Edit tasks and alerts

How to get here

Edit Existing

To edit an existing Task or Alert open the Task/Alert Editor by right clicking on any task or alert and select Edit task from the popup menu.

Create new

To create a new Task or Alert from scratch, go to the Manage tasks and alerts view by selecting Tasks on the main toolbar, and then click on Create new on the Manage tasks and alerts toolbar.

You will then be prompted with a dialog that lets you fill in the basic details of the new Task or Alert.

Task Editor

The Task Editor consists of two main views. The navigation tree on the left side and the information panel on the left.

Properties

When the first node in the navigation tree is selected (the Task/Alert name), the properties panel will be displayed on the right side.

The properties panel shows the Task/Alert name and Company name. These values are non-editable, changing them will result in the creation of a new Task/Alert, and this can be done by clicking on Save as new on the toolbar.

The Main procedure field defines the entrypoint for this Task/Alert. This is the procedure that the dbWatch Server will invoke when this Task/Alert is executed. Clicking the edit button will let you choose between the procedures that are defined in the Implementation section of the navigation tree.

The Schedule field defines the default schedule for this Task/Alert (the time/interval the dbWatch Server will trigger the Task/Alert). The schedule format is loosely based on crontab, clicking on “Edit” will give you a more user friendly editor.

The Short description describes what this Task/Alert does in 1 or 2 sentences. This is the description that is shown when double clicking on a task in the monitor window.

The Long description describes what this Task/Alert does more verbose.

Version is the version of this Task/Alert, you should increment this if you edit anything in the Task/Alert.

The Package field defines the “category” for this Task/Alert. Predefined packages are Performance, Availability, Capacity and Maintenance, you can also add your own custom packages.

The Compatability fields define what dbms type and version this Task/Alert is compatible with.

The Type selector specifies if this is a Task or Alert. Alerts are tasks that can also return a status ([[DbWatch Tasks and Alerts|read more]]).

The Use acknowledgements box is only relevant for Alerts. It specifies if a warning/alarm should require an active acknowledgement from a user or if the issue is considered resolved once the status returns to OK.

The Include in express install box specifies if this Task/Alert should be included when registering a new instance (or enabling monitoring on an existing instance) using express install.

The “Force install” box specifies that if any of the objects that this task creates are already present, then they will be dropped to make room for this task (use with care).

The Physical file field shows where the underlying xml file for this task/alert is located.

The Automatic backups field shows how many backups there are for the xml file.

Internal Objects

The internal objects panel will be automatically filled based on the objects you define in the Pre/Post-implementation and implementation sections.

External Dependencies

The external dependencies panel lets you specify objects that this Task/Alert needs in order to function. For example if it needs to read the contents of a table belonging to a different user. dbWatch will then check if this object is present before installing the Task/Alert.

Configuration parameters

Configuration parameters are the user adjustable settings for this Task/Alert.

Installation variables

Installation variables are an advanced feature that lets you specify variables at task-install time. These variables will then be replaced in the code before it is compiled.