Deployment Guide

this threshold must be exceeded during the 60-second time base. If the counter reaches 11 within that
60 seconds, the rule would trigger.
NOTE
MAPS conditions are applied on a per-port basis, not switch- or fabric-wide. For example, 20 ports that
each get 1 CRC counter would not trigger a “greater than 10” rule.
Threshold values
Thresholds are the values at which potential problems may occur. In configuring a rule you can specify
a threshold value that, when exceeded, triggers an action. For example, if you had specified a rule to
make a RASLog entry if the CRC counter is greater than 10; when the counter hits 11, the rule is
triggered and a RASLog entry is made.
Time base
The time base value specifies the time interval between samples, and affects the comparison of
sensor-based data with user-defined threshold values. You can set the time base to “day” (samples
are compared once a day), “hour” (samples are compared once an hour), “minute” (samples are
compared every minute), or “none” (for comparisons where the time base is not applicable).
MAPS rules overview
A MAPS rule associates a condition with actions that need to be triggered when the specified condition
is evaluated to be true. A MAPS rule can exist outside of a MAPS policy, but are only considered when
the rule is part of the active policy.
Each rule specifies the following items:
• A group of objects to be evaluated. Refer to MAPS groups overview on page 35 for additional
information.
• The element to be monitored. Refer to MAPS conditions on page 49 for additional information.
• The condition being monitored. Each rule specifies a single condition. A condition includes a time
base and a threshold. Refer to MAPS conditions on page 49 for additional information.
• The actions to take if the condition is evaluated to be true. Refer to MAPS rule actions on page 50
for additional information.
The combination of actions, conditions, and elements allow you to create a rule for almost any
scenario required for your environment.
MAPS rule actions
When you create a rule, you associate an action for MAPS to take if the condition defined in the rule
evaluates to true. Each rule can have one or more actions associated with it. For example, you can
configure a rule to issue a RASLog message and fence the port if the number of CRC errors on any
E_Port is greater than 20 per minute.
The global action settings on the switch take precedence over the actions defined in the rules. For
example, if the global action settings allow RASLog alerts, but do not allow port fencing, then in the
example given in the previous paragraph, if the CRC threshold is reached a RASLog message would
Threshold values
50 Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite Administrator's Guide
53-1003147-01