
= Step 6: Establish a Baseline

:description: Step 6 of {page-component-title} setup: establish a baseline by determining your environment's "normal".

This section describes how to establish a baseline for your {page-component-title} instance.
Determining your environment's baseline operating state will help you evaluate how effective your notification rules are, your network's peak operating times, and other useful metrics.

== Determine your environment's "normal"

The major step in establishing a baseline for your {page-component-title} instance is observing it.
Once the instance is set up and its environment configured, let it run for a bit--preferably a week, or up to a month.
This will let {page-component-title} collect data in the background while your network experiences its usual traffic.

Note the notifications and alerts you receive during this observation period.
Are they helpful, considering the type of traffic your network sees?
Are there events that should be alerted for, but the default settings don't cover them?
Are all of the network's nodes being monitored properly?

Decide what you need to see to properly maintain your environment without overwhelming yourself with notifications and alerts.

== Next steps

After your {page-component-title} instance has had time to run and collect data, you can update and customize its configuration settings.
This is covered in steps 7 and 8 of this guide.
