# Getting started: Alarms & Notifications

OpManager monitors the devices and interfaces in your network and raises alarms to notify the user whenever any network abnormalities such as slow response time, connectivity loss, or packet loss occur. In other words, whenever any device or interface fails to perform at its optimal level, an alarm will be generated instantly.

![Alarms and notifications in OpManager: All alarms list](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/All-alarms.JPG)

The list of alarms raised in OpManager can be accessed under the Alarms tab in the UI. The All Alarms page contains a comprehensive list of all the alarms. The [alarms are also further classified](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/viewing-alerts.html) into different types like Active Alarms and Syslog Alarms to enable easy access.

## How does OpManager raise an alarm?

When a device is added, OpManager automatically associates monitors (metrics, e.g., CPU utilization) to that device based on the [default device template](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/device-templates.html) and begins to monitor the device performance and its availability.

### Alarms for availability status

By default, OpManager pings the monitored devices at regular intervals as per the [configured poll interval](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/howto.html#configure-poll-interval) and sends alarm notifications to the user when the device fails to respond or when its response time is high.

### Alarm for threshold violation

You can [configure the threshold](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/configure-thresholds.html) for the monitors associated with a device and when a device violates the specified threshold value, OpManager will raise an alarm to notify the admin. OpManager supports three severity-based threshold levels: Attention, Trouble, and Critical. You can customize the threshold value for each severity.

Each severity has a unique color code and the alarm raised will indicate the color of the violated threshold level.

- Attention - yellow  
- Trouble - orange  
- Critical - red  

### Alarm snapshot page

To get a deeper insight into the network issue for which an alarm was raised, you can access the snapshot page of an alarm. (The page that opens when you click on an alarm from the list of alarms is called an Alarm snapshot page.) This page gives the details of the issue, the severity, and the time when the alarm was raised.

Additionally, you can [perform a wide range of actions](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/configuring-alert-actions.html) (e.g., Execute a workflow) from the Alarm snapshot page.

![Alarms and notifications in OpManager: Alarm snapshot page](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/Alarm-snapshot-page.jpg)

## Ways to manage alarms in OpManager

There are three ways to handle the alarm details in OpManager:

- Notify a user instantly using the Notification Profile  
- Escalate an alarm  
- Suppress an alarm  

### Configuring the notification profile

The main objective of an alarm is to notify you about an issue instantly so that you can take corrective actions to resolve the issue quickly. You can choose the type of notification you receive by [configuring the Notification Profile](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/configuring-notifications.html). Some of the notification types supported in OpManager are:

- SMS  
- Email  
- Chat notification in Slack  

Apart from this, you can perform other actions using the Notification Profile such as [Run a Program](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/run-program.html), [Run a System Command](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/run-command.html), and log a ticket in desk applications like ServiceDesk Plus, Jira, and ServiceNow.

![Alarms and notifications in OpManager: Create notification profile](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/Notification-profile.jpg)

### Escalate an alarm

Sometimes if an alarm is unattended for too long, the issue may not be resolved and this can cause serious consequences, especially if the alarm left unattended is of critical severity.

By [configuring alarm escalation rules](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/alarm-escalation-alerts.html), you can escalate an alarm to a senior-level person in charge or a backup IT admin, ensuring that the issue is resolved before it turns into a complete network or device failure. You can configure the severity of the alarm and the maximum time duration after which the escalation should take place.

For example, you can configure to escalate all critical alarms that are not cleared even after 60 minutes.

![Alarms and notifications in OpManager: Alarm escalation rule](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/Alarm-escalation.jpg.jpg)

### Alarm suppression

Sometimes certain devices will be kept under maintenance and may not be available for regular use. You can prevent OpManager from raising alerts for this type of device unavailability by configuring the [alarm suppression rules](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/suppress-alarms.html). This will ensure that OpManager does not raise an alarm for the selected devices for the specified time.

**Note**: This page outlines the overview of features. To get step-by-step instructions for using a feature, access the hyperlinks mentioned in the appropriate places on this page.