monitoring policy.
  • System Process Monitor. The metric will use data collected using a system process monitoring policy.
  • Windows Service Monitor. The metric will use data collected using a Windows service monitoring policy.
  • Email Round-Trip Monitor. The metric will use data collected using an Email round-trip monitoring policy.
  • Web Content Monitor. The metric will use data collected from a using a Web Content monitoring policy.
  • SOAP/XML Transaction Monitor. The metric will use data collected using a SOAP/XML Transaction monitoring policy.
  • Domain Name Monitor. The metric will use data collected using a Domain Name monitoring policy.
  • Aligned Service Dependency. The metric points to a metric and set of devices in an external IT Service policy. The external IT Service policy must first be defined as a Service Dependency in the current IT Service. To see an example of a metric that uses an Aligned Service Dependency, see the service dependency example.
  • Dependency Key Metric. The metric will inherit the values from a Key Metric (Health, Availability, Risk) defined in another IT service policy. The other IT service policy has been aligned as a dependency to this IT service.
  • Device Subset. If you have defined one or more device subsets, you can select one in this field. The metric will use data from only devices in the selected subset. This field is not applicable if you selected Aligned Service Dependency in the Metric Type field.
  • Aggregation. Specifies how SL1 will aggregate ("crunch") the data collected from all the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset into a single value. Choices are:
  • Average
  • Maximum
  • Minimum
  • Sum
  • Std Dev
  • Count
  • Percentile. Aggregates data by percentile. Enter the percentile value you want to monitor in the field to the right of the Aggregation field. For example, if you select Percentile and enter 65 in the field to the right of the Aggregation field, this metric will contain the value that is at the 65th percentile for each collection of the metric.
  • Show only metrics available for this IT Service. Filters the succeeding fields so that they display already-defined policies aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. For example, if you selected Dynamic App in the Metric Type field, and then selected this checkbox, the Dynamic Application field would display only Dynamic Applications that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. This field is not applicable if you selected Aligned Service Dependency or Dependency Key Metric in the Metric Type field.
  • Device Metric. Appears if you selected Internal in the Metric Type field. Choices are:
  • Device Availability. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the availability statistics from all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the availability value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile).

  • Device Latency. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the latency statistics from all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the latency value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count).

  • Overall CPU. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the CPU usage statistics from all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the CPU usage value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile).
  • Physical Memory Utilization. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the physical memory utilization statistics from all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the physical memory utilization value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count).
  • Swap Utilization. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the swap utilization statistics from all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the swap utilization value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile).

  • Device State. Specifies that the metric should be calculated using the device state of all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset.To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the device state value from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count).

NOTE: For each device, device state is determined by the most severe event that is currently active on the device. Each device severity has a numeric equivalent. 0=healthy, 1=notice, 2=minor, 3=major, 4=critical.

  • Device Count. Device Count for an IT Service includes the number of devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset.

  • Dynamic Application. Appears if you selected Dynamic App in the Metric Type field. Select the Dynamic Application that includes the presentation object you want to use to aggregate data for this metric. If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Dynamic Applications that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, this field displays a list of all Dynamic Applications in SL1.

  • Presentation. Appears if you selected Dynamic App in the Metric Type field. Displays a list of all presentation objects in the Dynamic Application that you specified in the Dynamic Application field. Select the presentation object that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the value for this presentation object from each device using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile).
  • Index/Label. For presentation objects that include multiple data series, specifies whether you want to select all the data for aggregation, select by index, or select by object label. The choices are:
  • All. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate values for all indexes and labels for the presentation object you selected in the Presentation field for all the devices in the IT service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. When the data for this metric is aggregated, each index is treated as a separate data-point. For example, if you are creating a metric that will aggregate data from three devices and each device has five indexes for the selected presentation object, the aggregation will be based on the 15 separate data-points. If you select this option, the SNMP Index field is disabled.
  • Index. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate one data-point from each device. If you select this option, you must specify the single numeric index in the SNMP Index field.
  • Label. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate one data-point from each device. If you select this option, you must specify the single label in the SNMP Index field.
  • SNMP Index. Appears if you selected Dynamic App in the Metric Type field. A single presentation object can include multiple data series for a given device. For example, a presentation object that displays CPU data might display a data series for each CPU on a device. In SL1, a data series is called an index. An index can be referenced by either a numeric ID or by a label string:

  • If you select All in the Index/Label field, the SNMP Index field is disabled. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate values for all indexes for the presentation object you selected in the Presentation field for all the devices in the IT service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. When the data for this metric is aggregated, each index is treated as a separate data-point. For example, if you are creating a metric that will aggregate data from three devices and each device has five indexes for the selected presentation object, the aggregation will be based on the 15 separate data-points.

  • If you select Index in the Index/Label field, you must specify a single numeric index in the SNMP Index field. To calculate a value for this metric, SL1 will aggregate one data-point from each device.

  • If you select Label in the Index/Label field, you must specify a single label string in the SNMP Index field. To calculate a value for this metric, SL1 will aggregate one data-point from each device.

  • Interface Selection. Appears if you selected Network Interface in the Metric Type field. Select the network interfaces to include in the calculation for this metric. Choices are:
  • All Interfaces. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate interface utilization statistics from all interfaces on all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset.
  • Management Interface. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate interface utilization statistics from the management interface on all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. The management interface is the network interface associated with the IP address that SL1 uses to communicate with a device.
  • Tagged Interfaces. Specifies that to calculate a value for this metric, SL1 should aggregate interface utilization statistics from the interfaces that are associated with a specific tag on all the devices in the IT Service or the devices specified in the Device Subset. You can manually align tags to an interface in the Network Interfaces page (Registry > Networks > Interfaces).

  • Interface Tag. Appears if you selected Network Interface in the Metric Type field. Select the interface tag that must be associated with an interface for that interface to be included in the calculation for this metric. If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Interface tags that are already aligned with one or more of the interfaces on the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, this field displays a list of all Interface tags that are associated with interfaces in SL1.
  • Interface Metric. Appears if you selected Network Interface in the Metric Type field. Select the interface measurement that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the value for this interface measurement from all interfaces that you included in this metric using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count). Choices are:
  • Inbound Traffic
  • Outbound Traffic
  • Inbound Errors
  • Outbound Errors
  • Inbound Discards
  • Outbound Discards
  • TCP Port. Appears if you selected TCP/IP Port Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the TCP port that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the availability value collected using the TCP port policy that monitors this port on each device. The availability values are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count or Percentile). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of port policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter a TCP port number in this field.
  • Metric. Appears if you selected TCP/IP Port Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify which measurement determines the availability of a TCP port for this metric. Choice is Port Open.

  • Process Name. Appears if you selected System Process Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the process name that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the availability value collected using the system process policy that monitors this process on each device. The availability values are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of system process policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter a process name in this field.

  • Metric. Appears if you selected System Process Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify which measurement determines the availability of a process for this metric. Choices are:
  • Process Exists. The process is considered available if it exists on a device.
  • Process Running. The process is considered available if it is running on a device.

  • Service Name. Appears if you selected Windows Service Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the service name that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates the availability value collected using the Windows service policy that monitors this service on each device. The availability values are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Windows service policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter a Windows service name in this field.

  • Metric. Appears if you selected Windows Service Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify which measurement determines the availability of a Windows service for this metric. Choice is Service Running.
  • Policy Name. Appears if you selected Email Round-Trip Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the Email Round-Trip policy that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates statistics collected using this Email Round-Trip policy on each device. The values for the statistic are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Email Round-Trip policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter the name of an Email Round-Trip policy in this field.
  • Metric. Appears if you selected Email Round-Trip Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify the Email round-trip statistic to aggregate for this metric. Choices are:
  • Round-Trip Completed. Indicates whether or not the round-trip was successfully completed (1) or failed (0).
  • Round-Trip Time. Indicates the number of seconds for an Email message to be sent from SL1 to the external server and back to SL1.
  • Policy Name. Appears if you selected Web Content Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the Web Content policy that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates statistics collected using this Web Content policy on each device. The values for the statistic are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count, or Percentile). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Web Content policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter a the name of a Web Content policy in this field.
  • Metric. Appears if you selected Web Content Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify the Web Content statistic to aggregate for this metric. Choices are:
  • Verification Succeeded. Indicates whether or not the content was found on the website (1) or was not found on the website (0).
  • Connection Time
  • Domain Name Lookup Time
  • Page Size
  • Download Speed
  • Transaction Time

  • Policy Name. Appears if you selected SOAP/XML Transaction Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the SOAP/XML Transaction policy that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates statistics collected using this SOAP/XML Transaction policy on each device. The values for the statistic are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, or Device Count). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of SOAP/XML Transaction policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter the name of a SOAP/XML Transaction policy in this field.

  • Metric. Appears if you selected SOAP/XML Transaction Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify the SOAP/XML Transaction statistic to aggregate for this metric. Choices are:
  • Transaction Verification Succeeded. Indicates whether the transaction was successfully verified (1) or was not successfully verified (0).
  • Connection Time
  • Domain Name Lookup Time
  • Download Size
  • Download Speed
  • Transaction Time

  • Domain Name. Appears if you selected Domain Name Monitor in the Metric Type field. Enter or select the Domain Name policy that SL1 should use to calculate the value for this metric. To calculate a value for the metric, SL1 aggregates statistics collected using this Domain Name Transaction policy on each device. The values for the statistic are aggregated using the method specified in the Aggregation field (Average, Minimum, Maximum, Sum, Standard Deviation, Device Count or Percentile). If you selected the checkbox for Show only metrics available for this IT Service, this field displays a list of Domain Name Transaction policies that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. If you did not select the checkbox, enter the name of a Domain Name Transaction policy in this field.

  • Metric. Appears if you selected Domain Name Monitor in the Metric Type field. Specify the Domain Name statistic to aggregate for this metric. Choices are:
  • Domain Lookup Succeeded. Indicates whether the domain lookup was successful (1) or failed (0).
  • Domain Lookup Time. Indicates the lookup time, in seconds, for a specified record.
  • Dependent Service. Appears if you selected Aligned Service Dependency or Dependency Key Metric in the Metric Type field. Select the IT Service that includes the metric you want to use.
  • Service Metric. Appears if you selected Aligned Service Dependency or Dependency Key Metric in the Metric Type field. Select a metric aligned with the IT Service policy you selected in the Dependent Service field. This metric will inherit its values from the selected metric. If you selected Dependency Key Metric in the Metric Type field, the choices are the Key Metrics:
  • Health. The health of the dependent IT services. Health values are represented by integers 0 (healthy) through 4 (critical).
  • Availability. The availability of the dependent IT services. Availability values are 0 (unavailable) and 1(available).
  • Risk. The risk of the dependent IT services. Risk values are percentages (0 - 100).
  • Guide Text. Optionally, enter a description for the metric.
  1. Select the Save button to save your new metric.

NOTE: You can define advanced metrics. Advanced metrics allow you to perform arithmetic operations on the aggregated data and combine multiple sources of aggregated data together. For example, you could specify an advanced metric that combines the download speed from the web content monitors and the SOAP/XML transaction monitors associated with the devices in the IT Service policy. For details on advanced metrics, see the section Defining Advanced Metrics.

  1. You can use the remaining fields to define an optional alert and optional event associated with the metric.

  1. To define an associated alert and event, supply a value in each of the following fields:
  • Metric Alerting. Specifies whether or not you want SL1 to generate an alert for this metric. Choices are:

  • No Alert Policy. SL1 will not trigger alerts for this metric.
  • Single Threshold. SL1 will trigger an alert when the metric meets or exceeds a specified threshold. SL1 will clear the alert when the metric no longer meets or exceeds the threshold.
  • Trigger/Reset Thresholds. SL1 will trigger an alert when the metric falls within the "Critical" threshold. SL1 will reset the alert when the metric falls within the "Healthy" threshold.
  • Alert Policy Name. Name of the alert. When you define an alert, SL1 automatically creates an event policy that corresponds to this alert. This name will appear in the name of the event policy.
  • Event Severity. When the alert is generated, SL1 will trigger an event with the selected event severity. Choices are: Critical, Major, Minor, Notice, or Healthy.
  • Decreasing/Increasing. Toggles whether the alert is triggered when the value for the metric is above a specific threshold (Increasing) or below a specific threshold (Decreasing).
  • Alert Threshold. Use sliders to define the threshold at which the alert should be generated and trigger an event and the threshold at which the alert should be reset and no longer trigger an event.
  • Event Policy Description. Optionally enter cause and resolution text for the event. When SL1 automatically creates an event policy for this alert, the text you supply in this field will be used to populate the Policy Description field in the Event Policy Editor for the event. If this event is triggered, the text you supply in this field will be displayed in the Event Information modal page for the event.
  1. Select the Save button to save your new alert.

Editing Metrics

You can edit one or more metrics from the Service Metric Editor modal page. To do so:

  1. Go to IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().
  2. Select the Metrics sub-tab.
  3. In the top pane, find the metric you want to edit, and select its wrench icon().

  1. If you are editing in Basic mode, the Service Metric Editor modal page appears:

  1. If you are editing in Advanced mode, the Service Metric Editor (Advanced) page appears:

  1. You can edit the values in one or more fields. Select the Save button to save your changes to the metric.

Key Metrics

Key Metrics are the standard method for describing the status of an IT Service. Key Metrics allow you to quickly gauge the status of multiple IT Services, even if those IT Services require very different metrics that aggregate very different performance data. For example, you can define "health" for a remote backup service and also define "health" for an Internet bandwidth service, even though you would use different criteria to measure the health of those two services.

All IT Service policies define how SL1 should calculate the following Key Metrics for the IT Service:

  • Health. The health of an IT Service can be one of the five standard severity values: Healthy, Notice, Minor, Major, or Critical.
  • Availability. The availability of an IT Service can be either available or unavailable.
  • Risk. The risk of an IT Service is a percentage value that indicates how close an IT Service is to being in an undesirable state.

The definition of a Key Metric specifies:

  • The metric SL1 should examine to determine a value for the Key Metric.
  • One or more threshold values. These thresholds translate values from the metric into values for the Key Metric. For example, "5 or greater" could translate to "critical".

SL1 collects and calculates the value for each Key Metric at the frequency specified in the Aggregation Frequency field in the Properties sub-tab in the IT Service Editor page.

SL1 generates an event if the Service Health Key Metric has a value of Notice, Minor, Major, or Critical.

To view the value for each Key Metric for an IT Service, see the corresponding column values in the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).

Each IT Service policy includes default definitions for each Key Metric. The default definition for each Key Metric uses the default metric Average Device Availability (automatically included with each new IT Service policy). You can edit the default definitions to suit your business needs.

To view and edit the definitions of each Key Metric for an IT Service policy:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Either create a new IT Service policy (Create button) or edit an existing policy (wrench icon ).
  2. After Defining the Basic Properties of an IT Service Policy and Defining the List of Devices for an IT Service Policy, select the Metrics sub-tab.
  3. In the top pane, you will see the default metric, Average Device Availability. If you have already defined additional custom metrics, they will also appear in the top pane.

  1. In the bottom pane, you will see the three Key Metrics:

  • Service Health. Appears in the Health column in the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Possible values are Healthy, Notice, Minor, Major, and Critical.
  • By default, the Service Health metric is aligned with the Average Device Availability metric.
  • By default, the Service Health metric has a range of 0 - 100 and has thresholds set at 25, 50, 75, 90, and 100.
  • To align the Service Health metric with another custom metric, select that custom metric from the drop-down list that appears above the Service Health Key Metric.
  • To change the minimum range, enter a new value in the field the to the far left of the threshold slider. To change the maximum range, enter a new value in the field to the far right of the threshold slider.
  • To customize the thresholds, use the sliders or manually enter values to align with Healthy, Notice, Minor, Major, and Critical.

  • Service Availability. Appears in the Availability column in the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Possible values are Available and Unavailable.
  • By default, this Key Metric is aligned with the same metric as Service Health, converting Critical Service Health to Unavailable and all other Service Health values to Available.
  • By default, the Service Availability metric has a range of 0 - 100 and has a single threshold set at 25.
  • To align the Service Availability metric with another custom metric, select that custom metric from the drop-down list that appears above the Service Availability Key Metric.
  • To customize the thresholds, use the sliders or manually enter values to align with Unavailableand Available.
  • To change the minimum range, enter a new value in the field the to the far left of the threshold slider. To change the maximum range, enter a new value in the field to the far right of the threshold slider.

  • Service Risk. Appears as a percentage in the Risk column in the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Possible values are 0% - 100%.
  • By default, this Key Metric is aligned with the same metric as Service Health, converting the threshold between Healthyand Notice Service Health to 100% and the healthiest possible value to 0%.
  • By default, the Service Risk metric has a range of 0 - 100 and has a single threshold set at 90.
  • To align the Service Risk metric with another custom metric, select that custom metric from the drop-down list that appears above the Service Risk Key Metric.
  • To customize the thresholds, use the sliders or manually enter values to align with Critical Risk (red colored) and Acceptable Risk (all other colors).
  • You can also customize the thresholds for how SL1 translates the value for the selected metric into a percentage value.
  • To change the minimum range, enter a new value in the field to the far left of the threshold slider. To change the maximum range, enter a new value in the field to the far right of the threshold slider.

Defining Advanced Metrics

After defining a metric, you can edit the metric in Advanced mode. In Advanced mode, you can perform arithmetic operations on the aggregated data for a metric and combine multiple sources of aggregated data together. The formula for an advanced metric is similar to the formulas you would define for an alert object or a presentation object in a Dynamic Application.

  • The Service Metric Editor (Advanced) page does not appear when you create a new metric. When you create a new metric, the Service Metric Editor page appears.
  • The Service Metric Editor (Advanced) page appears only when you edit an existing metric in Advanced mode. To toggle on and off Advanced mode, select the Advanced button.
  • After you save a metric with advanced features, you can no longer edit that metric in Basic mode.

To define an advanced metric:

  1. Go to IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().
  2. In the IT Service Editor page, select the Metrics sub-tab.
  3. If you have not yet created a metric, perform the steps to create a metric.
  4. In the Service Metric Definitions pane, select the Advanced button to enable Advanced mode.
  5. In the Service Metric Definitions pane, in the top pane, find the metric you want to edit, and select its wrench icon ().
  6. The Service Metric Editor (Advanced) page appears:

  1. You can edit the values in one or more fields:
  • Service Metric Name. Enter a name for the metric.

  • Metric Classification. Specifies whether the metric will be displayed in the IT Service Summary page in widgets that display vital metrics. Choices are:
  • Service Vital Metric. This metric will appear in widgets that display vital metrics.

  • Standard Metric. This metric will not appear in widgets that display vital metrics.

  • Active State. Specifies whether SL1 should currently collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric. Choices are:
  • Enabled. SL1 will collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric.
  • Disabled. SL1 will not collect data for the metric and evaluate alerts for the metric.

  • Metric is Percentage Value. If selected, the next two fields are populated automatically. If not selected, you can supply custom values in the next two fields.
  • Abbreviation/Suffix. Abbreviation for the unit of measure used in the metric.
  • Data Unit Description. Description of the unit of measure used in the metric.
  • Metric Formula. Area where you can perform arithmetic operations on one or more aggregation objects. For details, see the section on the Metric Formula pane.
  • Aggregation Objects. After you define a metric, SL1 creates a collection object and an aggregation object for the metric. The aggregation object tells SL1 the type of performance data to aggregate, the devices for which data will be aggregated, and the method of aggregation (average, maximum, minimum, sum, standard deviation, count) to perform on the data.
  • Guide Text. Optionally, enter a description for the metric.
  1. Select the Save button to save your changes to the metric. The metric will now appear as an Advanced Metric. You can no longer edit this metric in Basic mode.

Metric Formula pane

The Metric Formula pane allows you to define which aggregation object(s) SL1 will use for each metric and also allows you to perform manipulations on those aggregation object(s).

  • The scrolling list below the Metric Formula pane contains a list of all aggregation objects in the current IT Service policy. To include an object in the Metric Formula pane, double-click on it.
  • To use the calculated value of an aggregation object, you can enter only the aggregation object ID in the Metric Formula pane.
  • SL1 can perform additional processing to calculate the values for the metric. To specify additional calculations, you can use any combination of arithmetic operations, numeric values, and aggregation object IDs. Parentheses are used to group and set precedence for operators.
  • You can use the PHP ternary operator when applying calculations to a metric.

For example, suppose you want a metric that shows the percentage of database servers that are up and running.

  • Suppose object o_4095 specifies the sum of all mysqld processes running on all devices in the Database subset.
  • Suppose object o_4096 specifies the device count for all devices in the Database subset.

  • You could enter the following in the Metric Formula pane:

((o_4095/o_4096) * 100)

 

  • This formula allows you to use aggregation objects to calculate a ratio and convert the ratio to a percentage.

Suppose you want assign a secondary value to a metric, based on the current value of the aggregation object, o_10187. For example, suppose you want to assign values like this:

  • If o_10187 > 95% then value = 1
  • If o_10187 > 75 % but < 95% then value = 0.8
  • If o_10187 > 50 % but < 75% then value = 0.5
  • Else value = 0

You could use ternary operators to do this:

(o_10187 > 95) ? 1 : ((o_10187 > 75) ? 0.8 : ((o_10187 > 50) ? 0.5 : 0))

Editing Collection and Aggregation for a Metric in Advanced Mode

When you define and save a metric, SL1 creates the following objects for the metric:

  • Device Metric Collection object. A collection object for a metric specifies the type of performance data that will be aggregated for the metric and the devices in the IT Service for which data will be aggregated.
  • Aggregation object. An aggregation object for a metric specifies the collection object and the method of aggregation (average, maximum, minimum, sum, standard deviation, count, and percentile) to perform on the collected values.
  • Metric definition. The metric definition (which can be edited in the Service Metric Editor (Advanced) page) specifies the name of the metric, the active state for the metric, the unit of measure for the metric, the aggregation object to include in the metric, and any advanced calculations for the metric.

In Advanced mode, you can edit the collection object and aggregation object for an existing metric. In Advanced mode, you can add and edit collection objects, aggregation objects, and the metric formula independently of each other. You can edit the device metric collection object and/or aggregation object for a metric even if you don't want to define an advanced metric formula.

Editing a Collection Object for a Metric

To add or edit a device metric collection object for an existing metric:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().
  2. Select the Metrics tab.
  3. In the Service Metrics Definitions pane, find the metric for which you want to edit the collection object. Note the value in the Device Metric column.
  4. Select the Advanced button to enable Advanced mode.
  5. Select the Collection tab.

  1. In the Device Metric Collections pane, find the collection object you want to edit. It will have the same name as the value you previously noted from the Device Metric column. Select its wrench icon (). If you want to create a new device metric collection object, select the Add button.

  1. The Device Metric Collection Editor modal page appears. In this page, you can define or edit one or more of the following fields:
  • Metric Type. Specifies the type of performance data you want to use for the metric. For a description of each choice, see the section on Defining Metrics.
  • Device Subset. If you have defined one or more device subsets, you can select one in this field. The metric will use data from only devices in the selected subset.
  • Show only metrics available for this IT Service. Filters the succeeding fields so that they display already-defined policies aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset. For example, if you selected Dynamic App in the Metric Type field, and then selected this checkbox, the Dynamic Application field would display only Dynamic Applications that are already aligned with one or more of the devices in the IT Service or in the specified Device Subset.
  • The remaining fields provide further parameters for the Metric Type. For a detailed description of each possible field and field option, see the section on Defining Metrics. If you want to change the parameters of a metric, you can do so in these fields.

  1. Select the OK button to save your changes to the collection object.
  2. Select the Reset button to clear your changes from the device metric collection object and return to the previous values.
  3. Select the Save button in the IT Service Editor page to save your changes.

Editing an Aggregation Object for a Metric

To add or edit an aggregation object for an existing metric:

  • Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().
  • Select the Metrics tab.
  • In the Service Metrics Definitions pane, find the metric for which you want to edit the aggregation object. Note the value in the Device Metric column.
  • Select the Advanced button to enable Advanced mode.

  1. Select the Collection tab.

  1. In the Aggregation Objects pane, find the aggregation object you want to edit. The name for the aggregation object will begin with the value you previously noted from the Device Metric column. Select its wrench icon (). If you want to create a new aggregation object, select the Add button.

  1. The Device Metric Aggregation Editor modal page appears. In this page, you can edit one or more of the following fields:
  • Metric Collection. Displays the name of the device metric collection object and the associated device subset in parentheses. You can select from a list of all device metric collection objects in the current IT Service policy.

  • Aggregation. Specifies how SL1 will aggregate ("crunch") the data specified in the device metric collection object into a single value. Choices are:
  • Average
  • Maximum
  • Minimum
  • Sum
  • Std Dev
  • Count
  • Percentile. Aggregates data by percentile. Enter the percentile value you want to monitor in the field to the right of the Aggregation field. For example, if you select Percentile and enter 65 in the field to the right of the Aggregation field, this metric will contain the value that is at the 65th percentile for each collection of the metric.
  • Aggregation Name. The name of the aggregation object. You can edit this value. By default, the value is the name of the collection object and the value from the Aggregation field in parentheses.
  1. Select the OK button to save your changes to the aggregation object.
  2. Select the Reset button to clear your changes from the aggregation object and return to the previous values.
  3. Select the Save button in the IT Service Editor page to save your changes.

Editing Alerts and Events in Advanced Mode

In Advanced mode, you can edit or define an alert separately from its associated metric.

  • If you created an alert for a metric (when you created the metric), you can edit the alert in Advanced mode.
  • If you did not create an alert for a metric when you created the metric, you can add an alert in Advanced mode.

To edit an existing alert or create an alert for an IT Service policy:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager). Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().
  2. Select the Advanced button to enable Advanced mode.
  3. Select the Alerting tab.
  4. To edit an existing alert, select its wrench icon ().

  1. To create a new alert, select the Add button. The Service Alert Policy Editor modal page appears:

  1. To edit an alert, edit the value in one or more of the following fields. To create an alert, supply a value in each of the following fields.
  • Alert Policy Name. Name of the alert. When you define an alert, SL1 automatically creates an event policy that corresponds to this alert. The value from this field will appear in the name of the event policy.
  • Service Metric Name. Name of the metric associated with the alert. You can select from a list of all metrics in the current IT Service policy.

  • Policy State. Specifies whether SL1 will evaluate this alert every time data is aggregated for the metric. Choices are:
  • Enabled. SL1 will evaluate this alert.
  • Disabled. SL1 will not evaluate this alert.

  • Threshold Type. Specifies how SL1 will trigger an alert and reset the alert.
  • Single Threshold. SL1 will trigger an alert when the metric meets or exceeds a specified threshold. SL1 will clear the alert when the metric no longer meets or exceeds the threshold.
  • Trigger/Reset Thresholds. SL1 will trigger an alert when the metric falls within the "Critical" threshold. SL1 will reset the alert when the metric falls within the "Healthy" threshold.

  • Event Severity. When the alert is generated, SL1 will trigger an event with the selected event severity. Choices are: Critical, Major, Minor, Notice, or Healthy.
  • Decreasing/Increasing. Toggles whether the alert is triggered when the value for the metric is above a specific threshold (Increasing) or below a specific threshold (Decreasing).
  • Alert Threshold. Use sliders to define two thresholds: the threshold at which the alert should be generated and trigger an event and the threshold at which the alert should be reset and no longer trigger an event. You can edit the maximum and minimum values for the threshold by editing the fields that appear at each end of the threshold slider.
  • Event Policy Description. Optionally enter cause and resolution text for the event. When SL1 automatically creates an event policy for this alert, the text you supply in this field will be used to populate the Policy Description field in the Event Policy Editor for the event. If this event is triggered, the text you supply in this field will be displayed in the Event Information modal page for the event.
  1. Select the OK button to save your changes to the alert.
  2. Select the Reset button to clear your changes from the alert and return to the previous values.
  3. Select the Save button in the Alert Policies page to save your changes.

NOTE: To view the event policy associated with an alert, go to the Event Policy Manager page (Registry > Events > Event Manager). In the Event Policy Name column, search for the value from the Alert Policy Name field for the current alert.

Scheduling Downtime for an IT Service

During maintenance mode, SL1 will not aggregate data for the IT Service or generate alerts and events about the IT Service. SL1 will continue to collect information from the devices in the IT Service but will not collect and aggregate information specific to the IT Service policy.

Viewing the Schedule Manager

The Schedule Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Services Manager > wrench icon > Schedule) displays the following information about each scheduled or recurring maintenance period for an IT Service period:

  • Schedule Summary. Displays the name assigned to the scheduled process.
  • Schedule Description. Displays a description of the scheduled process.
  • Event ID. Displays a unique, numeric ID for the scheduled process. SL1 automatically creates this ID for each scheduled process.
  • sch id. Displays a unique, numeric ID for the schedule. SL1 automatically creates this ID for each schedule.
  • Context. Displays the area of SL1 upon which the schedule works.
  • Timezone. Displays the time zone associated with the scheduled process.
  • Start Time. Displays the date and time at which the scheduled process will begin.
  • Duration. Displays the duration, in minutes, which the scheduled process occurs.
  • Recurrence Interval. If applicable, displays the interval at which the scheduled process recurs.
  • End Date. If applicable, displays the date and time on which the scheduled process will recur.
  • Last Run. If applicable, displays the date and time the scheduled process most recently ran.
  • Owner. Displays the username of the owner of the scheduled process.
  • Organization. Displays the organization to which the scheduled process is assigned.
  • Visibility. Displays the visibility level for the scheduled process. Possible values are "Private", "Organization", or "World".
  • Enabled. Specifies if the scheduled process is enabled. Possible values are "Yes" or "No".

To edit a scheduled or recurring maintenance period for an IT Service, click its wrench icon () and update the information as needed on the Schedule Editor modal page. (For more information, see the section Defining a Scheduled or Recurring IT Service Maintenance Period.)

Defining a Scheduled or Recurring IT Service Maintenance Period

You can schedule an maintenance period for an IT Service on the Schedule Manager page. SL1 will automatically set the service to maintenance mode at the scheduled time.

To define a scheduled or recurring IT Service maintenance period:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).

  1. Click the wrench icon () for the IT Service for which you want to schedule maintenance.
  2. Click the Schedule sub-tab. The Schedule Manager modal page appears.
  3. Click Create. The Schedule Editor modal page appears.

  1. On the Schedule Editor modal page, enter values in the following fields:

Basic Settings

  • Schedule Name. Type a name for the scheduled process.

  • Schedule Type. Indicates the scheduled process type (such as Tickets, Reports, or Devices).

  • Visibility. Select the visibility for the scheduled process. You can select one of the following:
  • Private. The scheduled process is visible only to the owner selected in the Owner field.

  • Organization. The scheduled process is visible only to the organization selected in the Organization field.
  • World. The scheduled process is visible to all users.
  • Organization. Select the organization to which you want to assign the scheduled process.
  • Owner. Select the owner of the scheduled process. The default value is the username of the user who created the scheduled process.
  • Preserve Schedule. Select this checkbox to exclude this schedule from being pruned after expiration.
  • Description. Type a description of the scheduled process.

Time Settings

  • Start Time. Click in the field and select the date and time you want the scheduled process to start.

  • End Time. Click in the field and select the date and time you want the scheduled process to end.
  • Time Zone. Select the region or time zone for the scheduled start time.

If you want SL1 to automatically adjust for daylight savings time (if applicable), then you must select a named region (such as America/New York) in the Time Zone field. If you select a specific time zone (such as EST) or a specific time offset (such as GMT-5), then SL1 will not automatically adjust for daylight savings time.

  • All Day. Select this checkbox if the scheduled process occurs all day rather than during a specific period of time. If you do so, the End Time field becomes disabled.

  • Recurrence. Select whether you want the scheduled process to occur once or on a recurring basis. You can select one of the following:
  • None. The scheduled process occurs only once.
  • By Interval. The scheduled process recurs at a specific interval.
  • Every Xth day of the Week. The scheduled process occurs at a monthly interval based on a day of the week. The day of the week displayed in this option matched the day selected in the Start Time field. For example, if you set the Start Time to Thursday, August 5th and that day is the first Thursday of the month, then the recurrence option will be Every 1st Thursday, and the scheduled process will occur monthly on the first Thursday of the month.

If you select By Interval, the following additional fields appear:

  • Interval. In the first field, enter a number representing the frequency of the scheduled process, then select the time interval in the second field. Choices are Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, or Months. For example:
  • If you specify "6 Hours", then the scheduled process recurs every six hours from the time listed in the Start Time field.

  • If you specify "10 Days", then the scheduled process recurs every 10 days from the date listed in the Start Time field.
  • If you specify "2 Weeks", then the scheduled process recurs every two weeks, on the same day of the week as the Start Time.
  • If you specify "3 Months" the ticket recurs every three months, on the same day of the month as the Start Time.

  • Recur Until. Specifies when the scheduled process stops recurring. You can select one of the following:
  • No Limit. The scheduled process recurs indefinitely until it is disabled.
  • Specified Date. The scheduled process recurs until a specific date and time. If you select Specified Date, you must select a date and time in the Last Recurrence field.

  • Last Recurrence. Click in the field and select the date and time you want the scheduled process to stop recurring.
  1. Click Save.

Enabling or Disabling One or More Scheduled IT Service Maintenance Periods

You can enable or disable one or more scheduled or recurring IT Service maintenance periods from the Schedule Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Services Manager > wrench icon > Schedule). To do this:

  1. Go to the Schedule Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Services Manager > wrench icon > Schedule).

  1. Select the checkbox icon for each scheduled process you want to enable or disable.
  2. Click the Select Action menu and choose Enable Schedules or Disable Schedules.
  3. Click the Go button.

Deleting One or More Scheduled IT Service Maintenance Periods

You can delete one or more scheduled or recurring IT Service maintenance periods from the Schedule Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Services Manager > wrench icon > Schedule). To do this:

  1. Go to the Schedule Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Services Manager > wrench icon > Schedule).

  1. Select the checkbox icon for each scheduled process you want to delete.
  2. Click the Select Action menu and choose Delete Schedules.
  3. Click the Go button.

Editing an IT Service Policy

To edit the properties of an IT Service policy:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).

  1. Find the IT Service policy you want to edit. Select its wrench icon ().

  1. The IT Service Editor page is displayed:

  1. Notice that by default the Administration tab is selected and the Properties sub-tab is selected.
  2. You can edit one or more fields in the IT Service Editor page, its sub-tabs, or any of the main tabs for the IT Service.

Deleting an IT Service Policy

To delete one or more IT Service policies:

  1. Go to the IT Service Manager page (Registry > IT Services > IT Service Manager).
  2. Find the IT Service policy you want to delete. Select its checkbox ().
  3. Select the checkbox for each IT Service policy you want to delete.

  • Go to the Select Action field in the lower right of the page. Select Delete IT Services. Select the Go button.

  1. Each selected IT Service policy is removed from SL1.

System Settings that Affect IT Services

Some of the parameters in the Data Retention Settings page affect IT services in SL1.

To define or edit the settings that affect discovery in the Data Retention Settings page:

  1. Go to the Data Retention Settings page (System > Settings > Data Retention).

  1. In the Data Retention Settings page, edit the values in one or more of the following fields:
  • Raw ITSM Data. Before the value for a metric in an IT service policy is calculated, a copy of all the device data that will be aggregated is saved. This setting is the number of days to retain the un-aggregated copies of device data associated with each IT service. The default value is 14 days.

  • ITSM Service Metrics Data. Number of days to retain values for metrics in IT service policies. The default value is 30 days.
  • Hourly Rollup ITSM Service Metrics Data. Number of days to retain hourly normalized values for metrics in IT service policies. The default value is 120 days.
  • Daily Rollup ITSM Service Metrics Data. Number of days to retain daily normalized values for metrics in IT service policies. The default value is 365 days.
  • ITSM Key Metrics Data. Number of days to retain values for key metrics in IT service policies (Health, Availability, and Risk). The default value is 120 days.
  • Hourly Rollup ITSM Key Metrics Data. Number of days to retain hourly normalized values for key metrics in IT service policies (Health, Availability, and Risk). The default value is 365 days.
  • Daily Rollup ITSM Key Metrics Data. Number of days to retain daily normalized values for key metrics in IT service policies (Health, Availability, and Risk). The default value is 720 days.
  1. Select the Save button to save changes in this page.

IT Service Policies in PowerPacks

IT Service policies can be included in PowerPacks for export and import between SL1 systems.

When an IT Service policy is included in a PowerPack, the following properties of the IT Service policy are included:

  • The settings defined in the Properties sub-tab in the IT Service Editor. However, the following system-specific values are substituted when the PowerPack is installed:
  • The IT Service Owner field is set to the user that installed the PowerPack.
  • The values that were selected in the Permission Keys field are removed.

  • The dynamic device rules defined in the Model sub-tab in the IT Service Editor. Statically aligned devices, device groups, and service dependencies are not included.
  • The device subsets defined in the Model sub-tab in the IT Service Editor. However, only dynamic device rules are included in those subsets. Statically aligned devices are not included.
  • All settings defined in the Metrics, Collection, and Alerting sub-tabs in the IT Service Editor.

When a PowerPack that includes an IT Service policy is installed on a SL1 system, the following items are also installed by the PowerPack:

  • All event policies associated with the IT Service policy.
  • All interface tags that are specified in a metric in the IT Service policy.

Additionally, if a metric uses a Dynamic Application that is not included in the same PowerPack, SL1 will automatically include the Dynamic Application in the PowerPack. When the PowerPack is installed on a SL1 system, SL1 will install the Dynamic Application (with their aligned PowerPack GUIDs). However, if SL1 discovers one or more of the Dynamic Applications in the PowerPack already exists on the SL1 system, SL1 will not overwrite the existing Dynamic Applications.