24.2 Managing the Alarm Management System

ConsoleOne provides a central location for monitoring, managing, and controlling critical events on your network. You can configure the Alarm Management System to alert you to errors on critical systems and events to assist you in maintaining your network. This section contains the following information:

24.2.1 Recognizing Alarm Indicators

You can monitor the network for alarm-triggering events by observing nodes on topology maps or Atlas views, Active Alarm, and Alarm History views, and in the server/node summary. Table 24-1 lists the alarm indicators and the type of alarm they are associated with:

Table 24-1 Alarm indicators and its associated Alarm type

Alarm Indicator

Applies To

Alarm icons anchored to the affected object

Severe, major, and minor alarms are displayed in the Atlas and Console views and the left pane of ConsoleOne. An alarm icon remains anchored to a segment or device object until you handle all alarms outstanding against that object. Alarm icons differ based on the severity level of the alarm. See Interpreting Alarms for details on alarm severity and the associated icons. If a segment or device has multiple alarms logged against it, the alarm icon always depicts the highest level of severity.

Ticker-tape message on the status bar

By default, the Alarm Management System automatically displays alarm messages on the status bar. You can enable or disable this ticker-tape display for each severity level. For information on configuring this option, see Displaying a Ticker-Tape Message.

Audible beep

The Alarm Management System can be configured to produce an audible beep on ConsoleOne when an alarm occurs. By default, this option is disabled. You can configure each individual severity level to enable the audible notification. For information on setting this option, see Beep On Console.

24.2.2 Viewing Alarms

You can access active and historical alarm data from any ConsoleOne location. As an administrator, you can define access restrictions to alarm data and management functions through Role-Based Services to further define the data presented based on the roles in your organization.

You can modify the presentation of the alarm data displayed in the Active Alarms and Alarm History view by filtering the displayed data, changing the column layout, and changing the sorting order. All options for changing the presentation are under the View menu in ConsoleOne.

The following sections describe the different ways you can view and use alarms:

Viewing Active Alarms

The ConsoleOne Active Alarm view displays alarm statistics for all current alarms received from segments or devices, per management domain. The Summary view shows a list of all active alarms for that server or node.

The Active Alarms view and Server Summary view display a table of detailed information about active alarms. These views are updated whenever a new alarm occurs and is archived on your network. New alarms are appended to the list.

To display the Active Alarm view:

  1. In ConsoleOne, select the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object.

  2. Click View > Active Alarms.

    The Active Alarm view is displayed. You can perform the following activities from this view:

Viewing Historical Alarms

The Alarm History view displays information about all archived alarms, including the handling status of each alarm. You can access the Alarm History view only if you have been granted access through the Role-Based Services.

To display the Alarm History view:

  1. In ConsoleOne, select the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object.

  2. Click View > Alarm History.

    The Active Alarm view is displayed. You can perform the following alarm handling activities from this view:

Viewing the Alarm Summary

The Alarm Summary is a graphical representation of the summary of alarms you have received. The view is divided into three panels: a pie chart panel, a bar graph panel, and a trend panel. You can choose to view the information in these panels for a given period of time. The time duration is for the hour, for the day, for the week, and for the month.

  • The pie chart panel includes alarm distribution based on severity, category, owner, and alarm state

  • The bar graph panel includes the Top N Alarm types, Top N Source Address and Top N Affected Node. The value of N is configurable.

  • The trend displays the rate at which the alarms are received.

You can customize the pie chart and the bar graph representations to reflect the customized data.

To display the Alarm Summary view:

  1. In ConsoleOne, select the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object.

  2. Click View > Alarm Summary.

    To customize the pie chart and the bar graph representation:

    1. In the Alarm Summary view, click the Customize button to display the Customize Summary View dialog box.

      By default, all the options in this dialog box are selected. You can select to display only the options you want.

Interpreting Alarms

The Active Alarm and Alarm History views display lists of alarms that have been archived in the alarm manager database. The alarms are displayed as a tabular list. Table 24-2 describes the data types and contents:

Table 24-2 Alarm Data Types

Data Type (Column)

Contents

Severity

Alarm icon that indicates the severity level attributed to the trap. The color of the alarm icon indicates the level of alarm severity, as follows:

Red = Severe

Magenta = Major

Yellow = Minor

Blue = Informational

White = Unknown

From

Network address of the device that sent the alarm to the Alarm Management System.

Summary

Summary of the event, often including the name or address of the object affected by the alarm.

Owner

Person or group responsible for handling the alarm. The default owner is SYSTEM.

Received Time

Date and time when the Alarm Management System received the alarm.

Type

Generic description of the alarm. For example, volume out of disk space.

Category

Category identified in the MIB associated with the trap-type object.

You can filter the data displayed in the alarm views based on criteria from statistics displayed in each view; see Filtering Alarms for details. After selecting one or more alarm entries in an alarm view, you can perform operations by right-clicking them.

Sorting Alarms

You can modify the order in which the alarms are displayed on the Active Alarm or Alarm History views by sorting the alarms. By default, the alarms are sorted in ascending order by received time.

To edit the sort settings:

  1. Click View > Settings > Sort.

  2. Select the criteria by which you want the alarms sorted. You can sort by

    • Type

    • Severity

    • Category

    • Received time

    • Summary

    • Owner

    • Affected Object

  3. Indicate whether you want the alarms sorted in ascending (oldest first) or descending (the most recent alarms first) order by selecting the appropriate option in the Sort Order box.

  4. Click OK.

Filtering Alarms

You can display the alarms in a tabular view based on filter conditions. The filter applies only to the current management session and clears when you exit ConsoleOne.

You set up a filter by selecting criteria from four drop-down lists. You can either set up simple filters that require only one line, or complex filters composed of multiple lines or groups of lines. If you set up a filter using more than one line, you must also specify the logical relationship between the line and/or group of lines.

To set up a filter:

  1. Go to the view you want to filter.

  2. Click View > Settings > Filter.

    The Alarm Filter dialog box is displayed.

  3. Select the column by which you want the Alarm Management System to filter alarms from the first drop-down list. You can filter alarms using the following columns:

    • Severity: Filters the alarms based on the alarm severity. Alarm severity is assigned to an alarm type.

    • Generator Type: Filters alarms based on the type of agent or system generating the alarms.

    • Category: Filters alarms based on the category of the alarm. Alarm categories are based on the MIB that defines the trap-type objects.

    • Type: Filters alarms based on the alarm type. The alarm type is set by the SNMP trap-type defined in the MIB or the proprietary alarm definition.

    • Source Address: Filters alarms based on the source addresses.

    • Affected Object: Filters alarms based on the affected objects.

    • Alarm Owner: Filters alarms based on the owner of the alarm.

    • Alarm Summary: Filters alarms based on the alarm summary.

    • Rule: Filters alarms based on the rules.

  4. Select an operator from the second drop-down list.

    The operator defines how to constrain the column you have selected to a value. For example, you can specify that the selected category must be equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, contain, or start with the value you select in the third drop-down list in order for an alarm to be displayed. Keep in mind that the list of available operators depends on the column you've selected.

  5. Select a value from the third drop-down list.

  6. Specify how this filter statement relates to other statements you plan to define by selecting a value from the fourth drop-down list.

    • If this is the only filter statement or if it is the last statement in a group, select End.

    • If you want to add a line below the current filter statement, select New Row. A new line is added. You must define the logical relationship between the previous line and the new line. The alarms are displayed based on the logical condition you have specified. Select And to satisfy both the filter conditions. Select Or to satisfy any one of the filter conditions for the alarm to be displayed.

    • If you want to add one or more lines that are unrelated to the preceding lines, select New Group. A new line is added. An additional drop-down list separates the new line from the preceding lines. Select a value from this drop-down list to indicate the relations between the filter statements. Select And if you want both the filter statements to be satisfied. Select Or if you want only one of the filter statements in one of the groups to be satisfied. Select End from the fourth drop-down list when you add a new group.

  7. Click OK if you have defined filters.

    The alarm list is updated to display only those alarms that meet the filter criteria you defined.

24.2.3 Enabling and Disabling Alarms

Novell ZENworks Server Management provides default threshold values for managed NetWare and Windows* servers and network segments hosting the Traffic Analysis Agents for a station connected to a segment. An alarm is generated if the values exceed the threshold values. The server threshold alarms are enabled by default, but the segment threshold alarms are not.

IMPORTANT:In order to modify the segment properties, you must have the Traffic Analysis Agents for NetWare or Windows hosted on a station, connected to the segment.

To enable or disable segment threshold alarms:

  1. Right-click the segment object, then click Properties.

  2. If it is not already displayed, select the Segment Alarms tab.

  3. Select the alarm you want to enable or disable, then click Edit.

  4. In the Value field, specify the threshold value after which an alarm should be generated.

  5. In the Sampling Interval field, specify the time (in seconds) that the threshold value must exceed in order to generate an alarm.

  6. Select the Enable check box.

  7. Click OK.

24.2.4 Resolving Alarms

Alarms that occur on segments and devices on your network are added to the alarm manager database and are presented in the Active Alarms and Alarm History views. Entries in the alarm manager database remain in the database until the alarm is deleted. The database records the status of the alarm as it is first acknowledged, then assigned to a group or user, to the point where it is deleted from the database after the owner has resolved the problem.

Resolution operations for alarms are displayed when you right-click a single entry or multiple entries in an alarm view and click any of the following actions:

You can also access the alarm action menu items from the View menu in Novell ConsoleOne.

The order in which you perform the handling, assigning, and owning of an alarm or multiple alarms depends on your organization. Keep in mind that after you handle an alarm, it is removed from the Active Alarms list and only appears in the Alarm History list. A suggested course for resolving an alarm is for you to first assign the alarm to a group or team member, then have someone from the group take ownership of the alarm. When the network problem or event has been resolved, the team member can remove it from the Active Alarms list and eventually delete it from the Alarm History. By following this process, you can track the alarm status from creation through resolution, until it is finally deleted from the Alarm History list.

Assigning Alarms

You can specify the group or user that is assigned to handle an alarm. This allows you to use any team assignments you already have within your organization. For example, you might have a group or team member assigned to handle all alarms relating to NetWare servers. You can assign one or more alarms to a group or user if you have been granted access to assign alarms through the Role-Based Services. You can use an alarm filter to help you determine groups based on certain filtering criteria. See Filtering Alarms for information on filtering options.

To assign an alarm:

  1. Select the alarm you want to assign from the Active Alarm or Alarm History list.

  2. Click View > Assign.

  3. In the Username field, select the name of the person or group to which you want to assign the alarm.

    For more information on users, see Adding a New User

    The name you select does not correlate to users in Novell eDirectory and can represent the organizational structure you already have in place.

  4. Click OK.

Owning Alarms

A user can take ownership of one or more alarms. If a user is a member of a group assigned to resolve a network problem, the team member can take ownership of the alarm and eventually delete the alarm to remove it from the alarm manager database.

To take ownership of an alarm:

  1. Select the alarm from the Active Alarm or Alarm History view.

  2. Click View > Own.

    The value in the Owner field changes to the Novell eDirectory name you are logged in as.

    You cannot customize this option; the user logged in to ConsoleOne always becomes the owner of the alarm when this action is used.

Handling Alarms

Alarms displayed in the Active Alarm view have not been handled by anyone. After the alarm is handled, it is removed from the Active Alarm list, and any alarm indicators shown in other views in ConsoleOne are removed.

See Recognizing Alarm Indicators for information on different types of alarm indicators. After it is removed from the Active Alarm list, the alarm is still displayed in the Alarm History view until it is deleted by the owner.

To handle an alarm:

  1. Select the alarm from the Active Alarm list.

  2. Click View > Handle.

    The alarm is removed from the Active Alarm list. You can still display information about the alarm by switching to the Alarm History view.

Adding Notes to Alarms

You can add a note to any of the alarms displayed in the Active Alarm view or Alarm History view. The note can contain any relevant useful information about the alarm.

  1. Select the alarm from the Active Alarm or Alarm History.

  2. Click View > Note.

  3. In the Note dialog box, create a note for the alarm.

  4. Click OK.

    The alarm icon now has a note icon associated with it, indicating that a note has been added to the alarm.

    If you want to delete the note from the alarm, repeat step 2. Delete the note that you created in the Note dialog box, then click Apply. The note is deleted for the alarm, and the note icon is not displayed.

Jump to the Affected Node

You can jump to the affected node where the alarm has been triggered and perform the necessary action to rectify the problem.

  1. Select the alarm from the Active Alarm or Alarm History.

  2. Click View > Jump to Affected Node.

    The Console view is displayed and the node on which the alarm has triggered is highlighted.

24.2.5 Deleting Alarms

Alarms displayed in the Alarm History view can be deleted from the alarm list after problem resolution. You can delete one or more alarm entries to remove the alarm from the list. To delete an alarm, you must have access to view the alarm history and to delete alarms through the Role-Based Services.

There are two ways to delete alarms:

IMPORTANT:The alarm manager database, located on the management server, records the status of every alarm instance received by the Alarm Management System. You must be diligent in deleting alarms after a problem is resolved in order to keep the database from taking up excessive disk space. Currently, the alarm manager database uses the Alarm purge utility (on by default) to automatically delete entries after a period of time or based on the size of the database.

Deleting Alarms from ConsoleOne

You can manually delete alarms through ConsoleOne.

  1. Select the alarms you want to delete from the Alarm History list.

  2. Click View > Delete.

    The alarms are removed from the Alarm History view.

Deleting Alarms Using the Purge Utility

You can delete alarms automatically using the Alarm Management System purge utility. Before you can use this utility, you must set up the utility's configuration file, ampurge.properties, which is located in the properties directory on the server and volume where you installed the alarm manager database. Then you can schedule the utility to run automatically at a specified time of day. The following sections describe how to set up and use the Alarm Management System purge utility:

Setting Up the Purge Utility Configuration File

The Alarm Management System purge utility configuration file, ampurge.properties, defines the criteria for selecting the alarms to be purged as well as the time of day the process should run. This file is located in the properties directory on the server and volume where you installed the alarm manager database.

Before you can run the purge utility, you must set up the configuration file as follows:

  1. Open the ampurge.properties file with a text editor.

  2. Set the criteria for purging alarms by editing the values of the following lines in the file:

    • SeverityInformationalPurgeWait: The number of days before informational alarms will be purged.

    • SeverityMinorPurgeWait: The number of days before minor alarms will be purged.

    • SeverityMajorPurgeWait: The number of days before major alarms will be purged.

    • SeverityCriticalPurgeWait: The number of days before severe alarms will be purged.

    • SeverityUnknownPurgeWait: The number of days before unknown alarms will be purged.

    By default, alarms of all severity levels are purged after seven days.

  3. Save the configuration file.

Setting Up the Purge Utility to Run Automatically

You can schedule the purge utility to run daily to ensure that the alarm manager database does not consume excessive disk space. Before you can set up the utility to run automatically, you must make sure to set up the file with your preferences for deleting alarms of various severities. See Setting Up the Purge Utility Configuration File.

To set up the utility to run automatically:

  1. Open the ampurge.properties file with a text editor.

  2. Set the time of day you want the utility to run by editing the PurgeStartTime entry.

    Valid values are 0 to 23, where 0 is midnight and 23 is 11:00 p.m. Keep in mind that the purge utility is memory intensive and can occupy the server for several minutes. Therefore, you should set the utility to run during off-peak hours.

  3. Save and close the file.

  4. Open the alarmmanager.properties file and verify that the following line exists:

    AlarmPurgeService=yes

    If the line does not exist, add it to the end of the file.

  5. Save and close the file.

  6. Restart the server.

24.2.6 Performing Actions on Alarm Templates

By editing the alarm disposition associated with each alarm template, you can configure an alarm to automatically perform an action when an alarm occurs. Alarm dispositions are created for each alarm template in the Alarm Manager database and default settings are assigned to them. You can edit the alarm dispositions to enable the following actions:

Sorting Alarm Templates

The Alarm Management System system enables you to sort the alarm templates based on different conditions. This option is enabled by default. You can sort the templates based on Severity, Generator Type, Category, or Type. By default, the sorting is done based on the Type. You can also sort the templates based on a single field by selecting the field from the drop-down list under the Sort Items By option, or you can sort the templates based on different combinations of fields by using the Then By options.

  1. In ConsoleOne, right-click the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object, then click Properties.

  2. Click the Alarm Disposition tab.

  3. In Templates tab, click the Sort button to display the Template Sorting dialog box.

  4. Select fields from Sort Items By drop-down list.

  5. Select fields from Then By drop-down list.

  6. Click OK.

    The templates are sorted based on the field selected in the Sort Items By and Then By options. For example, if you want to sort the templates based on severity, category, generator type, and Type, first select Severity in the Sort Items By list, then select Category, Generator Type and Type in the three Then By drop-down lists. The templates are sorted first based on severity, then on the category, then by the generator type, followed by the type.

Modifying the Severity and State of the Alarm

The alarm disposition includes other configuration settings that include modifying the severity or the state of the alarm. You can modify the severity or the state of the alarm, or both. The incoming alarms will display the modified severity and the state.

To change the severity and/or state of the alarm:

  1. In ConsoleOne, right-click the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object, then click Properties.

  2. Click the Alarm Disposition tab.

  3. In the Templates page, select the alarm that you want to edit from the Alarm Templates list, then click Modify to display the Modify Template dialog box.

  4. To modify the severity of the alarm, select the severity from the drop-down list. You can change the severity of the alarms to one of the following:

    • Informational
    • Minor
    • Major
    • Critical
    • Default

  5. To modify the state of the alarm, select the state from the drop-down list. You can change the the alarm state to one of the following:

    • Operational
    • Degraded
    • Non-operational
    • Default

  6. Click OK.

Deleting Alarm Templates from Novell ConsoleOne

You can now delete the alarm templates from the Alarm Templates list through ConsoleOne. The alarms corresponding to the deleted templates are not processed by the Alarm Manager.

  1. In ConsoleOne, right-click the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object, then click Properties.

  2. Click the Alarm Disposition tab.

  3. In Templates tab, select the alarm template that you want to delete from the Alarm Templates list, then click Delete.

  4. Click Yes in Delete Template dialog box.

Printing the Alarm Disposition

  1. In ConsoleOne, right-click the Novell ZENworks Server Management site object then, click Properties.

  2. Click the Alarm Disposition tab.

  3. On the Templates page, select the alarm template from the Alarm Templates list, then click Print. You can also select multiple alarm templates by pressing Ctrl + clicking them.

  4. Select the alarms in the Print Alarms dialog box, then click Print.

Copying Alarm Templates to Microsoft Excel

You can now copy the alarm templates to a Microsoft* Excel spreadsheet.

  1. Select the alarm templates you want to copy.

  2. Press Ctrl+C.

  3. In the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, press Ctrl+V.