# Custom alert - If the number of Process instances/counts not equal to 3

**URL:** <https://community.dynatrace.com/t/custom-alert-if-the-number-of-process-instances-counts-not-equal-to-3/10548>\
**Category:** Alerting\
**Tags:** process-groups, problems-classic\
**Created:** [January 19, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/custom-alert-if-the-number-of-process-instances-counts-not-equal-to-3/10548 "2018-01-19T22:59:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kandasamy\_Selva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@Kandasamy\_Selva](https://community.dynatrace.com/u/Kandasamy_Selva)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/custom-alert-if-the-number-of-process-instances-counts-not-equal-to-3/10548/1 "2018-01-19T22:59:02Z")

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As part of defining the custom alerts in our infrastructure we want to make sure like each process is running as expected across multi nodes. Let’s say if i have 3 kafka broker machine, then in that case I will have total 3 kafka broker process, assume if any 1 machine goes down then i will have only 2 kafka process instead of 3. So how do i setup a custom alert to trigger in this case if my process counts goes from 3 to 2

Already on going through custom alerts i see some metrics called “ **Process Process Count** ”. What this really means could some one explain, do you think this metrics will suit for the above requirement.

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**Author:** ![nj\_njoku](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/user_avatar/community.dynatrace.com/nj_njoku/32/13710_2.png) [@nj\_njoku](https://community.dynatrace.com/u/nj_njoku)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2018, 3:18am UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/custom-alert-if-the-number-of-process-instances-counts-not-equal-to-3/10548/2 "2018-01-20T03:18:40Z")

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Hey Kandasamy,

You can go to the process page for one of these processes, click the “ **…** ” button at the top, **Edit → Availability Monitoring**. In the **Open Problem** drop down, select “ **if minimum threshold is not met** ”. You would see the option to select “ **Open a new problem if the number of active process instances in the group is fewer than** ”. Then you can enter the threshold number of active processes. For your example, you will enter 3 as you want Dynatrace to create a problem if the active process instances is less than 3 (i.e. 2,1 or 0).

Hope This Helps

NJ

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**Author:** ![hayden\_miedema](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/user_avatar/community.dynatrace.com/hayden_miedema/32/29357_2.png) [@hayden\_miedema](https://community.dynatrace.com/u/hayden_miedema)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/custom-alert-if-the-number-of-process-instances-counts-not-equal-to-3/10548/3 "2018-01-22T20:01:26Z")

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Agreed here with what NJ said as this is the best way to do this - you do not need to setup any custom alerting.

Let us know if you still need help configuring, or if you have further questions!

Hayden