Actions are designed to perform a task as a device or monitor state change occurs.
As you configure an action, you choose the task it is to perform. Actions can try to correct the problem, notify someone of the state change, or launch an external application. Also, when you configure an action, you choose whether to assign it to a device, or to an active or passive monitor.
When assigned to an active monitor, actions fire according to the state changes it issues. For example, you can configure an Email Action to send an email alert when the active monitor for a Web server issues a down state change.
You can configure actions on a single device or monitor, or define an Action Policy to use across multiple devices or monitors.