A Self-Monitoring alarm will trigger when an Automonitor generation failed, Static monitor failed or Data collection failed.

Here is an example of the alarm in the vmware probe:

   Self-Monitoring Failures for 'ESX01:VM.GuestMemoryUsage': Data Collection (2 of 10 failed).  See vmware.log for more details

Here is an example of the alarm in the HP_3Par probe:

Failed to update/fix details for static monitor 'HO-3PAR2.Storage Total Capacity'

Release: 8.x or newer

This alarm feature is available in some monitoring probes.

The purpose of the alarm

This is an indication of data collection in your monitor (metric).

How to disable the alarm feature

Open your probe in Raw Configure, and add the below key under <setup> section.

   enable_self_monitoring_alarm = false

How to change the severity of the alarm

Open your probe in Raw Configure, and add the below key under <setup> section.

   self_monitoring_alarm_severity = <Desired number>

   (5-Critical, 4-Major, 3-Minor, 2-Warning, 1-Informational). Default is 4

How to change the alarm to be generated per failed metric than failed metric 'type'

Open your probe in Raw Configure, and add the below key under <setup> section.

   enable_self_monitoring_alarm_aggregation = false

By default, the probe aggregates self-monitoring alarms based on monitor type.

For example, if “GuestMemoryUsage" metric data collections failed for 2 VMs, it will aggregate them and only one alarm will be generated.

   Self-Monitoring Failures for 'ESX01:VM.GuestMemoryUsage': Data Collection (2 of 10 failed).  See vmware.log for more details

This aggregated alarm will indicate how many failed (e.g. - 2 out of 10 failed). With that change, the probe will generate an alarm for each incident, like below.


   Failed to collect data for monitor 'VM01.GuestMemoryUsage'. Updated value will not be available.
   Failed to collect data for monitor 'VM02.GuestMemoryUsage'. Updated value will not be available.

How to not send the same alarm when the data failure continues to happen

Open your probe in Raw Configure, and add the below key under <setup> section.

   enable_self_monitoring_alarm_same_error_suppression = true

By default the probe will resend the same failing self-monitoring alarm each probe collection cycle with the same suppression key.
With that change, the alarm will only be sent when it occurred under the first occurrence, if the number of errors changed or if the probe is restarted.

Finally this error can be caused by outdated static alarm definitions