Better Alerting capabilities.

lcsw2013

I feel like alot of feature that use to be in Alert Central should of been native to NPM as the currently alerting capabilities are limited and have been the same since prior to version 11. With just minimal changes done throughout the years. Example. with an alert it would be good to also have the ability to setup escalations where first alert would go to first level, if not answered in a certain amount of time a second alert triggers for second level, if that isn't acknowledged then third alert would email management. Also, being able to see schedules of on-call techs would be greatly helpful in helping our NOC tech's know who to call for alerts that come in.

It would be nice to have more room for more information in the alert console in the solarwinds console. Our company does not rely on emails as much, due to the fact that NOC monitors all alerts and dispatches accordingly. So they monitor the console instead. It would be nice to have a flashing color to indicate urgent alerts that need action.

Overall all the feature request is basically to fortify the alerting system of NPM to offer a suit of different options to make it more robust. As apposed to just offering basic alert solution. If alert central in general was a replacement for the current alerting solution that would also be great, especially since Alert Central is no longer offered as a free tool by solarwinds. 

lcsw2013

I see that SolarWinds went a different direction by choosing OpsGenie as a partner for alerting services. That's fine and all. But for the organization I work for we have already invested enough on this solution and have no more money to put down for additional capabilities. And have high expectations for a software so highly rated. We feel it's a bit unfair to pay and invest so much to have a product that is strong but with many weak spots like alerting. We still believe that even with OpsGenie, SolarWinds should still fortify thier own alerting agent to help.

Here are some key components we need but currently do not have. (This is mostly for the monitoring team in our NOC):

1. Since everything is piped through a central point then disbursed. E-mail is not really a top priority unless a team requests to be emailed directly when an alert triggers. But for the NOC it is better to have a more functional, feature rich alerting console on the SolarWinds console. Ability to add more characters instead of being character limited in description and name. Allow ability to quickly check if certain alerts have come up before and what is the critical of it. Also, displaying instructions on what to do for the alert and whom to contact. Right now there is confusion due to character limit in description, they can't understand confidently what the alert is. Secondly, they aren't sure what to properly do when an alert trigger, how urgent is, if a ticket is needed, and who should be contacted and in what time frame. They instead rely on old paper spreadsheets that are often outdated and never really updated.

Alert central has the capability to enhance many of the above alloying us to structure our monitoring better and to be more efficient.

2. Conditions are currently limited in how deep an alert condition can be modified and how much can the alerting engine actually complete. I've had to turn down requests because the alerting engine simply will not do what is being requested. Thus causing other teams to pressure management to find other solutions. Which puts pressure on me as the administrator. Same applies to action. If an alert triggers there should be escalations where first it alerts NOC, next it can email second level support, and finally ring all bells with management to make sure issues are resolved correctly. Again, Alert Central had features that could do this. Even though it's EOL, we still plan to install it over the OpsGenie solution. We rather have the solution in house for us to control rather than to give to a third party and have them control it.

3. Monitoring is strong with all the modules we have and that's one reason upper management refuses to change to another software for monitoring. The just wish that alerting abilities where just as strong. Same goes for reporting and other management aspects of the software that are currently not living to their true potential.

It is my hope this feature request reaches the right product managers and development of solarwinds for them to understand the value they will add to a strong product just by strengthening key areas of the software. Make a complete monitor and management suit instead of just a monitoring software with minor management abilities and I bet that SolarWinds will stand out as number one in the this side of industry. Way WAY ahead of the competition.