Managing monitoring settings using profiles v10.5

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 or unassign profiles on servers.
• pem_assign_profile role to assign or unassign profiles on both servers and 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
  • Clone an existing profile
  • Edit existing ones
  • Assign profiles to servers or agents
  • Un-assign profiles from servers or agents
  • Delete and reassign profiles
  • Export profiles
  • Import profiles

The main table displays key information about each profile:

Exporting profiles

A user with the pem_manage_profile role can export one or more profiles as a portable .pemprf JSON bundle.

On the Manage Profiles tab:

1. Select one or more profiles using the row checkboxes.

2. The Export button activates when at least one row is selected.

3. Select Export.

4. A file named Export_Profiles_<timestamp>.pemprf is downloaded.

The .pemprf file is a JSON document with a top-level version field and a profiles array containing the exported profile configurations.

If a selected profile has unsaved draft edits, the exported file contains the published state of the profile, not the draft.

All profile settings aren't included in the exported bundle.

• The following settings are preserved in the exported bundle:

  • Name, description, and target kind
  • Probe configurations like frequency, retention, and status (enabled/disabled)
  • Alert thresholds, operators, and parameters
  • auto_created flag
  • Script execution settings (execute_script, execute_script_on_clear, execute_script_on_pem_server) and script code body

• The following settings are stripped and must be reconfigured after import:

  • Notification routing settings: email_group_id, per-severity email groups, webhook IDs, SNMP trap version, and Nagios service
  • Notification enable flags: send_email, per-severity send_trap, submit_to_nagios, send_notification, override_default_config, and cleared_alert_enable

After importing a profile, alerts evaluate and appear in dashboards, but do not deliver email, SNMP, webhook, or Nagios notifications until you re-enable each channel and configure destinations in the alert dialog, then click Apply. Script execution settings survive the round-trip and do not need to be re-entered.

Importing profiles

A user with the pem_manage_profile role can import profiles from a .pemprf bundle.

On the Manage Profiles tab:

1. Select Import in the toolbar.

2. Select a .pemprf file to upload.

3. Choose whether to enable the Skip existing? checkbox to control how name conflicts are handled.

4. Review the Import Summary table, which reports the per-profile result.

The Skip existing? checkbox controls how the import handles profiles whose names already exist on the target instance:

The import handles type mismatches and missing references as follows:

• If target_kind differs between the imported profile and the existing one (for example, server versus agent), the import fails for that profile with a descriptive error.

• If a probe or alert template referenced in the bundle doesn't exist on the target PEM instance, that item is skipped. The rest of the profile imports successfully. The summary table lists skipped items.

• If a reference is ambiguous (two active matches on the target instance), the import is refused with an error.

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.

Cloning a profile

A user with pem_manage_profile role or a superuser can clone an existing profile to use as a starting point for a new one.

On the Manage Profiles tab:

1. Click the Add New button.

2. A dialog box appears to select a target type — Server or Agent. Click Next.

3. In the General tab of the dialog, use the Copy from dropdown, that lists existing profiles of the selected type, to choose a source profile.

   Selecting a source profile pre-populates the new profile's Name (suggested as Copy of <source>), Description, Probes, and Alerts tabs. All values remain editable before saving.

4. Review and adjust the pre-populated settings as needed on the Probes and Alerts tabs.

5. Click Save to create the clone. The new profile appears in the Manage Profiles table.

The cloned profile is fully independent of the source:

• It's created as a published profile with no parent/child link to the source.
• It doesn't inherit any server or agent assignments from the source.
• Editing or deleting the source has no effect on the clone, and vice versa.
• Auto-created alerts copied from the source remain non-deletable on the clone, as on any normally created profile.

Switching the profile type (server ↔ agent) clears the Copy from selection — a server profile can't be used as the source for an agent profile. Clearing the Copy from selection resets the Probes and Alerts tabs to defaults.

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_assign_profile or 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_assign_profile role can unassign profiles from servers or agents and a user with pem_database_server_registration role can unassign profiles from servers.

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.

Deleting profiles

On the Manage Profiles tab:

1. Select the Delete icon next to the profile you want to remove.
2. If the profile has no active assignments, a confirmation dialog appears to finalize the deletion.
3. If the profile is actively assigned to any servers or agents, a Reassign Profile dialog appears to prevent the loss of monitoring configurations.
4. In the dialog, use the dropdown menu to select a replacement profile or choose the option to reset the targets to system default configurations.
5. Select Save to apply the reassignment and delete the original profile.

The reassignment process applies to both Server and Agent target types.

Permissions for deletion and reassignment

The ability to delete and reassign profiles depends on your assigned PEM roles:

• Users with the pem_admin role can delete profiles, reassign them to existing targets, or reset them to defaults.
• Users with the pem_manage_profile role can delete unassigned profiles or delete assigned profiles by resetting them to defaults. They can't reassign a new profile to existing targets.
• Users holding both pem_manage_profile and pem_database_server_registration roles have full permission to delete profiles and reassign them to new targets.

Profile Assignments page

The Profile Assignments page gives you a single view of every monitored server and agent in your PEM environment. Use it to assign or unassign monitoring profiles in bulk, by group, or one at a time — without navigating to each server or agent individually.

To open the page, go to Management > Monitoring > Profile Assignments.

You must have the pem_assign_profile role to access this page. Roles that inherit pem_assign_profile — including pem_manage_profile, pem_database_server_registration, and the PEM admin roles — also have access. Without any of these roles, you won't see the Profile Assignments option in the menu, and direct navigation shows Access denied.

What the page shows

The page displays a tree of all registered servers and agents, organized by server group. Servers that are part of a cluster appear nested inside their cluster node. Each row shows the server or agent name and its currently assigned profile.

A stats card at the top shows how many servers and agents have a profile assigned, expressed as X / Y profiled.

Assigning and unassigning profiles

Inline assignment

To change the profile for a single server or agent, use the profile dropdown on that row and select the profile you want.

Group assignment

To assign a profile to all members of a server group at once, use the group's dropdown. For a group that contains both servers and agents, the dropdown offers separate Set servers profile and Set agents profile actions. Selecting one applies the profile to all current members of that type in the group.

Bulk assignment

To assign a profile to multiple targets at once, select rows using the checkboxes, then select Assign to N. The dialog adjusts based on your selection:

• Server-only selection: asks for a server profile.
• Agent-only selection: asks for an agent profile.
• Mixed selection: asks for both a server profile and an agent profile.

A confirmation note appears when you select a large number of targets.

Unassigning profiles

To remove the profile from a server or agent, select Unassigned in its profile dropdown. For bulk unassignment, select the rows and use Assign to N, then choose Unassigned in the dialog.

Searching and filtering

Use the search bar to find servers or agents by name. Use the filter dropdown to narrow the tree to targets assigned a specific profile, or to show only unassigned targets. You can combine search and filter.

Audit logging

PEM automatically records profile assignment changes in pem.event_history via database triggers on pem.server and pem.agent. Both inline and bulk assignments generate an audit record. If you use PEM's event history for compliance or troubleshooting, look there to track who changed a profile assignment and when.