Alerting Thresholds

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Overview

Follow the link from Edit Folder or Edit Location. The same link is available for enabled Broadband or Cellular on the Features tab of edit watch.

This dialog enables Admin users to customise the thresholds which Highlight uses to generate alert emails (if set up) and change the colour of heat tiles. You can define thresholds on a folder or location, or on individual broadband/cellular watches. Each threshold is inherited by everything below that point unless you override it.

Usage

You will see each threshold in one of two possible states:

Inherited:

As shown in Congestion above, the field is read-only and greyed out meaning the setting is inherited from the folder or location listed on the right. Use Override to disregard the inherited value and create a local, custom setting.

Defined locally:

As shown in Utilisation above, the field is editable with a white background meaning the setting is defined at this point in the tree. Change the value here or alternatively use Revert to/Revert All to remove a local definition and return to inheriting the value. Highlight displays the potential inheritance location and value (unless this is from a folder to which the user does not have access).

After saving, there is a delay of approximately ten minutes for new alerting thresholds for changes to appear in Highlight.

The Save button is greyed out if no changes have been made.

This dialog is divided into 5 tabs as shown in the sections on this page.

WiFi

Client Count	The number of client devices connected to an AP (Access Point). This setting affects the Client Count chart on the Details page for an AP as well as email alerts and heat tile colour. Default is 30.
Wireless Utilisation	The percent utilisation of the two radio channels, 2.4GHz and 5GHz on that AP. This setting affects the Channel Load chart and the utilisation chart in the Access Points usage panel (on the controller Details page) as well as email alerts and heat tile colour. Default threshold is 50%.
Congestion	Indicates how congested the AP radio networks are and uses the percent of send attempts that require retransmissions as the metric. Default threshold is 12% (120,000 PPM).
Signal Problems	The percentage of clients with a poor signal strength (1 or 2 bars or below 20 decibels). Default threshold is 25%. If fewer than 5 clients are connected, alerts are not raised as this is considered too small a sample. This setting affects the Signal Problems line on the Client Count chart on the Details page for an AP as well as email alerts and heat tile colour.

Bearers

Utilisation	The percent utilisation (traffic load) of the bearer based on the bandwidth setting. Default threshold is 80%.
Dormant utilisation	Dormant watches are not expected to pass traffic. Any traffic above the threshold will trigger Highlight's alerting mechanism. Default threshold is 1000 Kbps.
Congestion	(Discards) The percentage of overall packets discarded due to congestion (outbound). Default threshold is 1.0% (10,000 PPM).
Errors	(Line errors) The percentage of overall packets dropped on receipt (inbound). Default threshold is 1.0% (10,000 PPM).

Classes

default	Will appear on the right if a locally defined class is in place and there is no matching class name to inherit higher up the tree.
Add Class (button)	Use to add in thresholds for a class at this level in the tree, each class requires the fields listed below
Name	The class names defined in this dialog must exactly match the existing class names as seen on the Details page, image above. It can contain the characters: 0-9, A-Z, underscore (_), and hyphen (-). It cannot contain spaces.
Utilisation	The percentage utilisation (traffic load) of the class. Default threshold is 80%.
Alert on Drops	Enabled (default) or Disabled. Generates an alert for the class using the same congestion (discards) threshold as the parent bearer.
Alert on Down	Enabled or Disabled (default). If the parent bearer is down, the class is seen as down and can generate an alert.
Deleting a local class	Use Revert All and Save

Broadband

Whether manual or auto is selected, the Broadband threshold is for Downstream speed only

Background

A rate adaptive line is one where the broadband modem negotiates the highest speed it can according to the quality of the line available.

The main challenge with setting a low speed threshold alert for a folder or location is that the characteristics of every line are different and therefore line speed variation can be significant. Highlight allows for watches to auto-learn their own threshold using configured learning criteria.

By default, all fields are read-only and greyed out, meaning the settings are inherited from a folder or location listed above it in the Network Explorer tree.

Override	Use to disregard the inherited value and create a local, custom setting
Revert	Use to remove a local definition and return to inheriting the value

Overriding with auto thresholds or reverting to auto thresholds will cause all affected watches to go into learning mode.

Auto thresholds

The settings that follow determine how Highlight auto calculates a 'stable rate' for the download speed for each circuit, and then uses a value below this as the Broadband threshold.

Learning delay	The period to wait before beginning the Highlight process of learning the stable rate. Default is 10 days, permitted values are 0 through to 99 days. The Learning Delay is used to allow a new line to settle during its stabilisation period, so Highlight doesn’t set an abnormally low threshold. Note: changing this setting will cause all watches inheriting it to go into learning mode.
Learning duration	The period after the learning delay that Highlight monitors the downstream speed of a circuit to determine the slowest speed, which it then adopts as its learned 'stable rate'. Default is 10 days, permitted values are 1 through to 99 days. Note: changing this setting will cause all watches inheriting it to go into learning mode.
Minimum threshold	The value in kbps used during the initial learning period to trigger an alert. This rate overrides the calculated threshold if it is lower than this minimum. Default is 256 kbps.
Lower than stable rate	Highlight calculates the speed threshold by deducting from the learned stable rate by this percentage, default is 30%. The applied threshold is shown on the Broadband Bandwidth chart on the Details page.

Manual thresholds

Downstream speed	You can set a fixed threshold in kbps for the downstream speed rather than having Highlight calculate a threshold from its learned stable rate.
Save	Use to apply a manual threshold or initiate an auto threshold learning. It's possible to initiate a threshold relearn if, for example, the current threshold is inaccurate due to changes on the line. Refer to the Broadband Bandwidth page for details.

Initiating an auto threshold learning process

An auto threshold learning process can be applied to all the Broadband Clarity watches in a given folder or location. Each watch will have a unique threshold based on its learned speed. The process is started for the following events:

• A new watch is added in a folder or location set to auto

• The threshold is switched from manual to auto

• Either the learning delay or learning duration is changed

• The Relearn button is pressed on the Details page

The Header line for Broadband Bandwidth on the Details page will show how the Downstream threshold has been set, either Auto or Manual

Alternatively if Relearn has been initiated, the start and end dates will be displayed.

Cellular

Signal strength	Set a threshold to show as a purple line on the Cellular Clarity graph on the Details page. Default is 0 and permitted values are between 0.0 (Poor) and 5.0 (Excellent).

Find out more about Cellular Clarity Signal Strength Score.