Question on polling interval + wait time

Yes the system will still perform data collection independent of the alerting engine.

There are multiple timers involved when it comes to alerting on CPU utilisation.

1. Node Statistics polling interval - every 5 mins per your post (default 10 mins) - this is how often the system will collect the CPU data
2. Alert interval - not listed but default is 1 minute. This is how often the alerting engine will check these alert conditions against the database
3. Trigger condition timer - you said 10 minutes

The system will continue to poll regardless of the other timers so every 5 minutes a new database entry will be recorded with the date/time and the CPU usage.

The alert interval will check the database every 1 minute checking to see if your trigger condition matches (e.g. CPU is > X% or whatever you have defined).

If the alerting engine matches that trigger condition, it will then start the 10 minute "condition must exist timer". The alerting engine will still check the database every 1 minute to make sure the conditions still match. If at the end of the 10 minutes the conditions are still true, then it will trigger the alert and perform whatever actions are defined in the Trigger Actions tab.

So you will have something like:

• T0 - Alert check, no match
• T0.5 - CPU is 97%
• T1 - Alert check, match, start 10 minute timer
• T2 - Alert check, still match
• T3 - Alert check, still match
• T4 - Alert check, still match
• T5 - Alert check, still match
• T5.5 - CPU is 98%
• T6 - Alert check, still match
• T7 - Alert check, still match
• T8 - Alert check, still match
• T9 - Alert check, still match
• T10 - Alert check, still match
• T10.5 - CPU is 94%
• T11 - Alert check, still match, 10 minute timer reached, trigger alert

Or if the CPU drops below whatever condition you have defined:

• T0 - Alert check, no match
• T0.5 - CPU is 97%
• T1 - Alert check, match, start 10 minute timer
• T2 - Alert check, still match
• T3 - Alert check, still match
• T4 - Alert check, still match
• T5 - Alert check, still match
• T5.5 - CPU is 12%
• T6 - Alert check, no longer matches trigger condition, cancel timer. No alert.