The Operations Sentinel server checks that each MCP host system that it is monitoring sends a periodic utilization data (heartbeat) message. You can use Operations Sentinel Configuration to specify a timeout value to enable Operations Sentinel to determine when contact with the MCP host system has been lost.

If the interval between heartbeat messages from a specific MCP host system exceeds the timeout value for that host, a timeout alarm is generated. The Operations Sentinel server clears this alarm when it receives the next message (heartbeat or otherwise) from the system. If you set the timeout value to 0, no alarms are generated. It is recommended that you use the default timeout value if you use the default interval for the periodic utilization data. However, you may need to increase the timeout value if you increase the utilization data interval. See the Operations Sentinel Administration and Configuration Guide for a description of how to specify the timeout value.