What does an alarm in the Oracle Cloud Monitoring service trigger?

An alarm in the Oracle Cloud Monitoring service is designed to trigger a notification based on predefined metrics breaches. This means that when specific conditions related to metrics being monitored are met or exceeded—such as CPU usage, memory consumption, or network traffic—the alarm activates and sends out a notification to alert administrators or users about these important changes. This helps in proactive monitoring and management of resources, ensuring that any potential issues can be addressed promptly.

In the context of the other options, automated provisioning of new resources is not directly related to alarms; instead, it typically involves scaling strategies based on monitoring outputs. A regular maintenance schedule is related to operational practices rather than direct triggers from metric breaches. Additionally, an enforced shutdown of underutilized resources is a strategy that may follow monitoring insights but is not triggered by an alarm itself. The primary function of an alarm is to ensure that stakeholders are informed about critical changes, allowing them to take appropriate actions as needed.