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Event Management

The Event Management System (EMS) allows you to monitor specific event conditions, such as loss of service or lack of storage, that occur in your network environment. You choose predefined events on nodes, databases, or listeners, then select the threshold parameters for which you want to be notified. You can notify specific system administrators when an event condition occurs. For some events, you can also choose to execute a fixit job that automatically corrects the problem.

The following topics are discussed in this chapter:

Event Management Process

 The Event Management System allows you to efficiently monitor a large system. Using EMS and intelligent agents, you can effectively monitor any number of databases 24 hours a day, and be alerted when a problem is detected. You can also pinpoint only the services you wish to monitor.

EMS can be extended to include other applications that detect events independent of the intelligent agents. These applications can be integrated into EMS and communicate directly with the Intelligent Agents.

In the Event Management System, event settings are stored based on the administrator registering the event. This allows administrators of large systems to customize their event systems to their preferences and tasks. Administrators receive only those messages related to the events that they have submitted.

The Event Management System includes the following processes:

Determining Administrators

 With EMS, you first set up the notification services and the administrators that need to be notified for the events. If you plan to notify administrators other than the current Console operator, you need to determine:

Using Event Sets

 Next, you need to create event sets, which are simply a group of events that you want to monitor. Oracle Enterprise Manager includes a variety of predefined events that you can use when creating event sets.

The events are grouped by the following services:

You can also use several predefined event sets that have been installed with Enterprise Manager. See Event Categories and Types on page 5-5.

You can also create your own custom events. EMS events are implemented as Tcl scripts with Oracle extensions (OraTcl) to include database specific commands. For more information on writing custom event scripts, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Developer's Guide.

Some events have parameters with suggested default threshold values that you can customize for your system. The parameter settings, fixit job, and frequency are entered in the Event Information section of the Parameters page of the Event Set Management property sheet. See Event Set Management Parameters Page on page 5-15.

Event sets are registered to specific destinations, such as nodes, listeners, or databases. The status of a registered set can be viewed in the Status page of the Modify Registration property sheet. This property sheet is displayed with the Modify Registration option of the Event menu. See Registrations Status Page on page 5-18.

The event scripts are stored, registered, and executed on a node with the permissions of the agent.The agent is responsible for detecting when a specific event condition has occurred and, when specified, running a fixit job to correct the problem.

Note:
You need to create fixit jobs with the Job system before you can associate them with an event.

Event scripts can save a state, such as values of global variables, between executions of an event script. This allows the agent to remember if it has already detected a certain event and eliminates redundant event messages to the Console.

The Event Management system uses the Console's daemon process to register event set information with the appropriate intelligent agents on nodes in the network. You determine the frequency that an agent checks an event. See Frequency on page 5-15 for details on setting the frequency interval for an event.

Interpreting Events

All events return values and some events produce output messages. The events return color values depending on the severity of the event. The colors are displayed on the event severity icon that is located:

The colors of the event severity icon are:

Note:
Some events, such as UpDown, Probe, and User Blocks events, do not return a warning value because the warning threshold parameter is not used. The event has either occurred or not occurred.

Some events produce output messages that are displayed in the Error Messages for Event list in the Status page of the Modify Registration property sheet. See Registrations Status Page on page 5-18.

Notifying Administrators

When an event condition occurs, the agent is responsible for alerting the Console and administrators. The administrators can be notified in various ways, such as electronic mail or paging. Notification occurs as follows:

Each event is logged in the repository and can be viewed and acknowledged in the Event window of the Console. See Figure 5-1: Event Management Menu and Window for an illustration of the Event window.

Note:
Refer to the appropriate documentation for information on how to correct event conditions. For example, if an Oracle database problem occurs, refer to the Oracle7 Server Administrator's Guide.

Correcting Problems

When an event occurs, you need to correct the problem. In some cases, you can create a fixit job specifically for the event. These situations are noted in the online help predefined events.

In other cases, the solution requires careful attention by a system administrator. For example, space management event conditions may require an administrator to increase space requirements and resource management conditions may require an administrator to adjust initialization parameters.

For information on how to correct event conditions, refer to the appropriate documentation.

Event Categories and Types

 The predefined events for the database, listener, and node service types are grouped into categories:

Note:
Only the UpDown events are included with Oracle Enterprise Manager. Additional events are available with the optional Performance Pack. For more information on events and their parameters, see the online help for predefined events.

Fault Management Events

This category of events monitors for catastrophic conditions on the system, such as a database, node, or listener is down. Immediate action needs to be taken by the administrator. Examples of events available in this category include:

Most of these events do not require any threshold values because the event checks whether the service is up or down.

Space Management Events

This category of events tracks possible space problems, such as running out of space on a disk or archive device. Examples of space management events in this category include:

To check for space management events, set a threshold on the free space left. For example, set an alert if the free space on a disk falls below a specific number of bytes.

In order to properly choose the threshold value, you need to know the characteristics of the tablespaces. For example, you would want to know whether the tablespaces contain online transaction processing (OLTP) tables or decision support tables. The former usually has a very fast growth rate, while the latter almost never grows.

Resource Management Events

This category of events tracks possible resource problems, such as exceeding datafile or lock limits. Examples of resource management events in this category include:

To check for resource management events, set a threshold on the percentage of a resource used. For example, you can set an alert if the percentage of the datafile resource used is greater than a specified value.

Performance Management Events

This category of event monitors the system for performance problems, such as excessive CPU load or library cache miss rate. Examples of events in this category include:

To check for performance management events, set a threshold on a system value. For example, you can set an alert if the library cache miss rate is greater than a specific value. The set of threshold values is system specific, depending on the hardware platform, number of users, and other factors.

Event Window

The Event Management window contains the following pages:

You can switch between the pages by clicking on the tab of each page. The rows in both pages can be sorted on any column by clicking on the column heading. See Figure 5-1: Event Management Menu and Window for an illustration of the Event window.

The Event window can be hidden or shown by selecting Show Event Pane in the Console View menu. You can also hide or show the window by clicking on the square clock icon in the Console toolbar.

Figure 5-1: Event Management Menu and Window

Outstanding Events Page

 The Outstanding Events page displays event sets that have been applied and have occurred.

Severity
Severity of the event: alert, warning, and clear. These are represented by red, yellow, and green circles.

Event
Name of the event.

Node
Node where the event was monitored.

Type
Type of service that the event monitors, such as Database, Listener, or Node.

Destination
The service that is being monitored.

Date
Date of the event.

Event Message
Message associated with the event, such as "Database went down" or "Tablespace SYSTEM reached 90% capacity."

Ack. Text
The Comment entered when the event was acknowledged.

Acknowledging Events

To acknowledge an event that has occurred, double-click on the event to display the Acknowledge Event property sheet. You can also select an event and choose the Acknowledge option in the Event menu. When you acknowledge an event, you can enter notes on the nature and progress of the event condition. See Acknowledging an Event on page 5-19.

Event History Page

The Event History page displays a history of events that have occurred and have been acknowledged by an administrator or cleared by an agent. The Event History Page contains the same columns as the Outstanding Events page, plus the following:

Cleared By
Name of user that cleared the event.

Ack. Date
Date that the event was acknowledged.

Viewing Acknowledgments

To view any Comments made by the administrator that acknowledged the event, double-click on the event to display the Acknowledge Event dialog box.

Saving Event History

You can save the events from the Event History page to a text file and clear the events from the Event History window. This prevents the Event History page from being overloaded with obsolete events that occurred in previous days.

Registrations Page

The Registrations page displays the event sets that have been applied and registered to monitor events on any network objects. The Registrations page contains the following information:

Type
Type of event set, such as Database, Node, or Listener is signified by an icon.

Destination
The service that event is monitoring.

Set Name
Name of the event set that is registered.

Event Status
The number of the pending, and successful, and failed events in the event set.

Modify Registrations Property Sheet

Select Modify Registration from the Event menu or double-click on the selected registered event set to display the property sheet for the event set. The property sheet allows you to view and modify registration information.

Select the status page tab to display a detailed view of the status of each event. Some events produce output messages that are displayed in the Error Messages for Event list in the Status page of the Modify Registration property sheet. See Registrations Status Page on page 5-18.

Event Set Library Page

The Event Set Library page displays the event sets that have been created. The Event Set Library page contains the following information:

Type
Type of event set, such as Database, Node, or Listener is signified by an icon.

Set Name
Name of the event set.

Description
Description of the event set.

# of Events
Number of events in the set.

Event Set Property Sheet

Double-click on an event set to display the property sheet for the event set. The property sheet allows you to view and modify the event sets.

Predefined Event Sets

Several predefined event sets have been installed with Enterprise Manager. These appear in the Event Set Library page of the Event window. You can apply these event sets to destinations on your network. The predefined event sets include:

Note:
Only the UpDown event sets are included with Oracle Enterprise Manager. Additional event sets are available with the optional Performance Pack.

To view the specific events assigned to an event set, double-click on the event set in the Event Set Library page and view the Event page of the Event Set Management property sheet. For information on predefined events and their parameters, see the online help for predefined events.

Event Menu

The Event menu allows you to set up event set and administrator information. This menu also provides options to register, track, and view specific events. Menu options are enabled depending on the items selected in the Event window. See Figure 5-1: Event Management Menu and Window for an illustration of the Event menu.

Note:
When you register or remove an event, there is usually a slight delay while the agent processes the request.

Acknowledge Event
Acknowledges the selected event in the Outstanding Events page.

Enter any optional Comments on the nature or progress of the event condition in the General page of the Acknowledge Event property sheet, then click on the Move to History button to move the event to the Event History page or click on the Keep button to leave the event in the Outstanding Events page. See Acknowledging an Event on page 5-19.

Register Event Set
Registers, or applies, the selected event set to a destination. This action monitors the destination, or network object. See Registering, Modifying, or Viewing an Event Set on page 5-16.

Modify Registration
Modifies the selected registered event set. See Registering, Modifying, or Viewing an Event Set on page 5-16.

Remove Registration
Removes the selected registered event set. If you experience problems removing an event, see the Delete option of the Daemon Manager Menu on page 6-10.

Create Event Set
Displays the Event Set Management property sheet and allows you to create the definition of a new event set. See Creating or Modifying an Event Set on page 5-13.

Modify Event Set
Modifies the definition of an existing event set. See Creating or Modifying an Event Set on page 5-13.

Remove Event Set
Removes the selected event set from the Event window.

Save History
Saves the contents of the Event History page to a file.

Print History
Prints the contents of the Event History page to a file.

Clear History
Clears the contents of the Event History page to a file.

Administrator List
Displays a list of administrators in the Administrators dialog box. Each row in the list contains the Administrator's Name, Paging Service, Email Service, and Email ID.

You can add, delete, and modify administrator information in the Administrators dialog box. When add or modify an administrator, the Administrator property sheet appears. The property sheet contains the General, Systems, and Availability pages. See Managing Administrators on page 5-20.

Configure Services
Displays the Services Configuration menu. You can configure Mail, Paging, or Modem information.

To configure mail services, see Configuring Mail Services on page 5-23.

To configure paging services, see Configuring Paging Services on page 5-24.

To configure modem settings, dialing information, and trace log, see Configuring the Modem on page 5-25.

Context-Sensitive Menus

If you select an item in the Event window with the right mouse button, the context-sensitive menu for that item appears. This menu is a subset of the Event menu.

Creating or Modifying an Event Set

Event sets include the service type and the event information that you want to monitor. Event sets can consist of multiple events. To create or modify an event set:

1.
Choose the Create Event Set option from the Event menu to display the Event Set Management property sheet
2.
Complete or modify the fields in the General and Events pages of the property sheet to create a new event set.
3.
Click the OK button at the bottom of the property sheet to save and exit. The new event set appears in the Event Set Library page of the Event window.
4.
You can now register this event set to the destinations you want to monitor.
Note:
The property sheet for creating a new event set is the same as the property sheet for modifying an event set, except that the event set name field is read-only.

See Figure 5-2: Event Set Property Sheet for an illustration of the Event Set Management property sheet.

Note:
You can use several predefined event sets that have been installed with Oracle Enterprise Manager. See Event Categories and Types on page 5-5.

Event Set Management General Page

On the General page, you determine the event set name, description, and service type.

Name:
Enter an event set name.

Service Type:
Select the service type you want to monitor from the pull-down list. The types include Database, Node, or Listener.

Description:
Enter a description or comment for the event set.

Accept third party events
Check this box to allow the Event system to accept event sets that have been created by other developers. See the Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Developer's Guide for information on creating event scripts.

Figure 5-2: Event Set Property Sheet

Event Set Management Events Page

 On the Events page, you determine the events that you want to monitor.

Available Events:
Select the events in the list you want to monitor in this event set, then click on the << (Add) button to move the events to the Selected Events list.

Selected Events:
Select the events in the list you want to remove from this event set, then click on the >> (Remove) button.

Event Set Management Parameters Page

The fixit job, frequency, and parameter settings are entered in the Event Information section of the Parameters page of the Event Set Management property sheet. The settings and types of parameters vary according to the event selected. Some events do not have parameters.

Choose Fixit Job

A fixit job is designed to correct a problem. For example, you may want the agent to run a job to restart a database when the database instance has shut down unexpectedly. Fixit jobs have been created with the Job system and have been designated as fixit jobs. The jobs must be submitted and running on the same destination that the event is set on.

For information on jobs, see Chapter 4, Job Scheduling. For information on predefined job tasks, see the online help for predefined jobs.

Frequency

Determine the frequency that you want the event to monitor the selected destinations. The frequency determines how often the event condition is checked. For example, if the frequency is set to 30 seconds, the event condition is checked every 30 seconds. To ensure timely notification, set the frequency to the smallest interval possible. To set the frequency:

See Notifying Administrators on page 5-4 for details on the notification frequency.

Parameters

The parameters for an event are displayed when the event is selected in the Selected Events list. The parameters vary according to the event selected. Some events do not have parameters.

You can accept the default values or change the values for the parameters. To enter parameter values for an event, you can do one of the following:

Note:
For more information on events and their parameters, see the online help for predefined events.

Registering, Modifying, or Viewing an Event Set

You need to register, or apply, an event set to monitor events on specific destinations in the network environment. To register an event set:

1.
Choose the Register Event Set option of the Event menu to display the Register Event Set property sheet.
2.
Complete the fields in the General and Notification pages of the property sheet to register the event set.
3.
Click the OK button at the bottom of the property sheet to save and exit. The event set appears in the Registrations page of the Event window. Each destination database is listed separately with the event set.
4.
After the agent for a destination processes the event set, the event set appears in the Outstanding Events page of the Event window.
When threshold values are exceeded for the events, a notification is sent to Console window. This notification will change the color of the circle in the Severity column for the event in the Outstanding Events page. If the destination database icon is displayed in the Map window, the flag on the icon changes color. The colors and their meaning are:

Note:
There is usually a slight delay between the registering the event set and the notification by the agent.

To modify or view an event set:

1.
Select a registered event set in the Registrations page of the Event window.
2.
Choose the Modify Registration option of the Event menu to display the Modify Registration property sheet.
3.
You can modify fields in the Notification page but not the General page. Display the Status page to view of the status of each event at every destination.
The Register Event Set and Modify Registration property sheets are very similar. The property sheets contain:

Registrations General Page

 On the General page, you identify the event set and destinations that you want the event set to monitor.

Warning:
Do not register an UpDown event against the database or node where the repository table is stored. Note that the UpDown event is included in the Oracle DB Fault predefined event set. The communication between the agent and communication daemon can cause problems with the repository database connection. If the database or node is down, the event cannot notify the Console because the repository is not available.

Service Type:
Select a service type from the pull-down list. The types include Database, Node, or Listener.

Set Name:
Select an existing event set name from the pull-down list.

Description:
Displays the description of the event set.

The Available destinations vary according to the service type and event set selected.

Available Destinations:
Select the destinations in the list you want to monitor in this event set, then click on the << (Add) button.

Selected Destinations:
Select the events in the list you want to remove from this event set, then click on the >> (Remove) button.

Registrations Notification Page

On the Notification page, you determine who is notified and how they are notified for each destination.

Note:
You need to set up administrators and notification methods before you complete this page. See Managing Administrators on page 5-20.

Destination
Select a destination from the pull-down list.

Notify Operator on Duty
Check this option to notify the operator that is on duty when the event occurs.

Cause SNMP Trap At Agent
Check this box to trap the notification at the destination where the agent is located.

Operators
Select an operator in the list, then select the notification method for this operator.

Notification Method
Choose the method for notifying the operator selected in the Operators list. You can choose paging or mail if those methods have been set up for the operator.

Registrations Status Page

On the Status page, you can view the status and output messages (if any) of each event at every destination where the event has been registered. The Status page contains the following:

Destination
Select an event destination from the pull-down list. The events registered at this destination display in the Status of Registered Event list.

Status of Registered Event at Destination
Select an event in the list to view the error messages, if present.

Error Message for Event
Scroll through the list of messages to view the output of the event. The specific output of each event is described in the online help for predefined events.

Acknowledging an Event

Acknowledging events allows you to add Comments to an event and move the event from the Outstanding Events to the Event History page.

To acknowledge an event that has occurred, double-click on the event in the Outstanding Events page to display the Acknowledge Event property sheet. You can also select an event and choose the Acknowledge option in the Event menu.

The Acknowledge Event property sheet contains the General and Notification pages. After you have viewed the information on the pages and entered any optional Comments in the Comments field of the General page, you can:

Acknowledge Event General Page

 The General page contains the following fields. Only the Comments field can be updated.

Event
Name of the event.

Date
Date that the event occurred.

System
System where the event occurred.

Node
Destination node.

Event Message
A message describing the event that took place.

Comments
Enter an optional Comment for this event. Comments are useful for explaining how the problem was corrected.

Acknowledge Event Notification Page

The Notification page contains the Notification Status field. This field is for display only and cannot be updated.

Managing Administrators

The Event Management system allows you to set up the administrators that are notified when an event occurs. You can then select specific administrators to be notified when applying an event set. When using a paging service or mail notification, each administrator can be assigned responsibility for specific systems at specific days and times.

Each administrator can be associated with both an email ID and a pager number. The administrator's schedule can be set up for any hours on any days of the week by specific system. For example, an administrator can be scheduled from 7:00 AM through 12:00 PM from Monday to Friday, 10:00AM through 2:00 PM on Saturday, and not available on Sunday.

Note:
If you plan to use a mail or paging service for notification, you need to configure the mail, paging, and modem settings for your system before you set up administrators. See Configuring Mail Services on page 5-23, Configuring Paging Services on page 5-24, and Configuring the Modem on page 5-25.

To manage administrators, choose Administrator List in the Event menu to display the Administrator List dialog box. From the dialog box, you can add, modify, and delete administrators.

Adding Administrators

To add a new administrator definition:

1.
Click on the Add button in the Administrator dialog box to display the Administrator property sheet.
2.
Complete the General, Systems, and Availability pages in the Administrator property sheet to set up a new administrator.

Modifying Administrators

 To modify an administrator definition:

1.
Select an administrator in the list.
2.
Click on the Modify button in the Administrator dialog box to display the Administrator property sheet.
3.
Modify the General, Systems, and Availability pages in the Administrator property sheet.

Deleting Administrators

 To delete an administrator definition:

1.
Select an administrator in the list.
2.
Click on the Delete button in the Administrator dialog box to delete the administrator.

Administrator General Page

 The General page contains the Administrator's Name, Comments, Paging Information, and EMailing Information. Complete this page to set up the paging service and email address for the administrator.

Name:
Enter the name of the administrator.

Comments:
Enter any Comments.

Paging Information:

Carrier:
Select the name of the paging carrier service from the pull-down list. The carriers are set up with the Configure Paging Services option in the Event menu.

Pin:
Enter the paging Pin.

Test
Click the Test button to check the accuracy of the Paging information. In the Test Pager dialog box, select the paging service from the pull-down list, enter the PIN number, and enter a message. Click on the Send button to send a test page to the selected administrator.

EMailing Information:

MAPI Mail ID:
Enter the MAPI mail address of the administrator.

SMTP Mail ID:
Enter the SMTP mail address of the administrator, such as jayr@smp.com.

Test
Click the Test button to check the accuracy of the mail information. In the Test Email dialog box, enter a message and click on the Send button to send a test email to the administrator.

Administrator Systems Page

The Systems page defines the systems that the administrator is responsible for.

Available Systems:
Select the names of the systems that the administrator is responsible for, then click the << (Add) button.

Systems responsible for:
Select the names of the systems that the administrator is no longer responsible for, then click the >> (Remove) button.

Administrator Availability Page

The Availability page defines the Notification method and the Availability of the administrator for each system that the administrator is responsible for.

Notification:
Select the notification method, All, Email, or Paging, from the pull-down list.

Suggestion:
Paging is recommended for urgent events or critical systems.

Systems responsible for:
Select the system in the tree list that the administrator is responsible for.

Availability
Select the hours and days of the week in the table when the administrator is available for the system selected in the list.

Configuring Mail Services

The Mail Configuration dialog box allows you to determine the mail service information for your system. You must set up this information correctly to notify administrators by mail.

To configure mail services, select the Configure Services Mail option from the Event menu. In the Mail Configuration dialog box, define the information in the following fields:

Current Mail Engine
Set up the mail engine to match the mail engine of your system. Select from the following options in the pull-down list:

MAPI Setup

MAPI uses the Microsoft Mail Messaging System. See the MS Windows documentation and online help for information on setting up and using this system.

Send Mail As
Enter an optional name or label that you want to attach to the address of the email notification. For example, eventsys.

Password
Enter the password for the MAPI system.

SMTP Setup

SMTP is a TCP/IP-based mail protocol and requires that TCP/IP services are set up on the Console machine. To set up TCP/IP services, access Network settings in the Control Panel of the Console system.

Send Mail As
Enter an optional name or label that you want to attach to the address of the email notification. For example, eventsys.

SMTP Server:
Enter the location of the SMTP server, such as smtpserve.world.

Configuring Paging Services

You configure the paging service names, access numbers, and communication settings with the Paging Services Configuration dialog box. These paging services can be assigned to the administrators you define in the Administrator List dialog box.

To configure paging services, select Configure Services Paging option in the Event menu. In the Paging Services Configuration dialog box, you can add, modify, or delete paging services.

Adding Paging Services

To add a new paging service:

1.
Select the Add button in the Paging Services Configuration dialog box.
2.
Enter a name for the paging service in the Service Name field of the New Service Name dialog box. This name will appear in the General page of the Administrator property sheet. Select the OK button.
3.
Enter the phone number that accesses the paging service in the Access Number field.
4.
Determine the Communication Settings fields in the dialog box.

Modifying Paging Services

 To modify a paging service:

1.
Select a paging service name in the Paging Services Names list of the Paging Services Configuration dialog box.
2.
Modify the phone number in the Access Number field if necessary.
3.
Modify the Communication Settings fields in the dialog box if necessary.

Deleting Paging Services

 To delete a paging service:

1.
Select a paging service name in the Paging Services Names list of the Paging Services Configuration dialog box.
2.
Select the Delete button.

Communication Settings

 These settings define how the system communicates with the paging service. Contact the paging service for the correct settings.

Baud Rate:
Select the baud rate from the pull-down list.

Data Bits:
Select the data bits from the pull-down list.

Stop Bits:
Select the stop bits from the pull-down list.

Parity:
Select the parity from the pull-down list.

Flow Control:
Select the flow control from the pull-down list.

Configuring the Modem

You determine the system modem information, outside line dialing information, and trace log option with the Modem Settings dialog box. This information must be set up correctly to dial a paging service.

To configure the modem settings, select the Configure Services Modem option in the Event menu. In the Modem Settings dialog box, complete the fields in the dialog box.

Modem Settings

Complete the fields in the Modem Settings dialog box to set up the system modem.

Serial Port
Select the serial port number of the modem connection from the pull-down list.

Modem Type
Select the modem type from the pull-down list. If your modem is not listed, choose Other.

Init Command
Enter the initialization string for the modem or accept the default command. Refer to your modem documentation for additional information.

Dialing Information
Check the box if you need to enter a prefix to access an outside line. Enter the prefix to access an outside line in the adjacent field.

Trace Log
Check the box to create a trace log. Enter the pathname of the log file in the adjacent field.


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