A method of monitoring an element in a computer network including
monitoring a preselected variable relating to that element; defining a
threshold for the monitored preselected variable; establishing a sliding
window in time; repeatedly generating a time above threshold value, the
time above threshold value being a measure of an amount of time during
which the monitored variable exceeded the threshold during the sliding
window of time; detecting when the time above threshold value exceeds a
condition window value; and in response to detecting when the time above
threshold value exceeds the condition window, generating an alarm.