Call-home / Alerting

QuantaStor has a number of mechanisms for call-home alerting when systems report hardware or software issues. They include standard mechanisms like email and SNMP but also include various cloud based call-home mechanisms which are "web-hook" based.

• Email
• SNMP
• PagerDuty
• Slack
• Mattermost
• User supplied custom script (/var/opt/osnexus/alerthandlers)

The Alert Manager also allows one to specify thresholds for low storage pool capacity remaining. Administrators should take action to expand the available capacity or migrate resources to ensure continuous normal operation of systems whenever a pool reaches 80% full as performance can degrade and an out-of-space condition can lead to downtime for users. For more information on the configuration of PagerDuty and other monitoring mechanisms see the Monitoring and Cloud Metrics Integration guide here.

Navigation: Storage Management --> Storage System --> Storage System --> Alert Manager (toolbar)

In QuantaStor, the Alert Manager serves as a crucial component for monitoring and managing alerts and notifications within the storage environment. The primary purpose of the Alert Manager is to provide a centralized system for configuring, tracking, and responding to various events and conditions that occur within the QuantaStor system. The Alert Manager enables administrators to define specific thresholds, rules, and conditions that, when triggered, generate alerts or notifications. These alerts can be related to a wide range of system events, such as hardware failures, storage capacity utilization, performance degradation, temperature warnings, disk errors, and other critical events that require attention. Key functionalities and purposes of the Alert Manager in QuantaStor include: Alert configuration: Administrators can configure alert rules and thresholds based on their specific requirements. This involves setting up criteria that, when met, trigger an alert. For example, if a disk reaches a certain temperature, an alert can be generated. Notification management: The Alert Manager allows administrators to define how they want to be notified when alerts occur. Notifications can be sent through various channels such as email, SNMP traps, syslog, or custom scripts. This ensures that administrators are promptly informed about critical events. Alert tracking and history: The Alert Manager keeps a record of all generated alerts, allowing administrators to review and track the history of events. This helps in troubleshooting and identifying recurring issues or patterns. Alert response and automation: Depending on the severity of the alert, administrators can take appropriate actions to mitigate the issue. The Alert Manager can be integrated with automation tools or scripts to enable automated responses, such as restarting a service or initiating a failover process. Integration with external monitoring systems: QuantaStor's Alert Manager often supports integration with external monitoring systems or tools, such as Nagios or Zabbix. This allows for centralized alert management and streamlines the monitoring workflow. By utilizing the Alert Manager in QuantaStor, administrators can proactively monitor the storage environment, identify potential issues, and take prompt actions to maintain system health, performance, and availability. It's important to note that the specific capabilities and configuration options of the Alert Manager may vary depending on the version of QuantaStor and the specific setup of your environment. For detailed information and instructions, I recommend referring to the official QuantaStor documentation or contacting OSNexus support. Navigation: Storage Management --> Storage Systems --> Storage System --> Alert Manager (toolbar) ITSM Integrations IT Service Management (ITSM) modules make it easy to integrate alerting with popular ITSM service providers via webhook URL. Email Alerts SMTP Mail Server Settings The settings in this box are required for routing the alerts to the appropriate mail server. SMTP Server Address: Provide the address for an accessible SMTP relay or mail server. Connection Security: Choose the appropriate security setting. Options are None, STARTTLS, or SSL/TLS. SMTP User/Password: Provide a username and password that has access to the provided SMTP server. Email Sender/Recipient You can provide an email address or distribution list for appropriate storage administrators who will be monitoring Quantastor. This address will receive all levels of alerts; Informational, Warning and Critical. If you prefer to only receive some alert levels, you can configure alert subscriptions at the User level for user e-mail addresses inside of the User Add or User Modify dialogs. This is the mail address that will be presented in the "From" line of the email. The address should be easily identifiable and unique to the specific Quantastor system so that administrators can quickly note the source of the alert. Append Alerts to Syslog Uses the logger tool to append alerts to '/var/log/syslog' Capacity Alert Thresholds Capacity alerts are generated when Storage Pools or quota limited Network Shares cross one of the three levels of capacity alert thresholds. The 'warning' threshold is an early warning that indicates free-space is getting low. The 'urgent' threshold provides a follow-up reminder alert after the warning level has been crossed and the final 'critical' alert threshold indicates action should be taken immediately. Share Quotas can be easily addressed by increasing the quota. Storage Pools should generally be expanded at 30% remaining to maintain performance levels. Storage Pool - Low Free Space Alerts Here you can customize the threshold triggers for Storage Pool capacity alerts. Three levels of severity are available. Share Quota Low-space This lets you set the percentage you will get a warning at for your share quota space being low. Separate alarms can be set under the Warning, Critical, and Urgent categories. Generate Test Alert This button will bring up a new window that can be used to send a test alert. Enter in a sample message and press ok. Note: you must first save your settings by pressing the OK button on the Alert Manager window before sending a Test Alert. Alert Types Alerts may be disabled or paused for 30 days in order to silence persistent alerts while maintenance work is being done. Filtering is supported by clicking on the Title column, checking Filters, and entering the desired text. SNMP As an option one can mandate the use of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Credentials.

External Monitoring

Besides access via REST APIs and the scriptable QS CLI, QuantaStor supports traditional protocols like SNMP and cloud services like Librato Metrics and Idera Uptime Cloud Monitor Integration.

Generating Alerts

QuantaStor systems report alerts at various severity levels like ERROR and WARNING. For example, when a disk or battery needs to be replaced it will produce WARNING and some ERROR level events from the controller which in turn generate alerts. Alerts are sent via all configured mechanisms so a system with email and PagerDuty configured will see events send to administrators both via email and PagerDuty mechanisms. To generate a test alert one may use the qs alert-raise QS CLI command or use the Generate Test Alert button in the QuantaStor web management interface.