My general users do not have access to view variable values and their related equation terms (ie: greater than, less than, equal to, etc.) unless an Event is triggered on that Component. Even then, as you will see in the examples below, the equation term is not displayed. The only way to see these threshold values and equation terms is by editing the related Component Monitor which I don't allow my general users to do. The reason why having access to this information is important is to allow the general user to evaluate a situation. For example, they may be researching an issue unrelated to a filesystem but want to know when an alert for that filesystem would trigger in SAM. By knowing the Component Output value for the filesystem size, knowing the threshold values for Warning and Critical and knowing the equation term associated, they can have a better picture of when that filesystem might trigger an alert.
Threshold values shown for Component with triggered Event:
Threshold values NOT shown for Component without triggered Event:
Today I have built into my monitor scripts the ability to create field prompts that provide the general user with a readable field name (also see my Feature Request and vote there) prompt that includes the equation term, Warning threshold value and Critical threshold value (aka "Value Name Prompt" here). The threshold representation is shown within the square brackets ("[ ]") as part of the message in the above examples.
Part of this Value Name Prompt is hard-coded. The Warning and Critical values are downloaded in variables from SAM along with the script to run on the monitored node. However the "=" and ">" signs are hard-coded into the script meaning that if the equation term is changed within the SAM Component Monitor, this display would be incorrect and thus would throw off manual evaluations like described above.
So... What I am proposing is that the equation term, like the Warning and Critical threshold values, be stored in a variable for use within the script.
For those still on the fence here, consider this... Note the first field displayed above is "Filesystem Status" for this filesystem monitor. The status field in my design is used to be a roll up of all problems found during the poll. Therefore, within my script, I need to evaluate the filesystem size against the threshold values in order to report issues with filesystem size in the "Filesystem Status" field. In order to successfully do that, I need to know the real equation term.
One might ask why I have the "Filesystem Status" field which is a valid question. When designing the Alerts for issues related to Components I found that the "Component Message" (ie: ${Component.Message}) variable which you can use in messages, such as email messages or log posts, returns the value of the first Component Output field and not the Component Output field with the issue. Even if it did report the Component Output field that has the issue, if there was more than one Component Output field with an issue, the message would be incomplete unless it reported the messages from all Component Output fields with issues which it does not. Yes there is a ${N=SwisEntity;M=ComponentAlert.MultiValueMessages} variable which lists the values of all Component Output fields but it is not quickly readable and does not point out Component Output fields with issues. That means that the only way to get the actual problem listed in the message, without listing the values of all fields for the user to interpret, was to combine all problems to a summary Component Output field value in the first Component Output field position and use the ${Component.Message} variable to pass those along in the message. Confusing, I know... If you want me to better describe, let me know.
I should also mention that making the threshold values available within the SAM webpages even when no Event is triggered does not solve this problem. Adding the equation term in those SAM webpage displays also does not solve the problem although these two fixes would be helpful. The only real way to fully solve the problems I have is to make the equation term available to the monitor script as a variable value for each Component Output field.
