Alert History: This type contains a history of the normal alerts that have occurred and been cleared automatically. This type exists to allow you to keep a record of any past conditions that have occurred on the Compellent Storage Center.The Alert Monitor view provides a listing of current and past alerts that are relevant to operation and maintenance of the Compellent Storage Center.
Alerts are indicators of a variety of events on the Compellent Storage Center. They come in a variety of types and categories. To better understand alerts, you must first understand the various flavors of alerts and what they mean.
Alert Types
Alerts: This type contains normal alerts. These alerts represent current issues present on the Compellent Storage Center. They are also being monitored by the system. The alerts will clear themselves automatically if the situation that caused the alert corrects itself. Once an alert of this type becomes cleared, a record that it occurred can be found under the Alert History category. Alerts of type Alert are the only alerts that impact the system status. For more information about system status, see the System Status section below.
Indications: This type contains alerts that are for informational purposes only. These alerts exist to inform you of an event or warn you about a condition on the Compellent Storage Center that may require direct user intervention to correct.
Maintenance: This type contains any alerts that occur while the Compellent Storage Center's Operation Mode is set to Install, Maintenance, or PreProduction. This type exists to isolate these alerts from alerts that occur during normal operation.
Alert History: This type contains a history of the normal alerts that have occurred and been cleared automatically. This type exists to allow you to keep a record of any past conditions that have occurred on the Compellent Storage Center.
Alert Status
Down: Alerts with an alert status of Down indicate that an item on the Compellent Storage Center is down and not currently operational.
Critical: Alerts with an alert status of Critical indicate that an item on the Compellent Storage Center is in a critical state and may be nearing failure.
Emergency: Alerts with an alert status of Emergency indicate that an item on the Compellent Storage Center requires immediate attention in order to remain operational.
Degraded: Alerts with an alert status of Degraded indicate that an item on the Compellent Storage Center is currently operating in a degraded mode. Items in this condition may operate in degraded mode indefinitely, but are not functioning to their full capability.
Unavailable: Alerts with an alert status of Unavailable indicate that an item on the Compellent Storage Center that is expected to be present cannot currently be found for use.
Inform: Alerts with an alert status of Inform provide information regarding some operation that is occurring or has occurred on the Compellent Storage Center.
Complete: Alerts with an alert status of Complete indicate that an operation on the Compellent Storage Center has completed.
Alert Category
Alerts can occur in various categories depending upon the area of the Compellent Storage Center affected. The category of the alert is indicated by the icon that appears before the alert message.
Storage: Alerts in the Storage category notify you of issues related to volumes, replays, and pagepools.
Disk: Alerts in the Disk category notify you of issues related to disks.
Connectivity: Alerts in the Connectivity category notify you of issues related to connectivity between the Compellent Storage Center and servers or enclosures.
Hardware: Alerts in the Hardware category notify you of issues related to the state of physical hardware, such as enclosures and disks.
System: Alerts in the System category notify you of issues related broadly to the Compellent Storage Center system.
Other: Alerts in the Other category cover issues not related to any of the above categories.
The current status of the Compellent Storage Center is indicated by the color of the System Status icon in the top-right corner of the System Manager software. The color of this icon changes depending upon the types of unacknowledged alerts that exist in the Alert category.
Red (Critical): The System Status icon will appear red when an alert exists that has a status of Down, Critical, or Emergency. When the System Status icon is red, this indicates a condition that requires prompt attention.
Yellow (Warning): The System Status icon will appear yellow when an alert exists that has a status of Degraded or Unavailable. When the System Status icon is yellow, this indicates a condition of which you should be aware, but that does not require immediate attention.
Green (Normal): The System Status icon will appear green when no alerts exist, when the only alerts that exist are of status Inform or Complete, or when all existing alerts have been acknowledged.
Alerts in the Alert and Maintenance categories can be acknowledged to indicate to the Compellent Storage Center that you have read the alert message and are aware of the problem. Once all alerts of status Down, Critical, Emergency, Degraded, or Unavailable have been acknowledged, the System Status icon will return to the green (normal) state until additional Down, Critical, Emergency, Degraded, or Unavailable alerts occur.
Alerts in the Indication and Alert History categories can be deleted. Once an alert is deleted, it cannot be recovered.
Many alerts are associated with items that can be monitored in other areas of the System Manager software. These items are displayed in the Object column. To see more information about one of these objects, select the alert and then select the Show... button in the Alert Monitor toolbar.
For example, if you have an alert indicating that New Volume 1 is down, you can select that alert, then select the Show New Volume 1 in System Explorer button. The System Explorer will be brought forward and New Volume 1 will be selected.
Note that some alerts do not have a related object to display. For these alerts, the Object column is blank.
Many views and wizards in the Compellent System Manager share the following common items.
Storage Management menu: This menu provides access to most Storage Center commands.
View menu: This menu allows you to open different views within the System Manager.
Refresh button: Selecting the Refresh button refreshes the data displayed in all views currently open in the System Manager.
Help menu: This menu provides links to additional information about the Storage Center.
System Time: Indicates the current time on the Storage Center. Clicking on the System Time opens the Time Settings wizard, allowing you to change the time settings for the Storage Center.
Log Off button: Selecting the Log Off button logs you out of the Compellent System Manager.
System Status: The System Status indicator represents the current status of the Storage Center. The indicator will be green, yellow, or red depending upon the severity of alerts currently present on the Storage Center. Select the System Status button to view additional status information in the Alert Monitor view.
Shortcut menu: The shortcut menu bar at the top of the System Manager will be altered based upon the currently selected item. The options presented are specific to the selected item. In many views, these options can also be accessed by right-clicking on the item.
Advisor Pages: Most windows include advisor pages with additional information about the commands and data displayed in the window. To open an advisor page, select the Advisor button.