Inheriting Alerts

dhechledhechle Posts: 12
edited January 18, 2011 6:07AM in SQL Monitor Previous Versions
Hi,
I have a query about the way the inheritence works for the alert configuration in SQL Monitor.
I customised the Long-running query alert at the All Servers level to exclude SQL commands like BACKUP and DBCC. This then is applied to the groups below such as Production, UAT etc.
I then customised the same alert at a lower level in the hierarchy (e.g. a SQL instance under production) and I can see that what ever SQL commands were in the exclude dialog box at All Servers are inherited at this level and I can then add to them.
The problem is if I then add another exclusion at the All Servers level this is not propogated to the customised alert lower down in the tree.
This means I would then have to go through each customised level to add what else I wanted to exclude to All Servers, is this the way it should work or am I doing something wrong?

Also, not sure if it has been mentioned but a maintenance window or such like would be good to ignore alerts at a specified time, i.e. between 00:00 and 06:00.

thanks,

Dave

Comments

  • Hi Dave,

    What you've described is the intended behavior.

    Once you have customized an alert at a particular level, changing the alert at a level above in the hierarchy does not overwrite the customized setting. So, in your case, when you have customized the alert for a particular production instance, changing the alert at either the group level, or the All Servers level won't affect that instance.

    This is deliberate, as it allows you to set up various exceptions to your basic alert settings - and keep those exceptions even when you tinker with the basic settings.

    I think your confusion may arise from the fact that when you customize your instance, the excluded commands are not actually propagated from the higher levels - the "BACKUP" and "DBCC" commands appear in the box as a default starting point for you to adjust the alert. As soon as you set "Customize at this level" though, the connection to any level higher up the hierarchy is broken. So, when you edit the All Servers level, this has NO EFFECT at all on any lower customized levels .

    My suggestion is perhaps to do the following:
    1. Change the setting for your customized instance to "Inherit settings" and inherit from all servers.
    2. Edit the All servers level with your set of exclusions.
    3. Go back to your customized instance and set it back to "Customize settings for this level"
    4. By default, the same set of exclusions is offered. Add any extra you want. Save the alert.

    If you like, we can also raise a feature request for a "Remove all customizations" option at the All Servers level, which will propagate the changes at the top level downwards, and overwrite any customizations?

    Hope this makes sense.

    Also, maintenance windows are coming very shortly, in version 2.2.

    Regds,
    Brian Harris
    - Project Manager, SQL Backup
    - Red Gate Software Ltd.
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