History of Alerts Report

The History of Alerts report, as its name suggests, provides details of all the alerts that were generated by the eG manager during a configured period of time in the past.

Note:

If the user who logs into the eG Reporter console has been assigned only VMs for monitoring (and not any other component), then the Operational Reports menu will provide only the History of Alerts report option. In this case, the History of Alerts will list all the historical alerts related to the VMs that have been assigned to the current user.

Historical analysis of alerts reveals recurring issues and problem-prone components, and helps deduce problem patterns. Using the filter option provided by the report, you can zoom into specific types of problems and scrutinize them closely. The report also provides analytical tools like detailed diagnosis and graphs, which can be used to perform a post-mortem of the problems and diagnose the root-cause of issues.

To generate this report, do the following:

  1. Select the History of Alerts option from the Operational Reports node of the REPORTS BY FUNCTION tree.

  2. Figure 229 then appears.

    Generating History of Alarms Report

    Figure 229 : Generating the History of Alerts report

  3. You can build filter conditions using Figure 229 so that, you can selectively view the alarm history. The first step towards building these filter conditions is selecting a basis for the filter. This can be achieved by picking an option from the Analyze by list. The options available here are as follows:

    • Component: This is the default selection in the Analyze by list. This implies that by default, the history of alerts report is generated for all managed components in the environment. If you proceed with the default selection, then, you will find that All is the default selection in the Component Type list, and all the managed components in the environment populate the Components list. If you want to view the alarm history of a particular component of a particular component-type, pick the type of your choice from the Component Type list; this will make sure that the Components list consists of only those managed components that are of the chosen type. You can then easily pick the component of your choice from the Component list.

    • Zone: Selecting this option from the Analyze by list will invoke a Zone list. Select a particular zone from this list, if you want to view the history of alerts related to that zone. An Include Subzones flag also appears. By setting this flag to Yes, you can make sure that the alarm history also includes those alerts that are associated with the sub-zones of the chosen zone.

      Once a Zone is selected, the Component Type and Components lists will be populated with those component types and components (respectively) that are part of the selected zone. To view the alarm history of a component that is part of a zone, pick that component from the Components list. If the Components list has too many components to choose from, then, you can condense the list by first picking a Component Type; this will make sure that the Components list consists of those components in the selected zone that are of the chosen type. You can then easily pick the component of your choice from the Components list.

      Note that the 'Zone' option will not be available in the 'Analyze by' list if no zones are configured in the environment.

    • Segment: If this option is chosen from the Analyze by list, a Segment list will additionally appear. In order to view the alarm history pertaining to a specific segment, pick a segment from the Segment list.

      Once a Segment is selected, the Component Type and Components lists will be populated with those types and components (respectively) that are part of the selected segment. To view the alarm history of a component that is part of a segment, pick that component from the Components list. If the Components list has too many components to choose from, then, you can condense the list by first picking a Component Type; this will make sure that the Components list consists of those components in the selected segment that are of the chosen type. You can then easily pick the component of your choice from the Components list.

      Note that the 'Segment' option will not be available in the 'Analyze By' list if no segments are configured in the environment.

    • Service: If this option is chosen from the Analyze by list, a Service list will additionally appear. In order to view the alarm history pertaining to a specific service, pick a service from the Service list.

      Once you choose a Service, the Component Type and Components lists in Figure 229 will be populated with those types and components (respectively) that are engaged in the delivery of the said service. If you want to view the alarm history of a component that supports the selected service offering, pick that component from the Components list. If the Components list has too many components to choose from, then, you can condense the list by first picking a Component Type; this will make sure that the Components list consists of those components in the selected service that are of the chosen type. You can then easily pick the component of your choice from the Components list.

      Note that the 'Service' option will not be available in the 'Analyze by' list if no services are configured in the environment.

  4. If the Components list consists of too many components, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the button next to the Components list. The Components pop up window will then appear using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated.

  5. For viewing the details of alerts that were generated during a specific time window, select a fixed Timeline, or choose Any to provide a date/time range.

  6. In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick one/more components from the Components list. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required), click on the More Options button. The default settings will then appear in the MORE OPTIONS drop down window (see Figure 230). The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.

    Default Settings for generating History of Alarms Report

    Figure 230 : The default settings for generating the History of Alerts report

  7. You can even choose to view the details of past/current alerts that are of a particular priority, by selecting that priority from the Priority list. All is the default selection here.

  8. By default, the Chosen Period option is chosen from the Filter By Start Time list indicating that the report generated will list only those alerts that were raised during the time period chosen from the Timeline list. However, if you wish to view the alerts that were already open in the chosen Timeline, then, pick the Any Period option from this list.

  9. To view the past alerts that were generated in the chosen time period, the Historical option is chosen from the Alert Status list, by default. However, to view the current alerts that are generated in the chosen time period, pick the Current option from this list.

  10. If you have chosen Historical option from the Alert Status list, then, to view the alerts that have remained unresolved for a time period that is in excess of a specified duration, select the greater than option from the Duration list, enter a value in the adjacent text box, and then select a unit of time from the list box alongside. For example, to view the history of the alerts that have remained unresolved for over 1 hour, select the greater than option, enter 1 in the text box alongside, and select hours from the list box adjacent to it. 

  11. Similarly, you can view the history of alerts that have remained unresolved for a time period lesser than a specified duration. To achieve this, select the lesser than option from the Duration list, specify a value in the adjacent text box, and select a unit of time from the list box.

  12. To search for the alerts pertaining to a chosen Component Type, Component, Service or test, you can use the Search by drop down list and provide the name of the Component Type, component, service or test of your choice in the text box adjacent to the list. In addition, if you wish to filter out the alerts with the key words of your choice, then you can choose the Description option from the Search by list and type in the keywords that you are looking for in the alerts. For example, if you wish to filter out the alerts pertaining to High CPU usage, then you can select Description from the Search by list and type CPU as the keyword in the text box adjacent to the drop-down list.

  13. To plot the trend of alerts in an hourly/daily/day of week/monthly basis in the generated report as a bar graph, pick an option from the Group Alerts By list. By default, Hour option is chosen (if you have chosen 1 day as the Timeline) or Day option is chosen (if you have chosen 1 week as the Timeline) from this list indicating that the Alerts Trend by Start Time graph in the generated report will be plotted for the last 24 hours/every day(as may be the case).

  14. In addition, you can configure the number of event records to be displayed per page of the event history. By default, 15 records are displayed per page. To display more records, select an appropriate value from the Events per page list.

  15. In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, you can either select the Background Save - PDF option or the Background Save - CSV option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.

    Note:

    • The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the [EG_INSTALL_DIR]\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
    • The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background Save - PDF. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.

  16. Click the Done button if any changes were made to the More Options drop down window.

  17. Finally, click the Run Report button to generate the report. Figure 231 then appears.

    Figure 231 : The History of Alerts report

  18. The generated report contains the following sections:

    • An Overview section (see Figure 231) that provides a single glance view on the count of alerts that were raised in the chosen time period, the minimum duration for which an alert was open, the maximum duration for which an alert was open and the average duration for which an alert was open during the chosen time period. Using this section, administrators can easily figure out the maximum duration for which an alert was open in the target environment.

    • A series of distribution graphs (see Figure 231) help administrators figure out the distribution of alerts based on the alert priority (Critical/Major/Minor) and the distribution of alerts based on duration. Using these distribution graphs, administrators can figure out which type of alert had been raised the most during the chosen time period and the time range for which maximum alerts were open.

    • Using the Alerts Trend by Start Time bar graph (see Figure 231) you can easily view a break up of the count of alerts (based on priority) that were raised in the chosen time period. This will help in identifying the hour/day during which maximum alerts were generated.

  19. The next section provides the details pertaining to every alert (see Figure 232) such as the start time, duration, name of the component, component type, test, alert description, and the service (if any) that is impacted by the issue over the chosen period of time. Every row of alert information will be accompanied by a colored indicator that indicates the corresponding alert priority. Critical alerts will be of the color red, major alerts will be in orange, and the minor ones are displayed in yellow. An alert with the end time set to Current denotes a problem that has still not been fixed.

    Figure 232 : The Details table in the generated report

  20. Typically whenever an alarm is raised for the problems at the host-level of a component, the History of Alerts page automatically sets the Component type to Host system, even if the component affected is say, an Oracle Database server or a Web server. From this alert information, users cannot determine the exact Component type of the affected component. Moreover, help desk personnel may prefer to view the operating system of the problem host as part of the alarm information displayed in the History of Alerts page, as such an information will greatly simplify the troubleshooting process. To make sure that the History of alerts page enables help desk to easily understand, interpret, and solve problems affecting a host's performance, you can optionally configure the eG Enterprise system to display the actual Component type, Host system, or the affected Operating system for host-level alerts in the History of alerts page. To enable this capability, do the following:

    • Edit the eg_ui.ini flag in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory

    • In the [HOST_SYSTEM] section of this file, set the Show_HostSystem flag to any one of the following values mentioned below:

      • Set the Show_HostSystem flag to HostSystem if you want the component type to be displayed as Host system for the host-level alerts;
      • Set the Show_HostSystem flag to CompType if you want to display the affected component; This is the default setting that is provided;
      • Set the Show_HostSystem flag to OS if you want to display the operating system of the host;

    • Finally, save the file.

      Note:

      This configuration affects the current alerts window, email/SMS alerts, and SNMP traps as well.

  21. The Details table also comprises of the Graph icon, which when clicked, allows you to view the graph of the corresponding measure for the last one hour. If the detailed diagnosis capability has been enabled for the eG installation, then problem measures for which detailed diagnosis is available will be accompanied by the Search icon. When this icon is clicked, the detailed diagnosis of the measure will appear, throwing greater light on the problem condition.
  22. The Next page, Previous page, Last page and First page buttons, and the Page text box are provided to enable you to easily browse the alert information that runs across pages.
  23. To save you the trouble of scrolling up the report every time you want to relook at the report criteria, eG Reporter now includes a separate section with a summary of your specifications. Clicking the Expand button in this section expands your report criteria so that you can alter your specification at any point of time. 
  24. To hide the expanded report criteria, simply click on the Hide button.