What are the best practices for configuring LogicMonitor's network thresholds?

1 Know your network baseline

Before you can configure network thresholds, you need to understand the normal patterns and trends of your network traffic, bandwidth, latency, errors, and other metrics. This will help you set realistic and meaningful values that reflect your network performance goals and expectations. LogicMonitor provides you with several tools to help you establish your network baseline, such as historical data, dashboards, reports, and dynamic thresholds. Dynamic thresholds are a feature that automatically calculates and adjusts network thresholds based on historical data and statistical analysis. They can help you reduce false positives and negatives, as well as account for seasonal and cyclical variations in your network.

2 Choose the right threshold type

LogicMonitor supports three types of network thresholds: static, dynamic, and complex. Static thresholds are fixed values that you manually enter or select from predefined options. They are suitable for metrics that have clear and consistent standards, such as ping response time or CPU utilization. Dynamic thresholds are calculated values that adjust to the changing behavior of your network metrics. They are suitable for metrics that have variable or unpredictable patterns, such as network traffic or disk usage. Complex thresholds are custom expressions that combine multiple metrics, operators, and functions. They are suitable for metrics that have complex or specific logic, such as network availability or service level agreements.

3 Configure threshold levels and alerts

Each network threshold has four levels: normal, warning, error, and critical. Each level corresponds to a different severity and color code in LogicMonitor. You can configure the values and alerts for each level according to your network monitoring needs and preferences. Alerts are notifications that LogicMonitor sends you when a network threshold is breached or restored. You can customize the alert frequency, escalation, delivery, and content for each level. You can also use alert rules to define the conditions and actions for triggering and resolving alerts. Alert rules can help you filter, group, and prioritize alerts based on various criteria, such as device group, data source, alert level, or time range.

4 Test and review your network thresholds

After you configure your network thresholds, you should test and review them to ensure that they are working as expected and that they are providing you with accurate and useful information. You can use LogicMonitor's test mode to simulate alerts without affecting your production environment. You can also use LogicMonitor's audit logs to track and verify the changes and results of your network thresholds. You should regularly review your network thresholds and make adjustments as needed to reflect the changes and improvements in your network performance and goals. You can use LogicMonitor's reports and dashboards to analyze and visualize your network metrics and thresholds over time.

5 Apply best practices for network thresholds

To maximize the value of LogicMonitor's network thresholds, you should use the appropriate data source and metric, data collection method and interval, alert delivery method and channel, and alert suppression and escalation methods. LogicMonitor offers hundreds of built-in data sources and metrics that cover various network devices and services, as well as custom data sources and metrics if needed. It also supports different methods of collecting network data, such as SNMP, WMI, JMX, HTTP, and scripts. Furthermore, it offers different methods of delivering alerts, such as email, SMS, voice call, webhook, and integrations with third-party tools. Additionally, it provides different methods of suppressing and escalating alerts like alert schedules, dependencies, SDTs, and escalation chains. All these features can help you specify the rules and criteria for each method to get the most out of LogicMonitor's network thresholds.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?