Context

Tool mentors explain how a tool can perform tasks, which are part of ITUP processes and activities. The tasks are listed as Related Elements in the Relationships section.

You can see the details of how processes and activities are supported by this tool mentor, by clicking the links next to the icons:

•   Event Management
  •   Correlate Events and Select Response

Details

The IBM® Tivoli® Enterprise Console® product is a rule-based event management application that integrates system, network, database, and application management to help ensure the optimal availability of the IT resources in an enterprise.

The IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console product can be integrated with an Incident Management solution to provide for escalation or management of events. Refer to toolmentor How to Use IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console to Log a New Incident for additional details. In addition it is possible to use the console for Tivoli Enterprise Console to manage some of these activities. Refer to the toolmentor How to Use IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console to Investigate and Diagnose an Incident for further details on working with the console.

When the event server receives an event or when an event is modified, the event server determines if any existing rules apply to that event. A rule consists of a set of expressions that are used to determine if an event meets the rule conditions. A rule also includes a set of actions that are taken when an event meets the specified rule conditions. Rules help reduce the amount of interpretation and the number of responses that are required by operators. For example, a particular event might be known to trigger one or more instances of another event. In such a case, a rule can be used to automatically downgrade the severity of the event or close events that are known to be caused by the triggering event.

The event server can use rules to delay responses to an event. If responses are delayed for an event, event consoles are not updated and the event server does not issue an automatic response until the specified amount of time has elapsed. A delayed response might be preferable, in cases such as when you have a self-correcting problem that occasionally occurs on the network. This feature can prevent an operator from needlessly responding to a problem.

A rule can specify an action to be taken automatically in response to an incoming event. For example, if an event indicates that a router is down, the first response might be to attempt to restart the router and give an operator a low-severity notice. If the attempts to restart the router within a designated time period fail, a rule can specify that attempts to retry be cancelled and that a higher-severity notice be sent to an operator. An operator can monitor actions that are automatically performed for an event.

If an operator does not respond to an event after a specified period of time, the event server can take additional actions beyond displaying the event on an event console. For example, the event server can send an e-mail notice of the unacknowledged event to an operator. If the operator still does not acknowledge the event, the server can then perform actions, such as paging the operator or sending an e-mail notice to an alternate contact.

You can use the predefined rules that the Tivoli Enterprise Console product provides, or you can create your own rules. The predefined rules associate resource-related events and network-related events to help you to determine the root cause of a problem.

For More Information

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