Solarwinds: custom alerts?

Question

(I am actually not even sure how to ask my questions correctly after quite a few hours into it, so please forgive me if I am not very clear.)

How do I set up a custom alert in SolarWinds?

Example:

1. add a new monitor to an existing node (say, checking a specially formed URL for validity and content)
2. assign a custom alert to that monitor so that it does not log or display anything in the generally accessible dashboard but which, say, sends an email to me when and if the alert it triggered?

The goal is to "sandbox" my experiments and tests on an existing SW (SolarWinds) platform so that they bother no-one except me, especially that I am very new to SW, and could possibly do something stupid or dangerous. Possible?

(Here is the thread in SolarWinds community that so far got no responses.)

Much appreciate any ideas!

Answer 1

You need to use these features:

1. Assign a Custom Property to your new monitor
2. Use the "scope of alert" section (above the "trigger condition" section) when creating the alert

Configure the scope to target the Custom Property value that you have assigned. This will give you control over the alert.

Answer 2

The answer to that is two-fold (thanks to the response on Thwack):

1. Create a custom alert and add trigger conditions such as node name, application monitor name, component monitor name. I totally missed initially that these items can be added as trigger conditions.
2. Ensure no other alert can monitor your particular combination of node, application, component, etc. In a large SolarWinds system, this can be a challenge.