An alarm action is an operation that occurs in response to a condition, state, or event that causes an alarm to trigger.
In the new version, VMware provides a list of preconfigured actions you can associate with an alarm. For example, alarm actions for hosts include rebooting the host and putting the host in maintenance mode. Alarm actions for virtual machines include powering on, powering off, and suspending the virtual machine.
Although the action are preconfigured, you must manually set up certain aspects of the action, such as having the action occur when a warning is triggered or when an alert is triggered, and whether to repeat the action. You can configure alarm actions to repeat in the following ways:
- At a specified time interval after an alarm triggers. For example, if an alarm triggers because a physical host is not responding, you can have an email message sent every 10 minutes until the host is returned to a connected state or until the alarm trigger is suppressed.
- Until the alarm is explicitly acknowledged by an administrator. When you acknowledge an alarm, the alarm actions are suppressed. The alarm trigger is not reset; it remains in its current state until the triggering condition, state, or event is no longer valid.
Some alarm actions, such as sending notification emails or traps, and running a script, require additional configuration.
