docs: add documentation about setting up alarms

doc/content/xapi/alarms/index.md

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+title = "How to set up alarms"
+linkTitle = "Alarms"
++++
+
+# Introduction
+
+In XAPI, alarms are triggered by a Python daemon located at `/opt/xensource/bin/perfmon`.
+The daemon is managed as a systemd service and can be configured by setting parameters in `/etc/sysconfig/perfmon`.
+
+It listens on an internal Unix socket to receive commands. Otherwise, it runs in a loop, periodically requesting metrics from XAPI. It can then be configured to generate events based on these metrics. It can monitor various types of XAPI objects, including `VMs`, `SRs`, and `Hosts`. The configuration for each object is defined by writing an XML string into the object's `other-config` key.
+
+The metrics used by `perfmon` are collected by the `xcp-rrdd` daemon. The `xcp-rrdd` daemon is a component of XAPI responsible for collecting metrics and storing them as Round-Robin Databases (RRDs).
+
+A XAPI plugin also exists, providing the functions `stop`, `start`, `restart`, `refresh`, and `debug_mem`. The `stop`, `start`, and `restart` functions appear to be deprecated, as they do not use systemd to manage the state of the `perfmon` daemon.
+The `refresh` and `debug_mem` functions send commands through the Unix socket. `refresh` is used when an `other-config` key is added or updated; it triggers the daemon to reread the monitored objects so that new alerts are taken into account. `debug_mem` logs the objects currently being monitored into `/var/log/user.log` as a dictionnary.
+
+# Monitoring and alarms
+
+## Overview
+
+- To get the metrics, `perfmon` requests XAPI by calling: `http://localhost/rrd_updates?session_id=<ref>&start=1759912021&host=true&sr_uuid=all&cf=AVERAGE&interval=60`
+- Different consolidation functions can be used like **AVERAGE**, **MIN**, **MAX** or **LAST**. See the details in the next sections for specific objects and how to set it.
+- Once retrieve, `perfmon` will check all its triggers and generate alarms if needed.
+
+## Specific XAPI objects
+### VMs
+
+- To set an alarm on a VM, you need to write an XML string into the `other-config` key of the object. For example, to trigger an alarm when the CPU usage is higher than 50%, run:
+```sh
+xe vm-param-set uuid=<UUID> other-config:perfmon='<config> <variable> <name value="cpu_usage"/> <alarm_trigger_level value="0.5"/> </variable> </config>'
+```
+
+- Then, you can either wait until the new config is read by the `perfmon` daemon or force a refresh by running:
+```sh
+xe host-call-plugin host-uuid=<UUID> plugin=perfmon fn=refresh
+```
+
+- Now, if you generate some load inside the VM and the CPU usage goes above 50%, the `perfmon` daemon will create a message (a XAPI object) with the name **ALARM**. This message will include a _priority_, a _timestamp_, an _obj-uuid_ and a _body_. To list all messages that are alarms, run:
+```sh
+xe message-list name=ALARM
+```
+
+- You will see, for example:
+```sh
+uuid ( RO)         : dadd7cbc-cb4e-5a56-eb0b-0bb31c102c94
+         name ( RO): ALARM
+     priority ( RO): 3
+        class ( RO): VM
+     obj-uuid ( RO): ea9efde2-d0f2-34bb-74cb-78c303f65d89
+    timestamp ( RO): 20251007T11:30:26Z
+         body ( RO): value: 0.986414
+config:
+<variable>
+
+        <name value="cpu_usage"/>
+
+        <alarm_trigger_level value="0.5"/>
+
+</variable>
+```
+- where the _body_ contains all the relevant information: the value that triggered the alarm and the configuration of your alarm.
+
+- When configuring you alarm, your XML string can:
+  - have multiple `<variable>` nodes
+  - use the following values for child nodes:
+       * **name**: what to call the variable (no default)
+       * **alarm_priority**: the priority of the messages generated (default '3')
+       * **alarm_trigger_level**: level of value that triggers an alarm (no default)
+       * **alarm_trigger_sense**:'high' if alarm_trigger_level is a max, otherwise 'low'. (default 'high')
+       * **alarm_trigger_period**: num seconds of 'bad' values before an alarm is sent (default '60')
+       * **alarm_auto_inhibit_period**: num seconds this alarm disabled after an alarm is sent (default '3600')
+       * **consolidation_fn**: how to combine variables from rrd_updates into one value (default is 'average' for 'cpu_usage', 'get_percent_fs_usage' for 'fs_usage', 'get_percent_log_fs_usage' for 'log_fs_usage','get_percent_mem_usage' for 'mem_usage', & 'sum' for everything else)
+       * **rrd_regex** matches the names of variables from (xe vm-data-sources-list uuid=$vmuuid) used to compute value (only has defaults for "cpu_usage", "network_usage", and "disk_usage")
+
+### SRs
+
+- To set an alarm on an SR object, as with VMs, you need to write an XML string into the `other-config` key of the SR. For example, you can run:
+```sh
+xe sr-param-set uuid=<UUID> other-config:perfmon='<config><variable><name value="physical_utilisation"/><alarm_trigger_level value="0.8"/></variable></config>'
+```
+- When configuring you alarm, the XML string supports the same child elements as for VMs
+
+### Hosts
+
+- As with VMs ans SRs, alarms can be configured by writing an XML string into an `other-config` key. For example, you can run:
+```sh
+xe host-param-set uuid=<UUID> other-config:perfmon=\
+  '<config><variable><name value="cpu_usage"/><alarm_trigger_level value="0.5"/></variable></config>'
+```
+
+- The XML string can include multiple <variable> nodes allowed
+- The full list of supported child nodes is:
+    * **name**: what to call the variable (no default)
+    * **alarm_priority**: the priority of the messages generated (default '3')
+    * **alarm_trigger_level**: level of value that triggers an alarm (no default)
+    * **alarm_trigger_sense**: 'high' if alarm_trigger_level is a max, otherwise 'low'. (default 'high')
+    * **alarm_trigger_period**: num seconds of 'bad' values before an alarm is sent (default '60')
+    * **alarm_auto_inhibit_period**:num seconds this alarm disabled after an alarm is sent (default '3600')
+    * **consolidation_fn**: how to combine variables from rrd_updates into one value (default is 'average' for 'cpu_usage' & 'sum' for everything else)
+    * **rrd_regex** matches the names of variables from (xe host-data-source-list uuid=<UUID>) used to compute value (only has defaults for "cpu_usage", "network_usage", "memory_free_kib" and "sr_io_throughput_total_xxxxxxxx") where that last one ends with the first eight characters of the SR UUID)
+
+- As a special case for SR throughput, it is also possible to configure a Host by writing XML into the `other-config` key of an SR connected to it. For example:
+```sh
+xe sr-param-set uuid=$sruuid other-config:perfmon=\
+  '<config><variable><name value="sr_io_throughput_total_per_host"/><alarm_trigger_level value="0.01"/></variable></config>'
+```
+- This only works for that specific variable name, and `rrd_regex` must not be specified.
+- Configuration done directly on the host (variable-name, sr_io_throughput_total_xxxxxxxx) takes priority.
+
+## Which metrics are available?
+
+- Accepted name for metrics are:
+  - **cpu_usage**: matches RRD metrics with the pattern `cpu[0-9]+`
+  - **network_usage**: matches RRD metrics with the pattern `vif_[0-9]+_[rt]x`
+  - **disk_usage**: match RRD metrics with the pattern `vbd_(xvd|hd)[a-z]+_(read|write)`
+  - **fs_usage**, **log_fs_usage**, **mem_usage** and **memory_internal_free** do not match anything by default.
+- By using `rrd_regex`, you can add your own expressions. To get a list of available metrics with their descriptions, you can call the `get_data_sources` method for [VM](https://xapi-project.github.io/new-docs/xen-api/classes/vm/), for [SR](https://xapi-project.github.io/new-docs/xen-api/classes/sr/) and also for [Host](https://xapi-project.github.io/new-docs/xen-api/classes/host/).
+- A python script is provided at the end to get data sources. Using the script we can, for example, see:
+```sh
+# ./get_data_sources.py --vm 5a445deb-0a8e-c6fe-24c8-09a0508bbe21
+
+List of data sources related to VM 5a445deb-0a8e-c6fe-24c8-09a0508bbe21
+cpu0                         | CPU0 usage
+cpu_usage                    | Domain CPU usage
+memory                       | Memory currently allocated to VM
+memory_internal_free         | Memory used as reported by the guest agent
+memory_target                | Target of VM balloon driver
+...
+vbd_xvda_io_throughput_read  | Data read from the VDI, in MiB/s
+...
+```
+- You can then set up an alarm when the data read from a VDI exceeds a certain level by doing:
+```
+xe vm-param-set uuid=5a445deb-0a8e-c6fe-24c8-09a0508bbe21 \
+  other-config:perfmon='<config><variable> \
+  <name value="disk_usage"/> \
+  <alarm_trigger_level value="10"/> \
+  <rrd_regex value="vbd_xvda_io_throughput_read"/> \
+  </variable> </config>'
+```
+- Here is the script that allows you to get data sources:
+```python
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import argparse
+import sys
+import XenAPI
+
+
+def pretty_print(data_sources):
+    if not data_sources:
+        print("No data sources.")
+        return
+
+    # Compute alignment for something nice
+    max_label_len = max(len(data["name_label"]) for data in data_sources)
+
+    for data in data_sources:
+        label = data["name_label"]
+        desc = data["name_description"]
+        print(f"{label:<{max_label_len}} | {desc}")
+
+
+def list_vm_data(session, uuid):
+    vm_ref = session.xenapi.VM.get_by_uuid(uuid)
+    data_sources = session.xenapi.VM.get_data_sources(vm_ref)
+    print(f"\nList of data sources related to VM {uuid}")
+    pretty_print(data_sources)
+
+
+def list_host_data(session, uuid):
+    host_ref = session.xenapi.host.get_by_uuid(uuid)
+    data_sources = session.xenapi.host.get_data_sources(host_ref)
+    print(f"\nList of data sources related to Host {uuid}")
+    pretty_print(data_sources)
+
+
+def list_sr_data(session, uuid):
+    sr_ref = session.xenapi.SR.get_by_uuid(uuid)
+    data_sources = session.xenapi.SR.get_data_sources(sr_ref)
+    print(f"\nList of data sources related to SR {uuid}")
+    pretty_print(data_sources)
+
+
+def main():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description="List data sources related to VM, host or SR"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument("--vm", help="VM UUID")
+    parser.add_argument("--host", help="Host UUID")
+    parser.add_argument("--sr", help="SR UUID")
+
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    # Connect to local XAPI: no identification required to access local socket
+    session = XenAPI.xapi_local()
+
+    try:
+        session.xenapi.login_with_password("", "")
+        if args.vm:
+            list_vm_data(session, args.vm)
+        if args.host:
+            list_host_data(session, args.host)
+        if args.sr:
+            list_sr_data(session, args.sr)
+    except XenAPI.Failure as e:
+        print(f"XenAPI call failed: {e.details}")
+        sys.exit(1)
+    finally:
+        session.xenapi.session.logout()
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
+```
+