Triggering false alerts

Question

Hi All,

We added five new servers to SW today, and for each one, SW created a false alert for low space on the C drive. These alerts seemed to have cleared on the next poll or so. What would be the possible cause for this?

Thanks.

bobmarley · Answer

Your alert logic may not have the condition of Not Equal to Unknown set in it and on the original poll that is what was returned could be possible.

midniteskys · Answer

There are a few possible causes for the false low disk space alerts on the newly added servers:

Initial disk space measurement: When a new server is added to SolarWinds, it may take some time for SolarWinds to gather accurate disk space usage data. This is because SolarWinds polls the server for disk space usage at regular intervals, and it may take a few polls to get an accurate reading. As a result, SolarWinds may initially report a low disk space usage value, even though the disk space usage is actually not low.

Temporary disk usage spikes: It is also possible that the newly added servers experienced temporary spikes in disk usage that caused the false alerts. This could be due to things like installing software, running updates, or performing backups.

SolarWinds configuration issue: There could also be an issue with the SolarWinds configuration that is causing the false alerts. For example, the alert threshold for low disk space may be set too low, or the polling interval may be too frequent.

Here are some troubleshooting steps that you can take to identify the cause of the false alerts:

Check the disk space usage history for the affected servers. This will help you to determine if the low disk space usage was actually a temporary spike.

Review the SolarWinds configuration for low disk space alerts. Make sure that the alert threshold is set appropriately and that the polling interval is not too frequent.

Here are some additional tips for preventing false low disk space alerts:

Set the alert threshold for low disk space to a reasonable level. For example, you may want to set the threshold to 5% of the total disk space.

Use a longer polling interval for low disk space alerts. This will help to reduce the number of alerts that are triggered by temporary spikes in disk usage.

Monitor the disk space usage of your servers on a regular basis. This will help you to identify any trends or patterns that could lead to false alerts.