Using Alarms
In addition to using the charts and high-level information tabs, you can create alarms for VMs, hosts, networks, and datastores based on predefined triggers provided with vCenter Server. Depending on the object, these alarms can monitor resource consumption or the state of the object and alert you when certain conditions have been met, such as high resource usage or even low resource usage. These alarms can then provide an action that informs you of the condition by email or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) trap. An action can also automatically run a script or offer other means to correct the problem the VM or host is experiencing.
With each revision of vSphere, VMware continues to add to the number of built-in default alarms. As you can see in Figure 13.2, the alarms that come with vCenter Server are defined at the topmost object, the vCenter Server object.
FIGURE 13.2 The default alarms for objects in vCenter Server are defined on the vCenter Server object itself...
