NMS Policy Settings

This article discusses the Add/Edit NMS Alert Policy settings pages in the Kentik portal. For background on Kentik’s Alerting system, first read these articles:

• For the step-by-step procedures for managing alert policies, see Manage Alert Policies.

• For an NMS alert policies overview, see About NMS Policies.

• For other alerting articles, see Policy Alerts Overview, Alerting, Notifications, and Mitigations.

Note: Kentik has deprecated Up/Down policies in favor of the more powerful NMS policies described in this article. Existing Up/Down policies remain available in the portal and can be managed with the legacy policy settings page.

Add/Edit NMS Alert Policy Page

This section covers the UI elements of the Add/Edit NMS Alert Policy pages.

Access these settings pages as follows:

• Add NMS Alert Policy Page: Alerting » Alert Policies » Add Alert Policy. Select the NMS card.

• Edit NMS Alert Policy Page: Alerting » Alert Policies. Click Edit Policy from the policy’s action menu (vertical dots icon).

Subnav

The subnav elements are as follows:

• Cancel: Click to exit without saving.

• Create (Add only): Click to create the new policy and return to the Policies page. Only active when all required settings are complete and error-free.

• Save (Edit only): Click to save changes and exit.

• Remove (Edit only): Click to remove the alert policy.

General Tab

The General Tab settings:

• Name: The name of the policy. Maximum of 50 characters; must include at least one letter.

• Description (optional): A description of the policy; used to summarize what the policy looks at and indicate what it is used for.

• Enable Policy: Defaults to On. Click Off to disable the policy.

Target & Filters Tab

The Target & Filters Tab settings:

• 

  Policy Type: Select a type for the new policy, one of Agent, BGP Neighbor, Component, Device, Event, Interface, or Custom (see NMS Policy Types).

• Measurements: Click the field to select metrics from the dropdown (filtered by Policy Type). Displays lozenges for selected metrics. Click the X to remove a lozenge.  

• Devices: Select devices for this policy to monitor:

  • Selected devices list: Shows lozenges for selected devices. Click X to remove a lozenge.

  • Edit Devices (button): Opens the Data Sources dialog.

• Dimension Filters: Add filters to narrow the scope of dimension values this policy will monitor.

  • Selected filters list: Shows cards for dimension filters as they are added.

  • Add Dimension Filters (button): Click to open the Filters dialog (see Filters Settings). Available for Agent, BGP Neighbor, Component, Device, Interface policy types only.

  • Edit Dimensions (button): Click to open the Group By Dimensions dialog. Available for Event policy type only.

Activate & Clear Tab

The Activate & Clear Tab settings:

• Severity: Choose a severity level for alerts activated by this policy. Default is Major.

• Alert Condition Groups: Add groups of conditions to be met before the policy triggers alerts.

  • Any/All dropdown for top-level condition group

  • Cards for conditions in the groups

    • Any/All/None dropdown for conditions

    • Add Condition: Opens the  

      • Measurement/Metric dropdowns (filtered by Policy Type)

      • Comparison dropdown: Equals, etc.

      • Value: Enter value in the format indicated in red (e.g., float, percent as float)

      • Delete condition (X)

    • Add Nested Condition Group: Add up to 3 levels of nested condition groups within each top-level group.

    • Remove Group: Removes a nested condition group.

  • Add Condition Group: Add a new top-level condition group.

• Acknowledgment Required: Enable the switch to require a user to acknowledge this policy’s alerts (see Alerts List).

• Manual Clear Required: Enable the switch to require manual clearing of alerts that are no longer in an alarm state (see Alerts List).

• Notification Channels: View and assign notification channels to this policy (see About Notifications):

  • Assign a Channel: Click to drop down a filterable channel list and select a channel. Repeat as needed.

  • Assigned channels show as lozenges in the field.

  • Click the X in a lozenge to remove the channel.

• Add New Channel: A button that opens the Add Notification Channel dialog (see Notification Dialogs UI) where you can create a new channel and add it to the policy automatically.

• Test Notification Channels: Click to send test notifications to all assigned channels. Active only when notification channels are selected.

• Activation Delay: Enter the number of minutes to wait before starting the alert. If the alert would have cleared within this period, the alert won’t start at all.

• Clearance Delay: Enter the number of minutes to wait before clearing the alert. If the alert would have restarted within this period, the alert will not be cleared.

Data Sources Dialog

The Data Sources dialog allows you to add devices to the alert policy, including:

• Search: Enter terms to filter the Device Selector list.

• Cancel: Click the X at the upper right, or Cancel at the lower right, to exit the dialog without saving.

• Device Selector: Left pane listing methods of selecting devices:

  • All Devices (default): Include all devices.

  • Labels: Add devices by selecting one or more labels (see Labels).

  • Sites: Add devices by selecting one or more sites (see Sites).

• View Selections: Right pane summarizing device selections:

  • Lozenges for each selected label/site

  • Click X to remove the selection

  • Click > on a site lozenge to show assigned devices

• Save: Click Save to confirm the device selections and exit.

NMS Policy Types

The following table describes the policy types for NMS alert policies, listing the related metrics for each:

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