Managing monitoring settings using profiles v10.3

Profiles are a a centralized and reusable way to manage monitoring configurations and alerts across multiple servers and agents.

A profile acts as a single template that bundles a specific set of probe configurations and alert definitions. These are the same configurations currently available through the individual Manage Probes and Manage Alerts menus for a specific server or agent.

A user must have at least:

• pem_manage_profile role to create, update, and delete a profile.
• pem_database_server_registration role to assign/unassign profiles to servers or agents.

How profiles work:

• Create a profile with a specific set of probe configurations and alert definitions.
• Assign the profile to one or more servers or agents.
• Once assigned, the servers or agents inherit the monitoring settings defined in the profile immediately.
• Any changes made to the profile automatically propagate to all assigned servers and agents.

Any server or agent that doesn't have a profile assigned to it continues to use its individual probe configurations and alert definitions.

Purpose of using profiles

The primary purpose of using profiles is to significantly reduce the administrative burden associated with managing monitoring configurations for a large number of database instances in PEM.

PEM is designed to manage and monitor many instances from a single platform. When dealing with large numbers of servers, manually ensuring that the configuration (probes and alerts) is correct and consistent across all instances can be a time-consuming and error-prone process.

By centralizing settings into reusable profiles, this feature delivers value by:

• Freeing up time — Automating configuration management across multiple instances, allowing administrators to focus on optimizing database operations rather than administering the monitoring tool.

• Ensuring consistency — Guaranteeing that a large fleet of servers adheres to the intended monitoring standards.

• Reducing errors — Minimizing the chance of human errors that could lead to misconfigurations and undermine PEM's ability to effectively monitor your environment.

Key concepts

There are two types of profiles designed to manage different aspects of monitoring:

• Agent Profile — Manages probe configurations and alert definitions for PEM Agents.
• Server Profile — Manages probe configurations and alert definitions for monitored database servers.

The behavior of each profile type is as follows:

• After assigning a profile to a server or agent, when you modify a profile that is already assigned to agents or servers, the changes are not applied immediately. They are saved as a draft version. Changes only take effect on the assigned servers or agents when you explicitly choose to apply the draft changes.

• You also have the option to discard draft changes if you decide not to apply them, by using Revert button.

• The individual Manage Probes and Manage Alerts pages for a profile-managed server or agent display the current configuration inherited from the assigned profile, but you can't make direct changes on these pages.

• The Copy Probes and Copy Alerts options are unavailable when attempting to copy configurations from a non-profile server or agent to a profile managed server or agent.

Accessing Manage Profiles

The Manage Profiles section provides a central interface for creating, configuring, and deploying a reusable monitoring settings across your PEM environment.

• You can access Manage Profiles under the Configuration menu in the PEM console. Manage Profiles tab works independently of objects selected in the object tree. From here, you can:

  • Create new Profiles
  • Edit existing ones
  • Assign Profiles to servers or agents
  • Un-assign Profiles from servers or agents

The main table displays key information about each profile:

Creating profiles

A user with pem_manage_profile role or a superuser can create a profile.

On the Manage Profiles tab use + to add a new profile:

1. Click the "Add New" button.
2. A dialog box pops-up to select a Target Type — Server or Agent. Once the target type is selected, it can't be changed for that profile. Click Next.
3. A new dialog opens with three tabs of configuration options:
   • General — Enter a unique name and optional description for the Profile.
   • Probes — Select and configure the probes to include in the Profile. Only server, database, schema, agent, and extension-level probes are available for selection at server level.
   • Alerts — Select and configure the alerts to include in the Profile. Only server and agent level alerts are available for selection.
4. After configuring the Profile, click Save to create it. The new Profile appears in the Manage Profiles table.

Editing profiles

On the Manage Profiles tab:

• Click the Edit icon next to the profile you want to modify.
• The Profile name can't be updated during editing.
• The Profile description, probe configurations, and alerts can be changed.
• If the Profile has active assignments, the Apply and Revert buttons become available to deploy or discard draft changes.

Changes will only be synced with all assigned servers and agents when you click the Apply button. If you click Revert, all changes made to the profile will be reset to their previous status.

Assigning Profiles

A user with pem_database_server_registration role can assign profiles to servers or agents.

In the object tree on the PEM console:

• Right-click on a server or an agent.
• Select Properties from the context menu.
• In the Properties dialog, navigate to the General tab.
• Locate the Assigned Profile field.
• Use the dropdown menu to select the desired Profile to assign to the server or agent.
• Click Save to apply the changes.

Un-assigning profiles

A user with pem_database_server_registration role can unassign profiles from servers or agents.

In the object tree:

• Right-click on a server or an agent.
• Select Properties from the context menu.
• In the Properties dialog, navigate to the General tab.
• Locate the Assigned Profile field.
• Use the dropdown menu to select <None> to unassign the Profile from the server or agent.
• Click Save to apply the changes.

If you unassign a profile from a server or an agent:

• Probes will reset to their default configurations.
• Alerts will remain, but they will no longer be managed by the Profile.
• You can now manage probes and alerts individually for the server or agent from the respective tabs.