BMC Impact Solutions 7.1 - Event Monitoring Operator's Guide - 83756

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide
Supporting
BMC Impact Manager 7.1 BMC Impact Explorer 7.1 BMC Impact Portal 7.1 BMC Impact Event Adapters 7.1 BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows 7.1
October 2007
www.bmc.com
Contacting BMC Software

You can access the BMC Software website at http://www.bmc.com. From this website, you can obtain information about the company, its products, corporate offices, special events, and career opportunities.
United States and Canada

Address BMC SOFTWARE INC 2101 CITYWEST BLVD HOUSTON TX 77042-2827 USA Telephone 713 918 8800 or 800 841 2031 Fax 713 918 8000
Outside United States and Canada

Telephone (01) 713 918 8800 Fax (01) 713 918 8000
Copyright 2007 BMC Software, Inc. BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. BMC Software considers information included in this documentation to be proprietary and confidential. Your use of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable End User License Agreement for the product and the proprietary and restricted rights notices included in this documentation.
Restricted rights legend

U.S. Government Restricted Rights to Computer Software. UNPUBLISHED -- RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER THE COPYRIGHT LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. Use, duplication, or disclosure of any data and computer software by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions, as applicable, set forth in FAR Section 52.227-14, DFARS 252.227-7013, DFARS 252.227-7014, DFARS 252.227-7015, and DFARS 252.227-7025, as amended from time to time. Contractor/Manufacturer is BMC SOFTWARE INC, 2101 CITYWEST BLVD, HOUSTON TX 77042-2827, USA. Any contract notices should be sent to this address.
Customer support
You can obtain technical support by using the BMC Software Customer Support website or by contacting Customer Support by telephone or e-mail. To expedite your inquiry, see Before contacting BMC.
Support website
You can obtain technical support from BMC 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at http://www.bmc.com/support_home. From this website, you can
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read overviews about support services and programs that BMC offers find the most current information about BMC products search a database for issues similar to yours and possible solutions order or download product documentation download products and maintenance report an issue or ask a question subscribe to receive proactive e-mail alerts when new product notices are released find worldwide BMC support center locations and contact information, including e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and telephone numbers
Support by telephone or e-mail

In the United States and Canada, if you need technical support and do not have access to the web, call 800 537 1813 or send an e-mail message to customer_support@bmc.com. (In the subject line, enter SupID:<yourSupportContractID>, such as SupID:12345). Outside the United States and Canada, contact your local support center for assistance.
Before contacting BMC

Have the following information available so that Customer Support can begin working on your issue immediately:
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product information product name product version (release number) license number and password (trial or permanent)
operating system and environment information machine type operating system type, version, and service pack or other maintenance level such as PUT or PTF system hardware configuration serial numbers related software (database, application, and communication) including type, version, and service pack or maintenance level
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sequence of events leading to the issue commands and options that you used messages received (and the time and date that you received them) product error messages messages from the operating system, such as file system full messages from related software
License key and password information

If you have questions about your license key or password, contact BMC as follows:
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(USA or Canada) Contact the Order Services Password Team at 800 841 2031, or send an e-mail message to ContractsPasswordAdministration@bmc.com. (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) Fax your questions to EMEA Contracts Administration at +31 20 354 8702, or send an e-mail message to password@bmc.com. (Asia-Pacific) Contact your BMC sales representative or your local BMC office.
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer 13 13 15 16 16 17 18 19 20 23 BMC IX Events View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Event collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MetaCollectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Event groups and image views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC IX Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC IX Administration View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Adapters overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 2
Getting started with the BMC IX console and the BMC Impact Portal 25 25 26 26 27 29 30 31 31 34 36 37 39 40 43 44 48 49 51 51 52 53 54 54
Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting BMC IX as a stand-alone application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to an authentication server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing your password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 3 Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for event monitoring
Customizing the console to access multiple cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Specifying ports in cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to and disconnecting from a cell or group of cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using primary and secondary cells for high availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing property and performance data about a cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 4 Viewing and managing events
Accessing the Events view in the console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Adjusting column widths in the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Refreshing and freezing the event list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Organizing events in the event list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Using MetaCollectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Filtering events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Sorting events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Understanding event groups and image views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Connecting to multiple cells to access additional event groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Getting details for events in an event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 New Common Event Model slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Viewing event operations history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Viewing event relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Viewing online Help for an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Copying event information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Printing event information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Performing event operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Responding to an event with an action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Responding to multiple events by using a user-defined local action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Manually setting component status or maintenance mode with a remote action . . . 85 Chapter 5 Using BMC Impact Event Adapters 87
Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Starting the engine manager process from the command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Starting the Adapter processes as services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Using instance control to start and stop Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Restarting an Adapter after modifying the MAP file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Enabling tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Trace files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Trace levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Errors and Adapter events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Adapter status events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Chapter 6 Using the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager 99
Accessing the Web-based GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Publishing MIB files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Viewing or editing the MAP file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Unpublishing MIB files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Installing the BAROC files in the Knowledge Base of BMC Impact Manager . . . . . 104 Chapter 7 Using the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows 107
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Event class definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Starting the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Testing the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Chapter 8 Customizing the BMC IX console 113 114 116 117 118 118 120 121 122 123 124 127 128 130 133 136 139
Customizing general display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using floating panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using quotation marks and string fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Customizing display settings for the Events tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defining attributes for the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color . . . . Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors . . . . . . . Using deprecated slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Customizing access to Help for events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding buttons for actions to the toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix A Console interface reference
Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Toolbar buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shortcut keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index
Contents
Figures
BMC Impact Explorer Events View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 BMC IX image View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 BMC Impact Explorer Windows event collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 BMC Impact Explorer Services View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Impact Manager Information dialog box General tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Impact Manager Information dialog box Workload tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Impact Manager Information dialog box Components tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Location of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 How event operations affect event state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Event Sources selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 MetaCollector addition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Slot quick filter and severity quick filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Edit Event View dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Slot order creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Single-click sorting indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Multiple column sorting indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Location of elements on the Event Groups tab and image view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Active Explore Event Relationships icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Event annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Remote action selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Local action selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Syntax to execute a local actions against multiple events of the same type . . . . . . . . 83 Example of an action definition that uses the batchmode parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Example celleventdata.xml file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 mcxactrl.pl command syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Performance Monitor in Chart mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Global subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Severity section of Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box . . . . . . . . 121 Event count section of Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box . . . . 122 Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Local toolbar action selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Local action toolbar button order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Figures
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Tables
BMC IEA versus BMC IELA comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Description of elements in the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Event relations icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Event states resulting from event operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Current operator information in event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Event status icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Event severity levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Event priority icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Default filters and filter options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Description of elements in the Event Groups tab and image view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Events View Details pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 New CEM-related slots in BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Event operation descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 mcxa command options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 mcxactrl.pl command options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 IP Adapter status events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 BMC Impact Explorer display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Events View subtab display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Help Info subtab display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 BMC Impact Explorer icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 BMC Impact Explorer menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 BMC Impact Explorer toolbar buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 BMC Impact Explorer shortcut keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
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Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

The BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) product provides a cross-platform operator and administrator interface for defining and managing events and for viewing service models.
BMC IX Events View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Event collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MetaCollectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Event groups and image views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC IX Services View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC IX Administration View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Adapters overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BMC IX Events View

Using the Events View, IT operations staff can monitor and manage individual events associated with an IT asset. By managing the infrastructure proactively, IT can prevent problems from occurring. Using built-in functions to monitor thresholds, analyze problems, and perform corrective actions, IT operations personnel can avoid downtime and service-level degradation. Customizable event-level online Help can provide problem resolution instructions or notification information. Event instances are displayed in an event list. From the event list, operators can perform event operations (such as closing or escalating an event), view event relationships (such as correlation), perform actions on an event, or view business services related to an event. Figure 1 on page 14 shows an example of the BMC IX Events View.
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BMC IX Events View
Figure 1
BMC Impact Explorer Events View
Events can be grouped and displayed graphically in image views according to the needs of the IT operations staff. For example, an image view could depict equipment in a data center or the geographic location of IT resources. By monitoring events in an image, changes to the status of an IT component are immediately recognized. Figure 2 on page 15 shows an example of a BMC Impact Explorer image view.
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Event collectors
Figure 2
BMC IX image View
Event collectors
Event collectors group events for display in an event list. The administrator creates event collectors to provide operators with meaningful groups of events and to show relationship through the hierarchy of the nodes in the tree. An event collector defines which events should appear in an event list and also specifies which user roles have access to the events in an event list. Operators access the event list for an event collector by clicking the event collector node in the navigation tree. Event collectors are dynamic or static. Nodes for dynamic event collectors appear in the navigation tree based on whether events are present that meet the event collectors criteria. Nodes for static event collectors remain in the navigation tree whether or not events are present. BMC Impact Manager provides default event collectors for BMC Impact Explorer. Figure 3 on page 16 contains an example of the event collectors view.
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MetaCollectors
Figure 3
BMC Impact Explorer Windows event collectors
MetaCollectors
A MetaCollector is a grouping of event collectors. Operators create MetaCollectors to view events from several event lists. Each event list is shown as a tab in the event list pane. The MetaCollector node represents the state of the combined events. MetaCollectors are often used to view event collectors from multiple cells in the network.
Event groups and image views

An event group is another method for showing the relationship of events through the hierarchy of the navigation tree. Administrators define event groups and associate them with one or more event collectors. Each level of the event collector is shown as a node under the event group. An event list is associated with the lowest level nodes of an event group. The parent level of an event group represents all of the events associated with the event collectors.
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BMC IX Services View
The parent level of an event group is associated with an image view. An image view is a graphical representation of the event collectors in an event group. The event collectors are represented by objects that can be placed on a background image. The objects can be graphics, such as icons; statistical information, such as the number of events by priority or by severity; or text, such as a label. Figure 2 on page 15 shows an example of event groups and an image view.
BMC IX Services View

The Services View of BMC IX is the view that service managers and IT operations staff use to monitor business services. Service managers can view the service models that represent a companys business services. Service models are created in the BMC Impact Service Model Editor by organizing service model components into hierarchical relationships that can then be navigated by operators and service managers from the Services View. In the Services View, a service manager can see whether a service model component consumes the services of another service model component (consumer) or whether it provides service to another component (provider). The status of the provider component impacts the status of the consumer component through the service relationship. The relationships in which a service model component participates are displayed in the Related Components tab of the Services View. Service managers and IT operations staff can determine the root cause of a problem or the impact that a service model component has on a business service in the BMC Impact Explorer Services View, as shown in Figure 4 on page 18.
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BMC IX Administration View
Figure 4
BMC Impact Explorer Services View
From the service model component, IT operations staff can view and manage the underlying events in the BMC Impact Explorer Events View (see Figure 1 on page 14). For more information about using the Services View to monitor business services, see BMC Impact Solutions: Service Monitoring User Guide.
BMC IX Administration View

Administrators use the Administration View interfaces to complete the following tasks:
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define event management policies with the Event Management Policies Editor define dynamic data with the Dynamic Data Editor stop, pause, restart, or reconfigure a cell monitor and manage BMC event and service management infrastructure components and relationships
For more information about the Administration View, see BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration.
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BMC Impact Event Adapters overview
BMC Impact Event Adapters overview

BMC Impact Manager (the cell) collects source events from IT assets through the use of Event Adapters. Event Adapters prepare the source event data for processing by the BMC Impact Manager event processor so that they can be displayed in the BMC IX Events View. BMC Impact Manager provides the following Adapters groups:
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BMC Impact Event Adapters on page 20 BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows on page 23
Each Adapter, regardless of type, consists of the following functions:

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ParserThe parser separates the data stream (source events) into records and fields using regular expressions. The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows does not use a parser. MAP fileThe MAP file designates how the parsed data gets mapped to event slots (fields in an event record). MAP files can also be used to filter out unwanted events and to change or add data in the source event. The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows does not use a MAP file. Event class definitionsThe mapped events must be translated into Basic Recorder of Objects in C (BAROC) language structures. The translated event data becomes a BMC Impact Manager event instance. ConfigurationThe Adapter configuration defines an instance of an Adapter type, the parser to use, parameters specific to an Adapter type, and the cell to which the Adapter forwards the events.
The Adapters run as background processes and generate self-monitoring events that can be viewed in BMC Impact Explorer.
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BMC Impact Event Adapters

The BMC Impact Event Adapters (BMC IEA) can collect source events from the following locations:
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operating system and application log files SNMP type 1 and type 2 traps message output from command line interfaces the Windows Event Log
The BMC Impact Event Adapters are the LogFile Adapter, the SNMP Adapter, the Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows, and the IP Adapters. The LogFile Adapter, the SNMP Adapter, and the Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows are preconfigured and include dedicated parsers. The IP Adapters require more extensive configuration, including the option to choose from among a number of different parsers. The Adapter have predefined instances that also provide collectors for organizing events in the Events View. Administrators can modify the predefined Adapters and event classes, and can implement their own event Adapters.
Common characteristics
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All regular expressions are managed by the Perl interpreter, and they must be in Perl 5 style. Several instances of the same Adapter type can run at the same time. For example, two SNMP Adapters can be configured to listen on two different ports. Similarly, several LogFile Adapters can monitor several log files with completely different settings. Each instance of an Adapter is related to a MAP file. The MAP file is a text file that manages the translation between a specific event coming from an external source and a BMC Impact Manager event. It consists of a set of statements, conditions, and assignments. All BMC Impact Event Adapters store their configurations in the same configuration file, mcxa.conf. You can specify a different configuration file, if necessary. The mcxa process for the BMC Impact Event Adapters can run as a daemon on UNIX systems and as a service on Windows systems.
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User-defined Adapters can be easily integrated into the system in the same manner as the Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows, the LogFile Adapter, and the SNMP Adapter. User-defined Adapters must be Perl packages that inherit from the MA::Engine module and define some functions that collect the desired external data. Use of such an Adapter requires only that its name be entered as the Engine parameter in the configuration file after which the Engine Manager loads it dynamically.
LogFile Adapter
The LogFile Adapter is a file reader that can be used with any text file containing records that can be recognized by Perl regular expressions that describe the record and the record separator. Although the LogFile Adapter is meant to be a generic Adapter for any text-based log file, special Adapter configurations and MAP files are supplied to monitor the most common UNIX log file produced by the syslog process and Apache log files. The mcxa.conf file includes sample Adapter configurations for each of these different functions.
NOTE
On Windows systems, the LogFile Adapter detects that the log file has changed if its size has decreased. This means that the LogFile Adapter will not function properly if the log file is replaced by a larger file. If such a situation occurs, delete the older log file about 30 seconds before replacing it. Another solution is to modify the last modification time of the configuration file.
SNMP Adapter
The SNMP (Trap) Adapter consists of a UDP SNMP server listening for SNMP traps. It includes a tool to convert information from Management Information Base (MIB) files into BMC Impact Manager classes and other data used to format traps into BMC Impact Manager events. The SNMP Configuration Manager, a component of the BMC Impact Event Adapters, automates the tasks for converting information from MIB files into BMC Impact Manager classes. The SNMP Configuration Manager has a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) that enables you to perform the following tasks:
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publish MIB files This process converts information from MIB files into BMC Impact Manager classes. The SNMP Configuration Manager uses the existing mib2map.pl utility to automate this process.
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view and edit the MAP file The MAP file manages the translation between a specific event coming from an external source and a BMC Impact Manager event. Each instance of an adapter is related to a MAP file. To get the name of the MAP file that has to be configured, the SNMP Configuration Manager refers to the MapFile parameter in the first enabled instance of the SNMP Adapter in the mcxa.conf file. The mcxa.conf file is located in the MCELL_HOME\etc directory. MCELL_HOME is the path to the BMC Impact Manager and BMC Impact Event Adapters configuration and executable files. If you have not specified a file name for the MapFile parameter, the SNMP Configuration Manager uses the mcsnmptrapd.map file name by default. This book uses mcsnmptrapd.map to refer to the file that is configured for the MapFile parameter.
unpublish MIB files The process of unpublishing MIB files removes information about the selected MIB files from the mcsnmptrapd.map file.
Before you install the SNMP Configuration Manager, you must install the BMC Impact Event Adapters and enable the SNMP Adapter. These topics are described in the BMC Impact Solutions: Installation Guide.
Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows

The Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows is a Windows-only Adapter written in Perl that runs in the mcxa process. It monitors the system, security, and application events generated by a Windows operating system, translates the events, and forwards the events to a cell. This Adapter is obsolete and is supplied for backward-compatibility only. BMC Software recommends that you use the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows instead to monitor the Microsoft Windows Event Log. The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows is installed separately. It uses a binary application and runs as a separate service. For more information, see BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows on page 23.
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BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows
IP Adapters
The IP Adapters use the various protocols of the IP protocol suite to establish connections with programs from which you may want to collect BMC Impact Manager event data. The IP Adapters are as follows:
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TCP Client Adapter TCP Server Adapter Telnet Adapter UDP Client Adapter UDP Server Adapter
For more information, see BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.

The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows (BMC IELA) monitors the system, security, and application events generated by a Windows operating system, translates the events, and forwards the events to a cell. The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows provides predefined parsing, configuration, event classes, and collectors for organizing events in the Events View. The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows offers the same functionality as the Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows without requiring you to install Perl on your computer. The implementation of the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows differs from that of the other BMC Impact Event Adapters. Table 1 describes these differences. Table 1
Criterion Adapters included in package
BMC IEA versus BMC IELA comparison

BMC Impact Event Adapters (IEA)
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BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows (IELA)
Perl LogFile Adapter for Windows BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows LogFile Adapter SNMP Adapter IP Adapters binary executable Windows BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows Windows registry
Process Platform Windows Service name
mcxa.pl process (Engine Manager) Windows and UNIX BMC Impact Event Adapters
Configuration location mcxa.conf file
For more information about the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows, see Chapter 7, Using the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows, on page 107.
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Getting started with the BMC IX console and the BMC Impact Portal
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The BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) product provides access to all of the event management and administration functions, as well as to views of services and components. Starting BMC IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting BMC IX as a stand-alone application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to an authentication server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changing your password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Starting BMC IX
Before you can use BMC IX to view and manage events, you must access it in one of the following ways:
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as a stand-alone console (classic) As a stand-alone console, BMC IX can reside on the same host computer as the BMC Portal or it can reside on another host computer. User validation and security can be managed by the BMC Portal server or the BMC Impact Administration Server (IAS) component.
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Before you begin
as a Java Web Start application from the BMC Impact Portal As a Java Web Start application, after BMC IX is deployed on your local desktop, you can launch it from the local desktop icon a local startup menu the Java Web Start Application Manager on your local host computer from the BMC Portal Configure tab as a task
All user validation and security are managed centrally by the BMC Portal server. To launch BMC IX you need to connect the BMC Portal for user authentication. The BMC Impact Manager cells to which you will connect are configured in the BMC Impact Portal by the administrator.
Before you begin

From the administrator responsible for the BMC Impact Portal or the IAS, obtain
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a valid user ID for an existing account on the authentication server the host name and port number for each BMC Impact Portal or IAS to which you will connect
NOTE
BMC Software recommends that you have only one account for BMC IX and that all BMC IX users be members of that account.
Starting BMC IX as a stand-alone application

1 Access the product as follows, depending on your operating system:
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For Microsoft Windows, choose

Start => Programs => BMC Software => BMC Impact Explorer.
For UNIX, in the opt/bmc/Impact/console directory, type ./console.sh at the command prompt.
The BMC Impact Explorer splash screen is displayed, and then the Logon dialog box is displayed.
2 In Username, enter your logon ID.
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Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal
3 In Password, enter your password. 4 From Server, select the authentication server to which you want to connect.
You define additional servers in the Edit Configuration dialog box after you initially sign on to BMC IX.
5 Click OK. 6 Select a cell from the Available Impact Managers list. 7 Select a cell group (the defaults are MyTest, MyProduction, or Infrastructure
Management).
For information about defining additional groups, see Customizing the console to access multiple cells on page 31.

When you initially download BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal, the connection information for that BMC Impact Portal is configured automatically. After installation, Java Web Start automatically downloads software updates of BMC IX to the local host computer when they occur.
Before you begin

With Java Web Start, you can create a BMC IX icon on your desktop and an entry in your startup menu. To create a desktop shortcut, you must enable shortcut creation in the Advanced tab of the Java Control Panel.
To initially download BMC IX as a Java Web Start application 1 Type the BMC Portal URL address into your browsers address box, using the
following syntax:
https://portalName.domain.com
Replace portalName.domain with the host name of the BMC Portal server. Depending on your browser and its configuration, a security certificate warning might appear. Accept the security certificate. The BMC Portal logon screen is displayed.
2 Type your BMC Portal User Name and your Password, and then click Log On.
Chapter 2 Getting started with the BMC IX console and the BMC Impact Portal 27
3 Click the Configure tab and then click BMC Impact Explorer.
Depending on your browser and its configuration, a security certificate warning might appear. Accept the security certificate.
4 In the BMC Impact Explorer Logon dialog box, type your Username and your
Password, and then click OK.
5 Select a cell from the Available Impact Managers list. 6 Select a group (the defaults are MyTest, MyProduction, or Infrastructure
Management).
For information about defining additional groups, see Customizing the console to access multiple cells on page 31. For more information about launching BMC Impact Explorer using this method, see the BMC Portal Getting Started guide.
To start BMC IX as a Java Web Start application (after the initial download) 1 Start BMC IX in one of the following ways from your local host computer:
the local desktop icon (see Before you begin on page 27) a local startup menu the Java Web Start Application Manager on your local host computer Java Web Start automatically downloads updated versions of the product. The BMC Impact Explorer splash screen is displayed, and then the Logon dialog box is displayed.
2 In Username, enter your logon ID. 3 In Password, enter your password. 4 Click OK.
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Connecting to an authentication server
Connecting to an authentication server

Your administrator can set up BMC IX to connect to multiple BMC Impact Portals or Impact Administration Servers.
NOTE
For the BMC Impact Portal, each portal uses a different BMC Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB), so if you connect to a different portal, you will be accessing a different service model and all its related data. Using a different BMC Impact Portal as a backup requires that the administrator replicate the entire environment and maintain it as a backup.
The following procedure describes how to add one or more authentication servers (either BMC Impact Portal or IAS) to the BMC IX console configuration. You can then select the server that you want to connect to from the Logon dialog box when you start the BMC IX. This procedure applies to BMC IX as a stand-alone console or as a Java Web Start application.
To connect to an authentication server 1 From the BMC IX menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
The Edit Configuration dialog box is displayed.
2 Click the Login Servers subtab. 3 In Host, enter the name of the computer that hosts the authentication server. 4 In Port, enter the port number for the authentication server. 5 Click Add to include the server in the list of servers to which you want to connect. 6 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box.
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Changing your password
Changing your password

To keep your password secure, you should change it periodically.
To change your BMC Impact Explorer password 1 From the menu bar, choose the Server => Change Password.
The Change Password dialog box is displayed.
2 In Old Password, enter your current password. 3 In New Password and Confirm New Password, enter a new password. 4 Click OK.
Your password for the BMC IX logon are changed immediately.
NOTE
If you forget your password, your administrator must clear the encrypted form of your password from the configuration file. The next time that you log on, you will enter a new password, and you will be prompted to confirm it. This operation sets your new password.
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Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for event monitoring

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This chapter describes how to configure the BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) console to operate to suit your needs. Customizing the console to access multiple cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Specifying ports in cell connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to and disconnecting from a cell or group of cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using primary and secondary cells for high availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing property and performance data about a cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Customizing the console to access multiple cells

Your access to additional Impact Managers (cells) depends on the access privileges assigned to you by your administrator. You may be able to add cells to your console that are not currently displayed in the navigation pane. You can view the available cells versus the cells already selected for monitoring on the Impact Managers subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box. Each cell must belong to a group, so when you add cells to your console, you add them to a group. A group can contain just one cell, or it can contain multiple cells, and you can create as many cell groups as you need. Cell groups enable you to organize cells into manageable units. By default, three cell groups labeled MyProduction, MyTest and Infrastructure Management are created during the installation process. If your user account has operator only permissions, only MyProduction and MyTest are displayed when you first use the BMC IX console. If your user account has administrator permissions, Infrastructure Management is also displayed. You can edit and delete these cell groups.
Chapter 3 Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for event monitoring 31
You can create cell groups and name them according to your organizational needs. For example, you can create a cell group for each of the office locations in your enterprise. Also, as your environment changes, you might need to change the names of the cell groups that you create.
To create a new cell group 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 In the Group text box, enter a new group name. 4 Click Add.
The new cell group is added to Selected Impact Managers.
5 Click OK.
The new cell group is displayed in the navigation pane.
To change a cell group name 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 From Selected Impact Managers, select a cell group. 4 In Group, enter a new name for the cell group. 5 Click Edit.
The Change Group Name Confirmation dialog box is displayed.
6 Click Yes to accept the name change. 7 Click OK.
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To remove a cell group name 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group that you want to remove. 4 Click Remove.
The Delete Group confirmation dialog box is displayed.
5 Click Yes to remove the cell group. 6 Click OK. To add cells to a cell group 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab.

Available Impact Managers lists all BMC Impact Managers (cells) to which you are
connected, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 Available Impact Managers list for a user account with administrator permissions
3 From Available Impact Managers, select the cell that you want to add to the console. 4 From Selected Impact Managers, select the group to which you want to add the cell.
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Setting cell connection properties
TIP
You can select multiple cells at one time, as follows:
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To select adjacent cells, select the first cell, hold down the Shift key, and select the last cell. To select nonadjacent cells, select a cell, hold down the Ctrl key, and select each of the other cells.
5 Click the right arrow to move the selected Impact Manager to the selected Impact
Manager group.
TIP
You can also select a cell from Available Impact Managers and drag it to the appropriate cell group in Selected Impact Managers.
6 Click OK.
The cell that you added is displayed in its cell group in the navigation pane of the console.

In addition to the console configuration, each connection between BMC IX and a cell must be configured.
To configure cell connection properties 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration.
2 Click the Impact Managers subtab. 3 Select a cell or cell group. NOTE
If you select a cell group, changes are applied to all the cells contained in the cell group. If you select a single cell, changes are applied only to the individual cell.
4 If necessary, click Advanced to display the Cell Properties section of the dialog box.
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5 Use Table 2 to help you set values for the cell properties.
Table 2
Property Name Primary Host Port Secondary Host Port Timeout Refresh Freq Attempts Connect Freq Encrypted Mode
Cell connection properties (part 1 of 2)

Description displays the name of the cell whose properties you are changing displays the name of the primary host computer where the cell is installed displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the primary host computer displays the name of the secondary host computer if one has been installed and configured to provide failover capabilities for the primary host displays the port number the cell uses to connect to the secondary host computer specifies the length of time the console waits to receive data from the cell; default is 30 seconds sets the time interval between pollings of the cell; default is 60 seconds sets the number of times the console attempts to connect to a cell; default is 10 time interval between connection attempts; default is 5 seconds enables and disables encryption of data between the console and the cell; default is enabled (selected)
Auto Connect enables and disables automatic connection to the cell at logon; default is disabled (cleared) Auto Switch enables and disables automatic and continuous switching of the connection from the backup cell to the primary cell after failover, using the value set in Connect Freq as the interval; default is disabled enables and disables using a specified range of local ports (on the console) for establishing a connection between the console and a cell Designating a port range is useful if the console must communicate to a cell through a firewall with only specific ports available for communication. The console scans through the specified port range until a port is connected to the cell or the connection fails because the port range is exhausted. Min Port No. specifies the lower limit of the port range This number must be a positive value. If you enter a negative value, then the value will be changed to 1. If you enter 0, then BMC IX assumes that you do not want to use a port range and Use Port Range check box is unchecked when you click Apply or OK in the Impact Manager dialog box. Max Port No. specifies the upper limit of the port range This number must be a positive value. If you enter a negative value, then the value will be changed to 1. If you enter a value that is less than the minimum port number, the number will be changed to minimum port number value.
Use Port Range
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Specifying ports in cell connection properties
Table 2
Property Auto Bind
Cell connection properties (part 2 of 2)

Description enables and disables the automatic connection attempt of the console to the first network card it encounters Clear this option to bind to a specific IP address. If only one network card exists, ensure that Auto Bind is selected. See Specifying ports in cell connection properties for additional information.
IP Address
specifies the IP address assigned to the local network card to which the console connects; available only if Auto Bind is cleared
6 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box. TIP
To set cell connection properties, you can also right-click a cell in the navigation pane and choose Edit Properties from the menu.
Specifying ports in cell connection properties

The following circumstances require you to provide more specific information about communications between the console and the cell:
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the presence of a network interface card (NIC) between the console and the cell the presence of a firewall between the console and the cell using a multihomed computer for the console
In these circumstances, you must select Use Port Range and specify the limits of the port range and then select either Auto Bind or a particular IP address. The Auto Bind option configures the console to connect to an NIC before it can connect to a cell. If you specify no particular NIC, the console automatically attempts to connect to the first NIC it encounters. On a multihomed computer, you can specify the NIC by selecting the IP address that the card is using from the IP Address list box. If Auto Bind is not enabled, you must specify a port range for the network card to which the console binds.
NOTE
If the console is running on a computer that is acting as a gateway between multiple subnets, the network card that you bind to must be on the same subnet as the cell to which the console connects.
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Connecting to and disconnecting from a cell or group of cells

After you have added a cell to the BMC IX console and before you can configure or manipulate that cell or access the event or service data for it, you must connect the console to it. Both unconnected and connected cells are displayed in the navigation pane. Cells that are not connected display in their cell icon in the console.
NOTE
If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, the cell group icon indicates that at least one cell is disconnected by showing a red X on its lower left portion, which makes the icon look the same as if the entire cell group is disconnected.
A cell might appear to be disconnected from the console for many reasons, including the following:
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The cell might be down. The computer hosting the cell might be down. The BMC Impact Portal component might contain an invalid name or port number. The cell might have been disconnected. The cell might have been added to the console but not yet connected.
NOTE
An administrator can configure a primary cell in a high availability pair to automatically switch to a secondary cell if it becomes unavailable. For additional information, see Using primary and secondary cells for high availability on page 39.
To connect to an individual cell

In the navigation pane, right-click a cell and choose Connect from the menu. The red X disappears from the cell icon when you connect to the cell.
To connect to all cells contained in a cell group

In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group and choose Connect All from the menu. The red X disappears from the cell group icon when you connect to all the cells contained in the cell group.
37
To disconnect from an individual cell

If you no longer want to receive event data for a cell, you can disconnect the console from the cell. In the navigation pane, right-click a cell and choose Disconnect from the menu. A red X is displayed in the cell icon to indicate that the cell is disconnected.
NOTE
If Auto Connect is enabled for a cell, the next time you start the console, a connection to the cell is automatically re-established. For additional information about Auto Connect, see Setting cell connection properties on page 34.
To disconnect from a cell group

In the navigation pane, right-click a cell group and choose Disconnect All from the menu. A red X is displayed in the cell group icon, indicating that all the cells contained in the cell group are disconnected.
NOTE
If you enable the Manager Group Status option on the Global subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, the icon for the disconnected cell group looks the same as the icon for a cell group in which only some of the cells are disconnected.
38
Using primary and secondary cells for high availability
Using primary and secondary cells for high availability

Your administrator might have installed and configured a primary cell and a secondary cell to provide redundant access to the event repository should the primary cell become unavailable. The primary cell copies event data to the secondary cell. When the primary cell is in active mode, the secondary cell is in standby mode. By default, if the primary cell becomes unavailable, the BMC IX automatically connects to the designated secondary cell server. The secondary cell then changes to active mode and performs the same functions as the primary cell. When the primary cell becomes available again, the secondary cell changes back to standby mode. During the time in which the active cell is down and the secondary cell is still in standby mode, the cell continues to collect event; however, you cannot perform any actions on those events. You will see the following changes in the Events view of BMC IX:
I
I I
I I
In the Events list, the following message is displayed: Event List frozen xx:yy:zz time primary server for cell is down Tabs associated with the cell are highlighted in yellow In the navigation pane, cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and subcollectors are highlighted in yellow Local and remote actions are disabled The following Edit menu commands are disabled:
Event Operations Execute MetaCollectors Edit Event Group
By default, the cells are configured for automatic failover. If your administrator changes this configuration, you can manually change the status of the primary or secondary cells by performing the following procedures.
To manually activate a primary or secondary cell 1 Open a command prompt. 2 Enter the following command:
mcontrol -n cellName# number start
The variable cellName is the name of either the primary or secondary cell and the variable number is either 1, for the primary cell, or 2 for the secondary cell.
Chapter 3 Configuring BMC Impact Explorer for event monitoring 39
Viewing property and performance data about a cell
To manually change the status of the secondary cell from active to standby 1 Open a command prompt. 2 Enter the following command:
mcontrol -n cellName# 2 pause
The variable cellName is the name of the secondary cell. For details about high availability, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.

Property and performance information for a cell is maintained in the Impact Manager Info dialog box. You can access this information by right-clicking a cell in the navigation pane and choosing View Manager Info from the menu. Cell property data is presented on the General subtab, including the cell name, description, IP address and port number for the primary cell server, IP address and port number for the secondary cell server (if applicable), release and build versions, service address, port number, and platform information. The Workload subtab presents performance statistics for the cell, including how much data the cell has received, the number of errors, and how much data has been stored, removed, and propagated. The service performance data presented on the Components tab pertains specifically to the number of service model components associated with the cell, such as the type of components and the relationships. Figure 6 on page 41, Figure 7 on page 41, and Figure 8 on page 42 show examples of property and performance data presented on the tabs of the dialog box.
40
Figure 6
Impact Manager Information dialog box General tab
Figure 7
Impact Manager Information dialog box Workload tab
41
Figure 8
Impact Manager Information dialog box Components tab
NOTE
To refresh the contents of the Impact Manager Information dialog box, click Refresh .
42
Chapter
4
44 48 49 51 51 52 53 54 54 54 55 56 57 57 58 66 70 72 72 74 75 75 76 76 76 77 80 82 85
Viewing and managing events

This chapter provides information about the tasks you can perform on event data from the Events tab. Accessing the Events view in the console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding elements of the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Determining the state of an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Selecting the type of event list to view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing related events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adjusting column widths in the event list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Refreshing and freezing the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organizing events in the event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using MetaCollectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Filtering events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sorting events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding event groups and image views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Connecting to multiple cells to access additional event groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Getting details for events in an event list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Common Event Model slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event operations history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing event relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viewing online Help for an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copying event information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Printing event information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Performing event operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Responding to an event with an action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Responding to multiple events by using a user-defined local action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Manually setting component status or maintenance mode with a remote action . . .
Chapter 4 Viewing and managing events
43
Accessing the Events view in the console

To access the Events view in the BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) console, click the Events tab. The Events view contains a toolbar, a navigation pane, the event list, and subtabs containing various types of details about the events that are displayed in the events list. You can view events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, or an event group. Figure 9 identifies and Table 3 describes the main areas of the Events view. Figure 9 1 5 Location of elements in the Events view 4
7 8 3 Table 3
# 1 2 3 Name Information Display Selection tabs navigation pane View Selection tabs
Description of elements in the Events view (part 1 of 2)

Description provide access to the available categories of event information such as cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups displays cells, cell groups, collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups in a hierarchical relationship tree provide access to the Events, Services, and Administration Views
44
Table 3
# 4 Name
Description of elements in the Events view (part 2 of 2)

Description provides access to the default filters, which provide variations of the event list:
I I
Event Sources list
list all events limit the event list to active, new, closed, or blackout events in the following categories: Basic Information: displays the default slots of the class EVENT Supervisor Information: displays the same slots as Basic Information, except that action count is replaced by current owner SMC Information: displays information from the collector MC_SMC_EVENT that collects all events in which the mc_smc_id slot contains information
list service model component events in the following categories: impact events status history events
For more information, see Using the default filters on page 59. 5 6 Slots event list columns that display the status, priority, severity, action count (Occurrences), event relation, receipt date (Occurred), and message for events displays the contents of a cell or collector as a list of events with slot information and filters. Each line of the list represents one event. 7 Pending Events indicator displays the number of events in the current list and the number of events pending In Figure 9 on page 44, Pending Events shows that 98 events are in the current event list and no events are pending. 8 details pane displays details about the currently selected event in each subtab For descriptions of each subtab, see Table 13 on page 73.
Using the navigation pane on the Events tab, you can view cells, cell groups, collectors, and MetaCollectors in a hierarchical tree, as shown in Figure 10 on page 46 and described in Table 4 on page 47.
45
Figure 10
1 4 5
Events view navigation pane

3 2 9
6 7
10
46
Table 4
# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Name
Description of elements in the Events view navigation pane

Icon Description displays the cells, cell groups, and collectors available for viewing displays the MetaCollectors available for viewing displays the event groups available for viewing identifies a cell group identifies a cell indicates existence of a hierarchy below the monitored cell, cell group, or collector identifies a collector identifies by color the highest severity level of the events contained in the collector (for the configured statuses). For more information about the severity levels for events, see Table 9 on page 52. For more information, see Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color on page 120.
Collectors subtab MetaCollectors subtab Event Groups subtab cell group icon cell icon hierarchy indicator collector icon severity level indicator
event count
none
displays the number of events contained in the collector and the number of events that you selected to count. For more information, see Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors on page 121.
10 View Selection tabs
none
access the Events, Services, or Administration Views
47
Understanding elements of the event list
Understanding elements of the event list

From the event list, you can access the event data collected for the cells contained in your BMC Impact Manager (BMC IM) environment. Also, you can
I I I I I I
select a different view for the event list of a cell or collector access the specific details collected for an event perform operations on an event, such as take or decline ownership or reopen annotate individual or multiple events explore event relationships copy and print event data
The event list displays selected event details, including operational status. Each row in the table shows information for one event. The columns are determined by the type of information that you select in Event Sources and the slots (event attributes) selected for display. For example, if you select All Events and Basic Information from the Event Sources list, the default event list displays the following columns:
I I I I I I I
status priority severity action count (number of remote actions applied to the event) event relations receipt date of the event message associated with the event
The set of slots (columns) presented in the event list is called the slot order. Depending on your role and access privileges, you can select different slots to see other event information (and therefore other columns in the event list). When you change the slots presented, either by adding or removing slots or by rearranging them, you are changing the slot order. To use a new slot order, you must associate it with a filter. For instructions, see Sorting events on page 66. You can click a column heading in the event list to switch between ascending and descending sort order according to that column. For example, you could display the events sorted by date, either earliest to latest (ascending order) or newest to oldest (descending order). You could also display the events sorted by their messages, which would display them in alphabetical order (ascending order) or reverse alphabetical order (descending order). If the event has related events, one of the icons shown in Table 5 on page 49 is displayed in the event relations column.
48
Determining the state of an event
Table 5
Icon
Event relations icons

Event relation Generic Notification Incident iBRSD-related incident errors
You can also customize the display of the event list, as described in Customizing display settings for the Events tab on page 118.

The event list displays sufficient information for you to recognize an events current state quickly. Each events state depends on multiple factors:
I I I
severity, reflected in the severity icon and color of the event line priority, reflected in the priority icon the last event operation performed on the event, reflected in the status icon
When you perform an event operation on an event, the state of the event changes according to Table 6. Table 6 Event states resulting from event operations
Resulting state Acknowledged Assigned Acknowledged Assigned Closed Open Blacked Out
Event operation performed Acknowledge Event Take Ownership Decline Ownership Assign To Close Event Reopen Event Black Out
Figure 11 on page 50 shows how an event in any state is affected by the operations that are valid for that current state. The circles represent the event states. Each arrow represents an action, with the direction of the arrow indicating the flow of the action. For example, if the event is currently in the Acknowledged Event state, you can perform a Reopen Event, Close Event, Take Ownership, or Assign To action. Conversely, for that event to be in the Acknowledged Event state, an Acknowledge Event or Decline Ownership action must have been taken against it.
49
Figure 11
How event operations affect event state
A user with a supervisory role (Full Access is the only default supervisory role) can select Supervisor Information from the secondary menu of the Event Sources list to see current operator information based on the last event operation applied. This information is displayed in the mc_owner column in the event list, according to Table 7. Table 7 Current operator information in event list
logon user ID of the user who took ownership logon user ID of the user to whom the event is assigned none none none none; this operation clears previous information from the event list no change to displayed information
Last event operation action Current operator information displayed in mc_owner Take Ownership Assign To Decline Ownership Close Acknowledge Reopen Set Priority
Other factors can also affect the information displayed, such as whether an event has been propagated, abstracted, correlated, or recycled.
50
Understanding event status
Understanding event status

The status of an event provides basic information about the events response activity. The cell assigns a status value to each event, and then you can change the status by performing event operations or other actions on the event. Also, the status of the event can be changed automatically by a rule. Table 8 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event status. Table 8
Icon
Event status icons

Event status Open Closed Acknowledged (ACK) Assigned Blackout
The color of the status icon is always the same. However, if you have configured the Events View to use the severity color for the event line, the color of the icons background varies with the severity of the event.
Understanding event severity

Each event has a severity level associated with it that indicates the seriousness of the event. In combination with status and priority, the severity level indicates the urgency of the need to take action. For example, a high severity level for an event in the Closed status is no cause for alarm, but a high severity level for an event in the Open status and with a priority of 1 indicates an urgent need for action. The color of each line (row) in the event list table is determined by settings in the Events View subtab in the Edit Configuration dialog box and by the severity of the event depicted in the line, as follows:
I
If you selected Line Color Severity in the configuration, the line shows the color associated with the severity level of the event. For events that have no severity (statuses Closed and Blackout have no severity level associated with them), the line has no color (is displayed as white).
If you did not select Line Color Severity, the line has no color (is displayed as white).
Chapter 4 Viewing and managing events 51
Understanding event priority
Table 9 lists the default severity levels and colors for the events that appear in the navigation pane and event list and shows the icons used in the event list. Table 9
Color red dark orange light orange yellow blue green gray
Event severity levels

Icon in Event List Severity level CRITICAL MAJOR MINOR WARNING INFO OK UNKNOWN
The event with the highest severity level in an event group on the Event Group tab determines the severity indicator that you see for the event group in the navigation tree. For example, if one event has a severity of Critical, the event group is displayed in the navigation tree with a Critical (red) severity indicator.
Understanding event priority

In addition to a severity level, each event has a priority level. Distinguishing between severity and priority helps you to understand which event requires action first. Table 10 lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event priority. Table 10
Icon
Event priority icons

Event Priority Priority 1 (highest) Priority 2 Priority 3 Priority 4 Priority 5 (lowest)
52
Viewing event lists
Viewing event lists

The procedures for viewing events for a cell, a collector, a MetaCollector, and an event group are similar. They differ in the tab or the tree icon that you select. BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) displays the events for the selected object in the event list pane.
To view the event list for a cell 1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab 2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the cell 3 Click the cell. To view the event list for a collector 1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Collectors tab 2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the collector 3 Click the collector. To view the event list for a MetaCollector 1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the MetaCollectors tab
display. . . .
whose events you want to display.
whose events you want to display.
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the MetaCollector whose events you want to 3 Click the MetaCollector. To view the event list for an event group 1 At the top of the Events navigation pane, click the Event Groups tab
.
2 Expand the hierarchy to locate the event group whose events you want to display. 3 Click the event group.
53
Selecting the type of event list to view
Selecting the type of event list to view

From the Event Sources list box, you can select different views of the event list, including events that match specific criteria or the results from a filter, as shown in Figure 12. Figure 12 Event Sources selection
Event Sources list box
Available event list views
For more information about filtering, see Filtering events on page 58.
Viewing event details

From the Events View, you can access various kinds of data for an event. The details pane provides tabs that categorize the data, as described in Table 20 on page 119. If you hide the details pane, you can access the same information by double-clicking the event in the event list or by selecting the event and choosing View => Event Details from the menu bar.
Viewing related events

An event in the event list displays one or more icons when that event has another event associated with it. The icon that is displayed depends on the type of event to which it is associated. For example, if the related event is about trouble ticket information, an icon that represents a trouble ticket is displayed. You can view related events in the following ways:
I I
from the events list from the main menu
54
Adjusting column widths in the event list
To view related events from the events list 1 From the events list, right-click a row. 2 From the menu, choose Views => Related Events.
A list of related events is displayed.
3 Perform one of the following actions:

I
To view one type of related event, select a type. An event list of the selected type, as denoted by its title, is displayed.
To view all related events, select Show all related events. All related events are displayed.
NOTE
If you move the cursor over an event relations icon, a summary of the number of related events by category is displayed briefly.
To view related events from the main menu 1 From the main menu, choose View => Related events. 2 Perform one of the following actions:
I
To view one type of related event, select a type. An event list of the selected event, as denoted by its title, is displayed.
To view all related events, select Show all related events. All related events are displayed.
Adjusting column widths in the event list

If you need to see more or less information in the event list columns, you can use the cursor to modify the column widths. In the event list, move the cursor to the end of the column heading until it changes to a bidirectional arrow.
55
Refreshing and freezing the event list
Refreshing and freezing the event list

All of the event sources in the BMC Impact Manager system can generate thousands of events. You can choose whether to view all of those events as they occur. You can configure refresh of the event list to occur automatically or manually, and even if you use the automatic refresh, you can manually refresh at any time to be sure that you have the most recent data. When you manually refresh the event list, the cell is queried for any changes in events. The console updates the event list if changes are present. Using manual refresh gives you the ability to freeze the event list at an instant. Freezing the event list can be useful for troubleshooting, in that it prevents the events of interest from being displaced in the view by new events at each refresh interval. Instead of being displayed in the event list, new events increment the Pending Events indicator at the lower right of the event list pane.
To automatically refresh the event list 1 In the Events View, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, configure the function and the refresh
interval, as follows:
A On the Global subtab, select Auto Refresh active by default. B On the Impact Managers subtab, in the advanced option, specify a value in
Refresh Freq (in seconds).
3 On the event list, ensure that Auto Refresh
is active.
If Auto Refresh is not enabled and active when an event is modified externally from the console, the event is not updated until you manually refresh the event list.
NOTE
If the cell is extremely busy, the event list may not be refreshed until the cell completes the current event processing load.
To manually refresh the event list

Use any of the following methods:
I I I
From the menu bar, choose View => Refresh. On the toolbar, click Refresh . Press F5.
56
Organizing events in the event list
To freeze the event list

In the upper-left corner of the event list, click Auto Refresh .
The auto refresh activity stops. The list updates only when you click Auto Refresh or Refresh again.
Organizing events in the event list

You can use various techniques to organize events and view information about them:
I I I I
Use MetaCollectors to arrange events from different sources. Filter events to see only the ones of interest. Change the sorting of the event list. Change the columns displayed in the event list.
Using MetaCollectors
BMC IX has an organizational tool, called a MetaCollector, that both operators and administrators can use to view and manage numerous events from different sources in meaningful ways. With MetaCollectors, you can display events from multiple, connected cells in a single tree node in the navigation pane, grouping events in your own customized ways. MetaCollectors are displayed in the navigation pane in their own tab.
To create a MetaCollector 1 At the top of the navigation pane of the Events View, select the MetaCollectors
tab .
2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => MetaCollectors.

The Edit MetaCollector dialog box is displayed.
3 On the dialog box toolbar, click the New button
The MetaCollector Naming dialog box is displayed.
4 Enter a name for the MetaCollector and click OK.

The new MetaCollector is displayed in the right pane of the dialog box.
57
Filtering events
5 Select the new MetaCollector. 6 Select a cell or collector from the left pane that you want to include in the new
MetaCollector.
7 Click the right arrow button to move the cell or collector to the MetaCollector, as shown in
Figure 13. Figure 13 MetaCollector addition
The cell is added to the MetaCollector
TIP
You can also drag the cell or collector to the right pane to add it to the MetaCollector.
8 When you have finished adding collectors to the MetaCollector, click OK. 9 Click the MetaCollectors tab in the navigation pane to view the new MetaCollector.
Filtering events
Using filters, you can narrow the scope and number of events displayed. BMC IX offers the following filtering methods:
I
default filters, provided in the Event Sources list, which filter events based on status, time, or affiliation with the service model and provide global event views quick filters, provided in the Slot Quick Filter and Severity Quick Filter which show events based on a specific slot value or severity level local filters, which you create and which are unique to your logon user name global filters, which an administrator creates and which are available to any user logged on to the server where the global filter was created lists,
58
Filtering events
Using the default filters

The default filters provide an easy way to see only the events that are active, new, closed, or those that are related to the service model. To use a default filter, click the down arrow next to Event Sources and choose the default filter that you want to use. Table 11 summarizes the default filters and their options. Table 11
Filter name All Events Active Events New Events Closed Events Blackout Alerts SMC Events
I I
Default filters and filter options

Primary options
I I I
Secondary options none
Basic Information Supervisor Information SMC Information
SMC Impact Events SMC Status History Events CI Incidents Event Incidents
I I I
Basic Information Supervisor Information SMC Information CI Incident Information Event Incident Information
Incident Events
I I
I I
All of the default filters have the following options to differentiate the event information that is displayed:
I
Basic Information displays status severity priority Supervisor Information displays status severity priority SMC Information displays status severity priority receipt date and time class impact type of service model component component ID causes effects date and time the event was received owner of the event message produced by the event number of operation actions performed on the event date and time the event was received message produced by the event
59
Filtering events
The SMC Events filter also has the following intermediate options to differentiate between the types of service model component events that can be displayed:
I I
SMC Impact Events SMC Status History Events
Using the quick filters

The quick filters provide an easy way to specify a single criterion for comparison and filtering. You can specify a single slot, a value, and an appropriate comparison operator (such as equal to, not equal to, contains, and so forth), or a minimum severity level and view only the events that match that criterion.
To filter events by using slot names 1 From the event list, click the down arrow next to Slot Quick Filter, as shown in
Figure 14. Figure 14 Slot quick filter and severity quick filter
Slot Quick Filter
Severity Quick Filter
The Slot Quick Filter dialog box is displayed.
2 In Slot, select the slot that you want to use as a filter. 3 In Operator, select a comparison operator. 4 In Value, enter a value against which you want the filter to compare. 5 Click OK. NOTE
To toggle the filter, click Slot Quick Filter (which turns on the filter) or the filter specification (which turns off the filter). When the filter specification is displayed instead of the Slot Quick Filter icon, the events that are displayed are filtered.
60
Filtering events
To filter events using severity 1 From the event list, click the down arrow next to Severity Quick Filter as displayed
in Figure 14 on page 60. A list of severity levels is displayed.
2 Select the minimum severity level that you want to use to filter the event list.
The Severity Quick Filter filters out any events that have a severity level below the severity level that you selected. For example, if you select a severity status of Critical, only events of status major and lower would appear.
NOTE
To toggle the filter on and off, click Severity Quick Filter (which turns on the filter) or the filter specification (which turns off the filter). When the filter specification is displayed instead of the Severity Quick Filter icon, the events that are displayed are filtered.
Using global and local filters

Administrators can create filters and make them accessible to all users who are logged on to the server where the filters were created; these filters are global filters. Any user can create filters that are unique to the logon user name and only that user can access; these filters are local filters. You can use the filters that are available to you to adjust the view of the events list just as you use the quick filters or default filters.
To create a filter 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
The Edit Event View dialog box is displayed.
2 On the toolbar, click Edit Filters
, as indicated in Figure 15 on page 62.
61
Filtering events
Figure 15
Edit Event View dialog box

Edit Filters
Filters pane
The Edit Filter dialog box is displayed.
3 On the toolbar, click New Basic Filter
A new filter is displayed in the Filters pane.
TIP
An administrator can create a global filter by selecting Global Filter Group and clicking New Basic Filter. An operator can create only a local filter; Global Filter Group is not available for selection.
4 In Filter Name, enter the name for the filter. 5 In Event Class, click Browse
.
6 In the Class Chooser dialog box, specify the following items:

I I
In Impact Managers, select the cell for which you are creating the filter.
In Search for, specify the event class.
7 (optional) To filter events by age, select Age Limit and specify a number of minutes. 8 (optional) To filter events according to one or more slots, specify the following
information for each slot:
A In Slot, select the slot name. B In Operator, select a comparison operator. C In Value, enter a value against which you want the filter to compare.
62
Filtering events
D If you want to add another filter condition (slot), select a logical operator of And
or Or and then click Add.
TIP
To remove a filter condition, select the condition you want to delete and click Remove.
9 Click OK.
The Edit Filter dialog box closes and the new filter is displayed in the Filters pane of the Edit Event View dialog box.
NOTE
If you want to create or edit a filter using more complex logic, you can click Promote to Advanced and use the editing tool to add and remove logic, change operators, and so forth.
10 In the Edit Event View dialog box, select the new filter in the left pane. 11 In the right pane, select the options that you want to use for displaying the results
of the new filter (referred to as slot orders), and then click the left arrow between the panes. The slot orders are added to the filter hierarchy in the left pane.
12 Click OK to return to the main console window.

Your new filter is ready for use. You can access it in Event Sources.
To edit a filter 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
3 From the Filters pane, select the filter that you want to modify. 4 Edit the settings for the filter (see steps 4 through 8 on page 62 for guidance). 5 Click OK. 6 Click OK to return to the console.
Chapter 4 Viewing and managing events 63
Filtering events
To delete a filter 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
The Edit Filters dialog box is displayed.
3 From the Filters pane, select the filter that you want to delete, and click Delete
on the toolbar.
4 Click OK. 5 Click OK to return to the console.
Organizing local filters into groups

You may have enough local filters to warrant organizing them into groups. Using local filter groups can make finding a particular filter easier.
NOTE
A filter group labeled Global Filter Group is created during the installation process and is displayed in the Filters hierarchy in the Edit Event Views dialog box. An administrator can add filters to this group to make them available to other users. Otherwise, access is restricted to the user who created the filter.
To create a filter group 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
2 On the toolbar, click Edit Filters.

3 On the toolbar, click New Filter Group.

In the Filters pane, a new filter group is displayed.
4 In Filter Group Name, enter a name for the filter group.
64
Filtering events
5 Click OK. 6 Click OK to return to the console. To rename a filter group 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
The Edit Event Views dialog box is displayed.

3 From the Filters pane, select the filter group whose name you want to change. 4 In Filter Group Name, enter a new name for the filter group. 5 Click OK. 6 Click OK to return to the console. To delete a filter group 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.

The Edit Filters dialog box is displayed.
3 From the Filters pane, select the filter group you want to delete and click Delete on
the toolbar.
4 Click OK. 5 Click OK to return to the console.
65
Sorting events
Sorting events
Slots identify information within an event class. Each event class has defined slots. Some slots are common to all event classes, while others are unique to one event class. The default slots in the event list provide basic information about an event. By changing the slots presented in the event list, you can view additional pertinent information or change the order in which event data is presented. The set of slots presented in the event list is called the slot order. When you change the slots presented, either by adding or removing slots or by rearranging them, you are changing the slot order. To use a new slot order, you must associate it with a filter.
To create a new slot order 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
2 On the toolbar, click Edit Slot Orders, as indicated in Figure 16.

Figure 16 Slot order creation
Edit Slot Orders Slot orders pane
The Edit Slot Order dialog box is displayed.
TIP
You can also access the Edit Slot Order dialog box by double-clicking a slot listed in the Slot orders pane.
3 On the toolbar, click New Slot Order
66
Sorting events
4 In Slot Order Name, enter the name for the new slot order. TIP
An administrator can create a global slot order (available to all consoles connected to the BMC IX) by selecting Global Slot Order.
5 In Event Class, click Browse
6 In the Class Chooser dialog box, specify the following items:

I I
In Impact Manager, select the cell for which you are creating the slot order. In Search for, specify the event class.
7 Use the left and right arrow buttons to move slots between Available Slots and
Selected Slots.
The slots listed in Available Slots depend on the level within the event class hierarchy of the specified class. The higher the class is in the hierarchy, the more slots are available.
8 (optional) Use the up and down arrow buttons to move a slot up or down in the
Selected Slots list.
9 Click OK.
The Edit Event View dialog box is displayed, listing the new slot order in the Slots pane.
10 Click OK to return to the console. NOTE

You must associate the new slot order with a filter before you can use it. For more information, see To associate a slot order with a filter on page 68.
To modify an existing slot order 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
2 Click the Edit Slot Orders button on the toolbar.

The Edit Slot Order dialog box is displayed.
67
Sorting events
3 From the Slot orders pane, select the slot order to edit. 4 Edit the settings. 5 Click OK. 6 Click OK to return to the console. To associate a slot order with a filter 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Views.
2 From the Slots orders pane, select a slot order. 3 From the Filters pane, select a filter or filter group. 4 Click the left arrow button, located between the Slots orders and Filters panes. 5 Expand the filters hierarchy indicator to display the new relationship with the slot
order.
NOTE
You can associate only a global slot order with a global filter.
6 Click OK.
Single-click sorting
You can use single-click sorting by clicking the header of the column that you want to use as the basis of your event list sort, as shown in Figure 17 on page 69. Even if a multiple sort order has been established, you can click any column heading that is not part of the designated multiple sort order to reset sorting. This action establishes single-column sorting, and the column on which you clicked is designated as the first, and only, column in the new sort order.
68
Sorting events
Figure 17
Single-click sorting indicators
Indicates that the event list is being sorted in an ascending order.
Indicates that the message subject listed in the message column is being used to sort the event list.
Multiple column sorting

Designating multiple columns for a sorting order is useful in resolving sort order conflicts in the event list. You can set a multiple column sort order for a maximum of three columns, as shown in Figure 18. Figure 18 Multiple column sorting indicators
The event list is first sorted using the priority column in descending order.
The status column is being selected to use as the second criteria for sorting the event list.
The Message column is used as the third criteria to sort the event list.
In the following procedures, you can select or deselect the column headings that you want to use to sort the contents of the event list.
Before you begin

Following are multiple column sorting considerations:
I
Sorting is resolved by the second sort column only if the first sort column has a sorting conflict. Sorting extends to the third sort column only if the second sort column has a sorting conflict.
69
Understanding event groups and image views
To add a column to the sort order

Use one of the following methods:
I
Right-click a column heading and choose a position order from the Slot Order Indicator menu. Repeat this step to add a second or third column to the sort order for the event list.
Press the Ctrl key and click a column heading. Repeat this step to add a second or third column to the sort order for the event list.
NOTE
If you have established a multiple sort order in the event list, clicking one of the sort order columns toggles that columns display between ascending and descending order.
To remove a column from the sort order

Use one of the following methods:
I I
Right-click a column heading and choose None from the Slot Order Indicator menu. Press the Ctrl key and click a column heading contained in the sort order.

While operators can create MetaCollectors to view events from several event lists, administrators can create event groups with associated image views to graphically depict groups of events associated with a collector. The navigation pane presents the hierarchy of the event groups and their associated collectors, with each level of the collector shown as a node underneath the event group tree node. An event list is associated with the lowest level nodes of an event group. The parent level of an event group represents all of the events associated with the collectors. The parent level of an event group is associated with an image view. An image view is a graphical representation of the collectors in an event group. The collectors are represented by objects, called widgets, that can be placed on a background image. The widgets can be graphics, such as icons, or statistical information, such as the number of events by priority or severity. The background color of the widgets reflects the severity level for the event group, and each widget can also show the priority level as an icon within the widget.
70
One of the attributes that the administrator assigns to an event group at creation identifies the event group as a production event group or one that is in development. Production event groups can be viewed by all user roles, but event groups in development can be viewed only by supervisory user roles. (Full Access is the only default supervisory role.) Figure 19 shows a sample of event groups and an image view. For more information about creating and editing event groups, see BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration. Figure 19
1
Location of elements on the Event Groups tab and image view

6
4 5
Table 12 on page 72 describes the information shown in Figure 19.
71
Connecting to multiple cells to access additional event groups
Table 12
# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Description of elements in the Event Groups tab and image view

Description displays available event groups identifies production and in-development event groups identifies individual event groups
Name Event Groups tab event group tree node event group
collector with hidden subcollectors identifies a collector that has subcollectors that you cannot view; its subcollectors are hidden in the event view subcollector widgets in image view severity or priority icon event list identifies a subcollector identify collectors or subcollectors in the image view indicates either the highest severity or highest priority of events in the collector or subcollector; selectable in image view edit displays the events associated with the selection
To view an image view 1 In the Events View, click the Event Groups tab at the top of the navigation pane. 2 In the navigation pane, select an event group or a collector that has subcollectors.
The image view associated with the selected event group or collector is displayed in the image view pane (top right pane). The event lists associated with the event group are displayed as subtabs in the bottom right pane, one subtab for each cell involved in the event group.
Connecting to multiple cells to access additional event groups

You can view event groups that involve collectors of multiple cells. If BMC IX is not connected to all of the cells involved, you are prompted to connect to the ones that are not connected. If you choose not to connect to the cells, the event group shows the collectors of the unconnected cells in the Unknown state.
Getting details for events in an event list

The event details pane provides all of the recorded information about an event. The subtabs of the details pane organize the information, as shown in Table 13 on page 73.
72
Getting details for events in an event list
Table 13
Subtab name Summary
Events View Details pane

Sections in subtab Workflow Status Event Information Description of contents status, priority, and owner of the event basic information about the event, such as date and time of occurrence, severity, any associated message, and the event class a list of actions against the event and the number of occurrences of actions information about the host of the monitored object, such as its name and location and the object class the component type and ID and any impact the event has on the component a text box in which users can submit annotations about the event time and date for event occurrence, arrival, receipt, and modifications severity and priority of the event when it originated time and date of each event operation performed on the event, logon ID of user who performed the operation, and type of operation logon ID of the user to whom notification is sent if an event operation is a notification information about the adapter or gateway from which the event came, including name, class, and IP address information about the origin of the event, including class and encryption key tracking information, such as the tracking ID, event handle, collectors, and propagations information about events abstracted from this one, abstractions, causes and effects, and associations a list of undefined attributes and values a list of slots that are no longer used; for more information, see Using deprecated slots on page 122
Actions Object Monitored
Service Model Notes History none Time Stamps Original Settings Operations Log
Notification Log Source Adapter/Gateway
Origin Details Internals classes and subclasses Tracking Relationships
Undefined Attributes Deprecated none
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New Common Event Model slots
New Common Event Model slots

The use of the BMC Atrium Common Event Model (CEM) results in the addition of nine new slots that you can view in the BMC IX Events view details pane. All of these slots belong to the BMC_BaseEvent. Table 14 describes these slots. Table 14 New CEM-related slots in BMC IX
CEM name ReportTime BAROC name mc_incident_ report_time Data type integer Description indicates the date and time when the event was reported. Displayed in the format
Slot label in IX GUI Reported
mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm
Tool Address Tool Time ComponentHostAddress EventTime
mc_tool_address string
mc_tool_time integer
specifies the network address of the reporter indicates when the reporter received the event. It translates reporter time into epoch time. suggests a solution for the situation defined by the reporter string data type that identifies the owner of the source component specifies the unit of measure of the metric defines the threshold value that, when exceeded, results in the generation of an event identifies the account associated with the event specifies the version number of the data model
Tool Suggestion EventSuggestion Object Owner ComponentOwner
mc_tool_ suggestion mc_object_owner
string string
Parameter Unit Parameter Threshold Account CEM version
MetricValueUnit MetricThreshold
mc_parameter_ unit mc_parameter_ threshold mc_account
string string
Account EventModelVersion
string
mc_event_model_ string version
74
Viewing event operations history
Viewing event operations history

BMC IX maintains a list of the event operations performed on an event. You can view this information in the History subtab in the details pane in the Events View. The Operations Log box in the History subtab shows the date and time of the event operation, the logon ID of the user who performed the operation, and the type of operation. The History subtab also displays the original severity and priority settings for the event, the time stamps for the events occurrence, reception, arrival, and any modification, and the time elapsed until the event was closed.
Viewing event relationships

BMC IX provides high-level descriptions of problems to help control the number of events that you must view at one time. You can learn more about the details and origin of a particular event by using the Explore Event Relationships function from the Events tab, as described in the following procedure.
NOTE
You can explore event relationships only for events that have been abstracted, correlated, or propagated.
To view relationships between events 1 From the event list, select an abstracted, correlated, or propagated event.
The Explore Event Relationships icon on the toolbar becomes active, as shown in Figure 20. Figure 20 Active Explore Event Relationships icon
Active Explore Event Relationships icon
2 Click the Explore Event Relationships icon.
75
Viewing online Help for an event
The relationships pane is displayed, in which you can explore the hierarchy of additional events that contributed to the original events correlation, abstraction, or propagation. The following actions and more are available from the relationships window:
I I I I
reopen an event execute actions against an event open a service impact view for an event display event details
Viewing online Help for an event

If online Help has been set up and if your console has been configured to display it, you can view Help for an event by selecting the event and choosing View => Help from the menu bar. For information about configuring BMC IX to display online Help, see Customizing access to Help for events on page 123.
Copying event information

You can copy the detailed data collected for an event to the clipboard and then paste that data into another program, such as a spreadsheet or a text editor.
To copy event information 1 From the event list, select one or more events and choose Edit => Copy Events. 2 Paste the copied information into Notepad, Microsoft Word, or another program.
Printing event information

You can print the detailed data collected for an event to your local printer.
To print event information 1 From the event list, select one or more events and choose File => Print. 2 In the Print dialog box, change the settings for the printer, print range, and number
of copies, if necessary, and click OK.
76 BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide
Performing event operations
The details for the selected events are printed. These details can require 40 or more pages to print.

Event operations change the status, priority, or ownership of an event. Your user role determines which of the event operations that you can use. Table 15 describes each operation. Table 15 Event operation descriptions
Description recognizes the existence of the event; leaves it in the Open state assigns ownership of the event to yourself; puts it in the Assigned state assigns ownership to another person in the same account; puts the event in the Assigned state removes your ownership; puts the event back in the Acknowledged state puts the event in the Closed state; ignores the event in calculating status changes a previously Closed event back to Open assigns a priority level to the event
Event operation Acknowledge Take Ownership Assign to Decline Ownership Close Reopen Set Priority
You can also annotate an event to provide additional information. The following sections provide instructions for performing the event operations and annotating events.
NOTE
Although all the event operations that are available to your user role are available when you have selected two or more events in the event list, an operation is performed only on the selected events whose status makes the operation valid. If the operation is not valid for some selected events, a message box reports the mc_ueid slot values for those events, and the events are not changed.
To acknowledge an event 1 From the event list, select one or more open events designated with
.
2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Acknowledge Event.
A confirmation dialog box is displayed.
77
NOTE
If Ack/Close Event Confirmation is not selected on the Events View subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, you do not receive a confirmation dialog box when you acknowledge an event. For more information, see Customizing display settings for the Events tab on page 118.
3 Click Yes. To take ownership of an event 1 From the event list, select one or more events of which to take ownership. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Take Ownership.
3 Click Yes. To assign an event to an individual 1 From the event list, select one or more events to assign. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Assign to. 3 In the Assign To dialog box, select the person to whom you want to assign the
event, and then click OK.
NOTE
The list of users in the Assign To dialog box contains only users who are in the same account as the logged-on user. BMC Software recommends that all BMC Impact Explorer users be in the same account.
To decline ownership of an event 1 From the event list, select one or more events that have been assigned to you. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Decline Ownership.
3 Click Yes.
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To close an event 1 From the event list, select one or more events to close. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Close Event.
NOTE
If Ack/Close Event Confirmation is not selected on the Events View subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, you do not receive a confirmation dialog box when you close an event. For more information, see Customizing display settings for the Events tab on page 118.
3 Click Yes. To reopen an event

To reopen a closed event, you must have either an MC_SuperAdmins or MC_Admins role ID established.
1 From the event list, select an event that has a status of Closed. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Reopen Event.
3 Click Yes. NOTE

If Ack/Close Event Confirmation is not selected on the Events View subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box, you do not receive a confirmation dialog box when you reopen an event. For more information, see Customizing display settings for the Events tab on page 118.
To set the priority for an event 1 From the event list, select an event. 2 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Event Operations => Set Priority. 3 In the Set Priority dialog box, select the priority level for the event, and then click
OK.
79
Responding to an event with an action
To annotate one or more events 1 Access the Notes subtab on the details pane. 2 From the event list, select one or more events. 3 On the details pane, select the Notes subtab. 4 Enter the annotated text in the text box, as shown in Figure 21, and click Submit to
annotate a single event or Submit to All to annotate multiple events with the same text. Figure 21 Event annotation
Selected event
Annotation area

You can respond to a selected event by choosing to execute either a remote or a local action. These local and remote actions are created by an administrator as a response to specific events as required for your environment. When you use a remote action, it is issued from your local console but executed on the computer where the cell is installed. When you use a local action, the action runs on the computer on which the console is installed.
To respond to an event by using a remote action 1 From the event list, select one or more events and choose Edit => Execute.
The Execute Remote Action dialog box is displayed.
2 Expand the Remote Actions folder and select a remote action, as shown in Figure 22
on page 81.
80
Figure 22
Remote action selection
3 Enter the appropriate settings required to run the selected remote action. NOTE
If you select Set Status as the remote action, you must enter a comment that explains the reason for changing the status.
4 Click Execute. 5 To access the results of the remote action, right-click the event or events you ran
the remote action for and choose Actions => Remote Action Results from the menu.
TIP
You can export the information about the remote action to a file by highlighting the action information in the Remote Action Results dialog box and clicking Export.
To respond to an event by using a local action 1 From the event list, select one or more events and Edit => Actions => Execute.
The Actions dialog box is displayed.
81
Responding to multiple events by using a user-defined local action
2 Expand the Local Actions folder and select a local action, as shown in Figure 23.
Figure 23 Local action selection
3 Direct the results of the local action to the results dialog box or to a file:
I
To view the results in a dialog box, clear the Suppress Feedback check box. To disable the display of results and send the output to an external file, select Suppress Feedback and enter the location for the output file in Log output to file or click the Browse button to specify the directory in which to place the output file.
NOTE
The Batch Mode check box in the Local Action dialog box will not be editable unless the batchmode=true parameter is enabled. For more information about the batchmode parameter, see To create a user-defined local action to respond to multiple events on page 83.
4 Enter the appropriate settings to run the selected local action. 5 Click Execute.
Either the Local Action Results dialog box is displayed, containing the results of the local action, or those results are sent to the specified file.

The mc_actions.xml file allows you to define your own local actions. By default, each action is taken only on the first event that matches the criteria in the action definition. If you want the action to be taken on all events that match the action definition criteria, you must enable batch mode. When you enable batch mode, the
82
celleventdata.xml file is created in the same directory where the mc_actions.xml file is
located. You could use this file to execute a script that could parse all of the slots that are in the file and possibly change or take whatever action you want. For instance you could add a comment, change a slot value, or update a table using SQL.
To create a user-defined local action to respond to multiple events 1 Using a text editor, open the mc_actions.xml file.
The file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:
I I
Windows: C:\Program Files\BMC Software\console\etc\event_op UNIX: opt/bmc/Impact/console/etc/event_op
2 In the mc_actions.xml file, add the batchmode=true parameter to the action that you
want to execute against multiple events, as shown in Figure 24: Figure 24 Syntax to execute a local actions against multiple events of the same type
<Actions> <ActionDef id="" type="executable" target="" batchmode=true> </Actions>
For example, Figure 25 illustrates how you can enable the batchmode parameter to ping each system from which a specified event originates: Figure 25 Example of an action definition that uses the batchmode parameter
<ActionDef id="mc_ping" label="Ping EVENT origin" type="executable" target="mc_ping" batchmode="true">
The resulting celleventdata.xml file might look similar to Figure 26: Figure 26 Example celleventdata.xml file (part 1 of 3)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> - <BMC_Impact_Manager version="1.0"> - <IMPACT_EVENT> - <TST_EV> <event_handle>315</event_handle> <mc_ueid>mc.ci-70.4198e3d.1</mc_ueid> <mc_client_address>192.168.2.2</mc_client_address> <adapter_host /> <mc_location>adprod.bmc.com</mc_location> <mc_service /> <mc_host_class /> <mc_host>HostNameWouldBeHere</mc_host> <mc_host_address>IPWouldBeHere</mc_host_address> <mc_object_class /> Chapter 4 Viewing and managing events 83
Figure 26
Example celleventdata.xml file (part 2 of 3)
<mc_object /> <mc_tool_class /> <mc_tool /> <mc_tool_rule /> <mc_tool_key /> <mc_tool_sev /> <mc_origin_class /> <mc_origin>IPWouldBeHere</mc_origin> <mc_origin_key /> <mc_origin_sev /> <mc_parameter /> <mc_parameter_value /> <mc_event_category>OPERATIONAL</mc_event_category> <mc_incident_time>0</mc_incident_time> <mc_arrival_time>1142525501</mc_arrival_time> <mc_local_reception_time>1142525501</mc_local_reception_time> <date_reception>1142525501</date_reception> <date>20060316081141.000000-480</date> <status>OPEN</status> <severity>WARNING</severity> <mc_original_severity>WARNING</mc_original_severity> <mc_priority>PRIORITY_5</mc_priority> <mc_original_priority>PRIORITY_5</mc_original_priority> <mc_owner /> <msg>test modify for administrator</msg> <duration>0</duration> <mc_timeout>0</mc_timeout> <repeat_count>0</repeat_count> <mc_action_count>0</mc_action_count> <administrator><unknown>@hostnameWouldBeHere</administrator> <mc_acl /> <mc_date_modification>1142525501</mc_date_modification> <mc_notes /> <mc_operations /> <mc_notification_history /> <mc_bad_slot_names /> <mc_bad_slot_values /> <mc_history /> - <mc_modhist> <LI>ci-70</LI> </mc_modhist> <mc_propagations /> - <mc_collectors> <LI>1.1</LI> <LI>2.2.1</LI> <LI>6</LI> </mc_collectors> <mc_abstraction /> <mc_abstracted /> <mc_associations /> <mc_cause>0</mc_cause>
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Manually setting component status or maintenance mode with a remote action
Figure 26
Example celleventdata.xml file (part 3 of 3)
<mc_effects /> <mc_event_relations /> <mc_relation_source /> <mc_smc_id /> <mc_smc_alias /> <mc_smc_impact>0</mc_smc_impact> <mc_smc_type /> <mc_smc_causes /> <mc_smc_effects /> <in_state>one</in_state> <out_state>unknown</out_state> <restrict>not_two</restrict> </TST_EV>
You can parse the resulting celleventdata.xml file.

Similar to responding to an event with a remote action, you can set the status of a service component manually by using a remote action. You can also put a component in maintenance mode by using this feature. When you use the manual status feature, you must enter a comment that explains why the status was changed. To remove the manually set status or to return a component to operation, you must use another remote action to clear the manually set status. For instructions, see Responding to an event with an action on page 80.
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Chapter
5
87 89 89 91 91 92 95 95 95 96 96 97
Using BMC Impact Event Adapters

This chapter discusses the following topics: Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting the engine manager process from the command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting the Adapter processes as services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using instance control to start and stop Adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Restarting an Adapter after modifying the MAP file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Enabling tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trace files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Trace levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Errors and Adapter events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adapter status events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters

Before you can start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters (either by starting them as services or starting the engine manager process), you must define and enable the Adapter that you want to run in the mcxa.conf file.
TIP
You can enable or disable an Adapter instance at any time. If you want enable or disable an Adapter instance during run-time, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
Chapter 5 Using BMC Impact Event Adapters
87
Enabling and disabling BMC Impact Event Adapters
To enable an Adapter instance 1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.

This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:
I I
Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\ UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/
2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you
want to enable.
3 Remove or comment out the word DISABLE from the Adapter definition. 4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that you want to enable. 5 Save and close the file.
Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.
To disable an Adapter instance 1 In a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file.

This file is located in one of the following directories, depending on your operating system:
I I
Windows: MCELL_HOME\etc\ UNIX: MCELL_HOME/etc/
2 In the mcxa.conf file, navigate to the definition of the Adapter instance that you
want to disable.
3 Add the word DISABLE to the Adapter definition or if DISABLE was commented
out, remove the comment character (# ).
4 Repeat step 3 for each Adapter instance that must be disabled. 5 Save and close the file.
Adapter statuses will change within a minute or two.
88
Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters
Starting and stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

You can use the following methods to start the various BMC Impact Event Adapters:
I
The Adapters that use the engine manager (LogFile Adapter, SNMP Adapter, and Perl Eventlog Adapter for Windows) can be started as follows: On Microsoft Windows computers, you start the engine manager (mxca process) from the command line or from the Services window. On UNIX computers, you start the engine manager (mxca) process from the command line. For instructions, see Starting the engine manager process from the command line and Starting the Adapter processes as services on page 91.
The IP Adapters (on Windows and UNIX) can be started and stopped individually after the primary engine manager process is running. For more information, see Using instance control to start and stop Adapters on page 92. When running on Microsoft Windows computers, all Adapters that use the engine manager can be started from the command line or from the Services window.
Starting the engine manager process from the command line

At a command prompt, run the mcxa.cmd (Windows) or mcxa.sh (UNIX) executable to start the engine manager (mcxa) process. On Windows, the mcxa.cmd command starts the appropriate services. The services were created during product installation. Table 16 lists the command options. Table 16
-c
mcxa command options (part 1 of 2)

alternate configuration file Default: MCELL_HOME\etc\mcxa.conf
Option Description
-d -h
Debug (prevents daemonization), available only on UNIX platforms help
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Starting the engine manager process from the command line
Table 16
-n
mcxa command options (part 2 of 2)

Send all events to a specific cell Use this option to specify the cell to which you want to connect. Use one of the following option formats:
I
Option Description
Designate a cell name by specifying n cellname. This format option maps the specified cellname to the host, port, and encryption key by looking the values up in the mcell.dir file.
Designate a host, port, and encryption key by using n @host:port# key. The variable host represents either a host name or an IP address value; port represents the port number value, and key represents the encryption key value. You can specify the designation to accept n @host:port or -@host and accept the default values for key(0) and port (1818). This format uses the specified host, port, and encryption key to connect to the cell without looking up information in the mcell.dir.
-t
Specifies trace file and/or level, such as 16 Use -T for long headers. You can make minor changes to the command syntax to modify how debug output is displayed or stored.
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Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the default trace file, MCELL_HOME\tmp\Adapters\mcxa.trace. Example: mcxa.cmd -t:6
I I
Use a double colon (::) in the command to display output on-screen (stdout). Use a single colon (:) in the command to send output to the specified trace file. Example: mcxa.cmd -t /tmp/mytracefile.txt:6 will start the engine manager at trace level 6 and use tmp/mytracefile.txt trace file.
-z
displays the Adapter version
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Starting the Adapter processes as services
NOTE
Command line interface options take priority over options in the mcxa.conf file.
Starting the Adapter processes as services

1 Choose Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services. 2 From the list of services, select BMC Impact Event Adapters. 3 From the menu bar, choose Action => Start.
The Adapters are running when the Status column of the Services window displays Started for the Adapters.
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Adapters

You can stop the Adapters by using one of the following methods:
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On Windows, stop the BMC Impact Event Adapters service from the Services window. This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.
On UNIX, stop the Adapters by using either the kill command or a shell script, such as the mcxa script located in etc\init.d. This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop.
NOTE
Do not use the kill -9 command to stop the Adapters unless they are in an infinite loop. Use the regular kill command, instead.
On UNIX or Windows, create a file called mcxa.stop and add it to the MCELL_HOME\etc\ directory. When this file is added to the MCELL_HOME\etc\ directory, the Adapters stop.
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Using instance control to start and stop Adapters
The contents of the mcxa.stop file are not important. When the Adapter detects the presence of the file, normally within five seconds, it deletes the file and then stops. This method sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event before the Adapters stop. If you used the -c option with the mcxa.sh command or mcxa.cmd command to specify a configuration file other than mcxa.conf, the stop file must have the same primary name as that configuration file, using the .stop extension. For example, if your Adapters configuration file is adap.conf, name the stop file adap.stop.
NOTE
If you stop and start the BMC Impact Event Adapters service in quick succession, or use the restart option in the service manager, you might see the following error messages in the BMC IX console: Couldn't be an UDP server on port 16 MA: EngineMgr: Couldnt be an UDP server on port 162 If you see these messages, wait a short time until the expected stop messages appear before restarting the Adapters. For example, with an SNMP Adapter enabled, wait until the messagesBMCImpactEventAdapterstoppedandAdapterSnmp(Engine:MA:ESnmpTrap) stopped by mcxa appear before restarting the BMC Impact Event Adapters service.

The mcxactrl.pl instance control command enables you to perform various operations on Adapter instances, including starting and stopping specific Adapter instances. The mcxactrl.pl command communicates with the engine manager using a control port opened by the engine manager. The port accepts only local host connections.
.
WARNING
Use the CtrlPort Adapter with caution. It is safe to use only on computers where logons are restricted to personnel who are authorized to control mcxa. CtrlPort refuses connections from any address other than 127.0.0.1 (localhost), but this is not adequate security for computers that allow people who are not authorized to control the mcxa process to log on.
Figure 27 shows the syntax of the mcxactrl.pl command. Figure 27 mcxactrl.pl command syntax
mcxactrl.pl [ --debug ] [ --mgr managername ] --port number [--help | -h | --list | --start name | --stop name | --stopmgr ]
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Table 17 lists the options that you can with the mcxactrl.pl command. You can specify only one option each time the command is run.
NOTE
Double hyphens must precede the options of the mxcactrl.pl command.
Table 17
Parameter --debug
mcxactrl.pl command options

Description activates debugging of the procedure that is specified (starting, stopping, listing, and so on). Optional. For more information, contact BMC Software support.
--mgr
engine manager affected by the command. Optional. Default: mcxa, the default specified in the mcxa.conf file
--port
control port on which the engine manager listens. Required - if the port number has been changed from 1998 (in mcxa.conf).
--help
prints usage information and exits. Optional.
--list
lists all Adapters and their current status. Optional.
--start starts the specified Adapter instance. For more information, see Using the instancename mxcactrl.pl command to start and stop an Adapter on page 94. Optional. --stop stops the specified Adapter instance. For more information, see Using the instancename mxcactrl.pl command to start and stop an Adapter on page 94. Optional. --stopmgr stops the engine manager specified with --mgr
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Using the mxcactrl.pl command to start and stop an Adapter

You can use the mxcactrl.pl command to start or stop an individual enabled Adapter without stopping the engine manager on which it is running or other Adapters running on that engine manager. To stop an Adapter, the Adapter must be enabled, and the engine manager must already be running. The mcxactrl.pl command can only be performed locally.
To start or stop an Adapter by using the mcxactrl.pl command 1 Using a text editor, open the mcxa.conf file. 2 Navigate to the CtrlPort Adapter definition and complete the following steps: A (optional) If you intend to use a non-default port value in the mcxactrl.pl
command, replace the default LocalPort value with the required port number. When executing the mcxactrl.pl command in step 4, the port number you specify must match the LocalPort value recorded in the CtrlPort Adapter definition in the mcxa.conf file. The default port number recorded in the CtrlPort Adapter definition in the mcxa.conf file is 1998.
B Enable the CtrlPort Adapter by removing or commenting out the word

DISABLE from its definition.
NOTE
After the CtrlPort Adapter is enabled, you can run the mcxactrl.pl command without reenabling the CtrlPort Adapter.
3 Save and close the mcxa.conf file. 4 On the command line, enter the following mxcactrl.pl instance control command:
mcxactrl.pl--mgrmanagername--portnumber{ --start | --stop }Adaptername
NOTE
Double hyphens, not single hyphens, must precede the arguments in the mxcactrl.pl start and stop commands. For information about additional command line options, see Table 17 on page 93.
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Restarting an Adapter after modifying the MAP file
Restarting an Adapter after modifying the MAP file

If you modify the contents of a MAP file, you must stop and restart any Adapters that are using that MAP file to apply the changes.
Enabling tracing
You can enable tracing in one of the following ways:
I
bydefiningtheTraceFile,TraceLevel,andTraceFileCountglobalparametersinthe mcxa.conf file Additional global parameters also affect tracing. For more information, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
by using the mcxa.cmd or mcxa.sh commands. Table 16 on page 89 lists the command line options that you can use to enable tracing with the mcxa.cmd or mcxa.sh commands.
Trace files
By default, the mcxa process trace file is MCELL_HOME\tmp\Adapters\mcxa.trace. Each time the Adapter is started, a new trace file is created and old logs are rotated.
EXAMPLE
mcxa.trace is rotated to mcxa0.trace mcxa<n>.trace is rotated to mcxa<n+1>.trace
You control the number of old log files through the TraceFileCount parameter setting in the mcxa.conf file. A value of 0 (zero) removes all old trace files. For more information and default values, see the header of the mcxa.conf file. You can specify a different trace file in a different location by using the mcxa.cmd or mcxa.sh commands. For more information about command line options, see Table 16 on page 89.
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Trace levels
Trace levels
Use the TraceLevel global parameter in the mcxa.conf file to specify the trace level that you want to use. This setting will apply to all Adapters running in the Adapter framework. You can specify the following trace levels:
I I I I I I I
0 disables all traces 1 header messages 2 fatal messages 3 major errors 4 minor errors 5 normal output 6 verbose output
NOTE
TraceLevel=6 produces very large trace files and is recommended only for debugging.
Errors and Adapter events

In addition to logging errors to a log file, Adapters send the cell error messages and notifications in the form of events in the following situations:
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When an Adapter starts, it sends an MC_ADAPTER_START event. When an Adapter stops, it sends an MC_ADAPTER_STOP event. When the Adapter encounters a major or fatal error in the configuration file, the Adapter reports the error in the trace file according to the trace level. When the error does not come from the configuration file, the Adapter reports the error to the cell whose name corresponds to the ServerName parameter of the [default] (unnamed) section of the configuration file. The event class is MC_ADAPTER_ERROR.
Error and message events sent by the IP Adapters are described in Adapter status events on page 97.
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Adapter status events

When an Adapter instance experiences a change in status, the instance sends a status report to the cell, formatted as an event. You can view these events in the Adapters collector in the BMC Impact Explorer events view. Table 18 describes the status events. Table 18 IP Adapter status events (part 1 of 2)
Slots
I I I
Status event MC_ADAPTER_START
Description sent when a command from mcxactrl.pl starts an Adapter instance
msg = "Incoming connection from ipaddress:port (host)" mc_object = "ipaddress:port" mc_object_class = "CLIENT" msg = "Removing connection from ipaddress:port (host)" mc_object = "ipaddress:port" mc_object_class = "CLIENT" msg = "Client hungup: destroying connection from ipaddress:port (host)" mc_object = "ipaddress:port" mc_object_class = "CLIENT" msg = "Adapter 'Adapter' (Engine: 'engine') started by 'module'" mc_origin = "Adapter" mc_origin_class = "engine" mc_object = "Adapter" mc_object_class = "engine" mc_parameter = "STATUS" mc_parameter_value = "STARTED" msg = "Adapter 'Adapter' (Engine: 'engine') stopped by 'module'" mc_origin = "Adapter" mc_origin_class = "engine" mc_object = "Adapter" mc_object_class = "engine" mc_parameter = "STATUS" mc_parameter_value = "STOPPED" msg = "last_error_discovered" severity = "CRITICAL" mc_origin = "origin" mc_origin_class = "origin_class" mc_object = "object" mc_object_class = "object_class" mc_parameter = "STATUS" mc_parameter_value = "ERROR"
MC_ADAPTER_STOP
I I I
sent when a command from mcxactrl.pl stops an Adapter instance
MC_ADAPTER_STOP
I I I
sent when mcxactrl.pl terminates a control connection
MC_ADAPTER_START
I I I I I I I
sent when an Adapter instance starts
MC_ADAPTER_STOP
I I I I I I I
sent when an Adapter instance stops
MC_ADAPTER_ERROR
I I I I I I I I
sent when an IP Adapter experiences a critical error
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Table 18
IP Adapter status events (part 2 of 2)

Slots msg = "BMC Impact Event Adapter started" msg = "BMC Impact Event Adapter stopped" Description sent when an engine manager initializes sent when an engine manager exits
Status event MC_ADAPTER_START MC_ADAPTER_STOP
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Using the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager

6
This chapter describes the procedures related to using the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager product and installing the BAROC files in the Knowledge Base of the BMC Impact Manager product. Accessing the Web-based GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Publishing MIB files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Viewing or editing the MAP file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Unpublishing MIB files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Installing the BAROC files in the Knowledge Base of BMC Impact Manager . . . . . 104
Accessing the Web-based GUI

To access the Web-based GUI of the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager, go to http://hostname:port/snmpadapter or http://ipaddress:port/snmpadapter.
I
hostname is the computer where you have installed the BMC Impact Event Adapters and the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. ipaddress is the IP address of the computer where you have installed the BMC Impact Event Adapters and the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager. port is the port you have configured for the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager.
NOTE
The first time that you access the Web-based GUI of the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on a Windows 2003 computer, you could get a security dialog box indicating that the content from http://hostname has been blocked. To access the web-based GUI of the SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager, you have to first add http://hostname to the list of trusted sites.
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Publishing MIB files
The GUI displays the following links in the navigation bar:

I I I
Publish MIBs View / Edit MAP Unpublish MIBs
Publishing MIB files

Publishing MIB files is the process of converting information from the MIB files into BMC Impact Manager classes.
To publish MIB files 1 Click Publish MIBs in the navigation bar. 2 Click Browse to select a MIB file that is accessible from your local computer. You
must specify at least one MIB file. You can use the Add and Remove buttons to create a list of MIB files to be sent for publishing. The add and remove actions do not affect the files saved in the netsnmp directory on the BMC Impact Event Adapters.
I
To publish more than one MIB file at a time, click Add. A new row is added below the existing row. You can simultaneously publish a maximum of 10 MIB files.
To remove a MIB file from the list, select the check box next to that file, and then click Remove.
3 To publish the MIB files, click Publish MIBs.

You are prompted to restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters.
4 Click Yes to restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters.

The BMC Impact Event Adapters will start receiving events from the devices whose MIB files you have published only after you restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters. Click No if you do not want to restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters at this point.
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Viewing or editing the MAP file
You can view the status of the publish MIBs process in the Publishing Messages area. The message MIB File: mibFileName is not proper might be displayed in the Publishing Messages area. mibFileName is the name of the MIB file that is not proper. To identify the exact reason for this message, you must check the output of the mib2map.pl utility, which is also displayed in the Publishing Messages area. The message MIB File: mibFileName is not proper is displayed due to one of the following reasons:
I I
The MIB file is not valid. The MIB file is dependent on another MIB file that does not exist in the NetSNMP directory.
The MIB file contains dependencies that do not correspond to the information that is available in the parent MIB file.
NOTE
If one or more of the selected MIB files already exist in the Net-SNMP directory, you are prompted to overwrite the MIB files.
I
If you choose to overwrite the MIB files, the existing MIB files in the Net-SNMP directory are replaced with the new MIB files. If you choose not to overwrite the MIB files, only the MIB files that do not already exist in the Net-SNMP directory are published.
For more information about the steps involved in the publish MIBs process, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.

You can use the View / Edit MAP link in the navigation bar to browse individual event classes in the mcsnmptrapd.map file. The event classes are displayed in a tree structure. You can select an event class, and then add new variables, or edit and remove existing variables from that event class. The modifications that you make in the mcsnmptrapd.map file are not reflected in the corresponding MIB file.
NOTE
Each time you edit the MAP file, a backup of the previous version is saved in the MCELL_HOME\tmp\adapters\snmpadapter\map directory. The naming convention for the backup files is mcsnmptrapd_mmMonth_ddDay_yyyyYear_hhHrs_mmMins_ssSecs.map.
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You can add, edit, or remove the following variables from the mcsnmptrapd.map file:
I I I I I I
msg mc_tool_class mc_tool mc_host_address mc_location severity
The values for this variable are UNKNOWN, OK, INFO, WARNING, MINOR, MAJOR, CRITICAL, and DOWN.
I
mc_priority
The values for this variable are PRIORITY_5, PRIORITY_4, PRIORITY_3, PRIORITY_2, and PRIORITY_1.
WARNING
When you click View / Edit MAP in the navigation bar, the data for the event classes is copied from the server to your local computer. You can then modify the data for the event classes on your local computer. However, the changes are saved on the server only when you click Update MAP File. When you retrieve the event classes data from the server, the mcsnmptrapd.map file is not locked. While you are modifying the mcsnmptrapd.map file, if the file is modified in another instance and the changes are saved on the server, you will not be able to save the changes you have made to the mcsnmptrapd.map file.
To edit event classes 1 Click View / Edit MAP in the navigation bar. 2 Select the event class you want to edit. 3 Perform the following actions.
I
To add a variable, click Add New. In the Add New Variable dialog box, select the variable, and enter or select the value for that variable. To edit a variable, click the value of that variable. In the Update Value dialog box, modify the value. To remove a variable, select the check box next to that variable, and click Remove.
4 To save the changes, click Save.

The changes made to the event class are saved on your local computer. You can edit more than one event class before you save the changes on the server.
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Unpublishing MIB files
5 To save your changes on the server, click Update Map File.

You are prompted to restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters.

The modifications made to the event classes in the mcsnmptrapd.map file are reflected only when you restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters.
NOTE
When you modify the variables for an event class, an asterisk (*) is displayed next to that event class in the tree structure view. The asterisk indicates that the mcsnmptrapd.map file has been modified on your local computer.
Unpublishing MIB files

Unpublishing MIB files is the process of removing MIB file entries from the mcsnmptrapd.map file.
To unpublish MIB files 1 Click Unpublish MIBs in the navigation bar. 2 Select the MIB file you want to unpublish. The MIB files are listed in an
alphabetical order. Press the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple files. The Unpublish button is enabled only when you select at least one MIB file.
WARNING
You cannot unpublish a MIB file if other MIB files in the Net-SNMP directory are dependent on it. To unpublish the parent MIB file, you have to first unpublish all the dependent MIB files. However, if you select the parent MIB file and all its dependent MIB files, you can unpublish them simultaneously.
3 To unpublish the MIB files, click Unpublish. You are prompted to restart the BMC
Impact Event Adapters.
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Installing the BAROC files in the Knowledge Base of BMC Impact Manager
The BMC Impact Event Adapters will stop receiving events from the devices whose MIB files have been unpublished only after you restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters. Click No if you do not want to restart the BMC Impact Event Adapters at this point. You can view the status of the unpublish MIBs process in the Unpublishing Messages area. For more information about the steps involved in the unpublish MIBs process, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
BMC Impact Manager can start receiving events from the devices whose MIB files you have published only after you install the BAROC files created by the mib2map.pl utility in the Knowledge Base of BMC Impact Manager. You have to install the mcsnmptrapdmib.baroc and mcsnmptrapdmibe.baroc files created by the mib2map.pl utility in the MCELL_HOME\etc\CellName\kb\classes directory on each BMC Impact Manager that can receive corresponding events.
I
If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 3.2/3.5, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 3.5. If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 4.1, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 4.1. If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 5.0, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 5.0. If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 5.1, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 5.1. If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 7.0, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 7.0. If you have installed SNMP Adapter Configuration Manager on the BMC Impact Event Adapters 7.1, you must copy the BAROC files to BMC Impact Manager 7.1.
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To install the BAROC files in the Knowledge Base of BMC Impact Manager 1 Navigate to the MCELL_HOME\bin directory on the BMC Impact Event Adapters. 2 Select the mcsnmptrapdmib.baroc and mcsnmptrapdmibe.baroc files, right-click and
select Copy.
3 Install the files in the MCELL_HOME\etc\CellName\kb\classes directory on the

BMC Impact Manager that can receive corresponding events.
4 Ensure that the read-write permission has been set for the .load file. 5 Update the .load file to include the mcsnmptrapdmib and mcsnmptrapdmibe files, if
they are not already listed. Though the entries do not have to be listed consecutively in the .load file, it is important that mcsnmptrapdmibe is listed before mcsnmptrapdmib.
6 Compile the mcsnmptrapdmib.baroc and mcsnmptrapdmibe.baroc files. 7 Restart BMC Impact Manager. 8 Repeat step 3 through step 7 for each BMC Impact Manager that can receive
corresponding events.
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Chapter
Using the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

7
The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows (BMC IELA) is installed separately from the other BMC Impact Event Adapters and does not use the engine manager process, the mcxa.conf file, or the mceventlog.map file. Instead, it runs as a service. BMC Software recommends that you use this Adapter process for monitoring the Windows Event Log instead of the Perl Event Log Adapter for Windows. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Event class definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Starting the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stopping the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Testing the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 108 108 109 109
Overview
The BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows runs as a service. It reads events generated on Microsoft Windows operating systems, formats them into the BAROC language, and forwards the events to the cell. Event gathering occurs from three basic event logs maintained by the Microsoft Event Log service: system, application, and security. The Windows 2000 platform provides three additional event logs: DNS Server, File Replication Service, and Directory Service. The Adapter can automatically discover these event logs, so if new event logs are defined, basic events are produced.
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Event class definitions
Event class definitions

Adapter BAROC classes are defined in the mcxa.baroc file. This file also contains classes for standard events sent by the msend CLI. This file should be copied into the destination cell when the BMC IELA is installed. The BMC IELA generates events in the following classes:
I I I I I I I
WIN_EVENTLOG WIN_EL_APPLICATION WIN_EL_SECURITY WIN_EL_SYSTEM WIN_EL_DNS_SERVER WIN_EL_DIRECTORY_SERVICE WIN_EL_FILE_REPLICATION_SERVICE
User name, domain, and type information are automatically looked up in the Windows registry using the user SID field in the event log records.
WIN_EVENTLOG is the basic class. If the read event does not belong to any of the other classes listed above, it belongs to WIN_EVENTLOG.
Starting the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

You can start the Adapter by either using the Services window or using the net start command.
To start the Adapter as a service 1 Choose Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Services. 2 Select BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows from the list. 3 Click Start.
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Stopping the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows
To start the Adapter with net start 1 Choose the Start => Programs => Accessories => Command Prompt. 2 Enter the following command:
net start BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows
Stopping the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

You can stop the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows without stopping the cell.
To stop the Adapter service 1 Choose Start => Settings => Control Panel => Administrative Tools=> Services. 2 Select BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows from the list. 3 Click Stop. To stop the Adapter with net stop 1 Choose Start => Programs => Command Prompt. 2 Enter the following command:
net stop BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows
Testing the BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

Confirm that the Adapter is functioning properly by using the Windows Performance monitor to generate and send test events to the cell. Use the BMC Impact Manager console to view the test events.
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To use the Performance Monitor generate test events 1 Choose the Start => Programs => Administrative Tools (Common) => Performance.
The Performance window is displayed in the Chart display mode, as shown in Figure 28.
NOTE
The method for starting the Performance Monitor may vary depending on the version of Microsoft Windows that you are using.
Figure 28
Performance Monitor in Chart mode
2 Select the Performance Logs and Alerts folder in the left pane.
The Alerts icon and available logs icons appear in the right pane.
3 Right-click the Alerts icon and select New Alerts Setting. 4 In the New Alerts Settings dialog box, enter the name of the new alert and click
OK.
The setting window for the new alert is displayed.
5 On the General tab, click Add. 6 Select Processor from the Performance objects option.
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7 Enable the Select counters from list option. 8 Select % Processor Time under Select counters from list. 9 Enable the Select instances from list option. 10 Click Add.
The alert is added to the Performance Monitor and the Event Log.
11 Click Close.
The Alert window displays the values you selected.
12 In the Alert when the value is drop-down list, select Over. 13 In the Limit text field, enter 10.
You may have to lower this value if 10% does not generate any test events on your system.
14 On the Action tab, enable the Log an entry in the application eventlog option. 15 Click OK.
You use the Performance Monitor to create test events, perform a few small operations, such as opening an application, maximizing and minimizing an application window, or moving the mouse vigorously. Allow the Performance Monitor to generate alerts during the test. Events display in the Event Viewer window.
To view events in the BMC Impact Manager console 1 Start the BMC Impact Manager Console and connect to the cell. 2 Select the cell and click the View Event List button.
The Event Display window displays the test events generated by the BMC Impact Manager Event Log Adapter.
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8
114 116 117 118 118 120 121 122 123 124
Customizing the BMC IX console

This chapter describes how to customize the BMC Impact Explorer (BMC IX) console to operate to suit your needs. Customizing general display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using floating panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Using quotation marks and string fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Customizing display settings for the Events tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Defining attributes for the Events view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color . . . . Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors . . . . . . . Using deprecated slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Customizing access to Help for events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adding buttons for actions to the toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Customizing general display settings

You can control certain aspects of the appearance of all of the main tabs (Events, Services, and Administration) in the console. The Edit Configuration dialog box provides access to these overall settings.
NOTE
Depending on the level of access that has been set up for your logon ID, you may or may not be able to see the Administration tab. For more information about levels of access, see your system administrator and BMC Impact Solutions: Administration.
To customize general display settings 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, click the Global subtab.
Figure 29 Global subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box
114
3 Use the information in Table 19 to determine the appropriate settings.

Table 19
Field String Limit
BMC Impact Explorer display settings

Description specifies the maximum number of characters that can be retrieved from a list per event or data instance slot. This limit applies to values in an event or data list, not to the values listed in the Event or Data Details dialog boxes
Query size
limits the number of rows retrieved from the BMC Impact Manager instance or collector in the Events tab or from a data list in the Administration tab of the console The size of the rows retrieved and presented for viewing remains the same for any query. If you scroll beyond the query limit for the data presented, the next set of data is retrieved and presented for viewing.
Auto Refresh Active by Default
enables and disables automatic refresh of the contents of the console, such as the event list, relationships pane, data list, and image view. For more information about refreshing, see Refreshing and freezing the event list on page 56.
Row Numbering
enables and disables the numbering for the lists of events, service model components, and data instances for the view selected in the console
Show Internal enables the internal system names as opposed to the assigned logical names, Names as Tool to be shown as tool tips. Tips Manager Group Status Allow float enables and disables a special cell group icon that shows whether all BMC Impact Manager instances in a cell group are connected or not connected. enables the event list, relationships pane, data list, and image view to appear in a separate window when you choose Float from the context menu of the selected pane, or disables that feature. For more information about floating panes, see Using floating panes on page 116. Auto dock Auto float enables a floated window, when closed, to reappear in the console; available only when Allow float is selected enables the event list, relationships pane, data list, and image view to appear by default in a separate window; available only when Allow float is selected When this option is selected and you close the floated window, it will not reappear in the console window. Time Zone Style specifies the time zone to use for the console specifies a style (Long, Medium, or Short) for displaying date and time data
4 Click OK to save the change and exit the dialog box.
Chapter 8
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Using floating panes
Using floating panes

In the main tabs in the console, you can float the upper-right pane in a window separate from the main console window. You can configure the pane to float by default or on command. The floating pane has a different name in each tab:
I I I
Events tab: event list Services tab: relationships pane Administration tab: data list
NOTE
You cannot float an image view.
To customize a pane to float 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, click the Global subtab. 3 In the Float section of the dialog box, select Allow float and then select one of the
following options:
I
Auto dock: Select this option if you want to float the window on command and if you want the contents of the floated pane to reappear in the main console window after you close the floated pane. Auto float: Select this option if you want the pane to automatically appear in a separate window and do not want its contents to reappear in the main console window when you close the floated pane.
When you use Auto float, to redisplay the contents of the pane, click the object again in the navigation pane.
To float or dock the pane

I
To float the pane, in the clear area of the toolbar of the pane, right-click and choose Float from the menu. To dock the floated pane, click the X in the upper right corner of the floated window to close it. The pane reappears in the main Events View if you have selected Auto Dock in the Global subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box.
You can have a maximum of ten event lists, service model component relationships panes, and data lists open at one time.
116
Using quotation marks and string fields
A floating pane and the console from which it has been floated are effectively equivalent to hiding the right two panes of the console so that only the navigation pane remains. If you have enabled Auto Float in the Edit Configuration dialog box and then hide the right two panes, you can use the navigation pane to work with the floating event list, service model component relationships pane, or data list pane at one time.
Using quotation marks and string fields

You can use quotation marks in editable fields for the following dialog boxes and sections of the console:
I I I I
Slot Quick Filter dialog box Notes subtab on the details pane Edit subtab on the Administration tab New subtab on the Administration tab
NOTE
BMC Software recommends that you use only unquoted values. However, if you do use quotation marks, be sure to use them according to the rules presented in this section.
You must enclose string fields and string lists in quotation marks under the following circumstances:
I I
if a value starts with a single () or double () quotation mark if the list includes a comma (,) or a bracket (]), because the console uses these characters to determine the end of the string list
EXAMPLE
To obtain the value 'this is a test', type '''this is a test'''.
In this example, the first quotation mark indicates that a quoted value is being entered, and it is a double quotation mark because it encloses characters inside a quoted string value. You do not need to use enclosing quotation marks for a string value that contains a single quotation mark within it, only if the value starts with a quotation mark.
Chapter 8
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Customizing display settings for the Events tab
Customizing display settings for the Events tab

Besides the general display settings that affect all of the main tabs of the console, you can customize additional display settings that affect the Events tab.
Defining attributes for the Events view

In the Events view, you can define the following attributes to help you monitor and manage events:
I I I I
color confirmation dialog boxes icons counters
To customize display settings for the events tab 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, click the Events View subtab, if necessary.
The Events View subtab is displayed, as shown in Figure 30 on page 119.
118
Defining attributes for the Events view
Figure 30
Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box
3 Use the information in Table 20 to determine the appropriate settings.

Table 20
Field Line Color Severity
Events View subtab display settings (part 1 of 2)

Description enables and disables the display of the severity color for the entire event line. If cleared, the line displays the severity color only in the severity column and the rest of the line has no color.
Keep Severity Color on Close Event Operation Confirmation Use icons for the status, priority, and severity columns
leaves the severity color unchanged when an event is closed enables a notification when a user takes ownership of an event enables and disables the display of icons instead of text for the status, priority, and severity columns
Chapter 8
119
Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color
Table 20
Field
Events View subtab display settings (part 2 of 2)

Description
Severity/Priority/Counter determines the color displayed for the collector in the tree:
I I I I I
OPEN: selects events with status Open ACKNOWLEDGED: selects events with status Acknowledged ASSIGNED: selects events with status Assigned CLOSED: selects events with status Closed BLACKOUT: selects events with status Blackout
For more information, see Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color. Second Event Count determines which statuses contribute to the event count:
I I I I I
OPEN: selects events with status Open ACKNOWLEDGED: selects events with status Acknowledged ASSIGNED: selects events with status Assigned CLOSED: selects events with status Closed BLACKOUT: selects events with status Blackout
For more information, see Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors on page 121.
4 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box.
Understanding the effect of event status and severity on collectors color

You can affect the color of a collector by your selection of event statuses in the Events View subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box. The collector color that you see in the tree is determined by the severity color of the highest severity event that also has a status selected from the list under Severity/Priority/Counter, as shown in Figure 31 on page 121.
120
Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors
Figure 31
Severity section of Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box
For example, if you select all of the statuses and one of the closed events has a severity of Critical, the relevant collector will be displayed in red, even though no open event has a Critical severity. That severity color will be propagated up through the hierarchy of collectors in that branch of the tree, so you will see a red severity indicator for each hierarchical level.
NOTE
No status is available for the top-level node in an event tree.
Understanding the effect of event status on event count for collectors

In the navigation pane of the Events View, two counters are displayed beside each node in the tree. The first counter is enclosed in parentheses and represents the number of unacknowledged (Open) events. This counter decreases whenever the status changes from open to some other state. Also, this counter is always present for all nodes except the top-level node. The second counter represents the number of events that match the statuses that you selected to count. You can affect the event count of a collector by your selection of event statuses in the Second Event Count section of the Events View subtab of the Edit Configuration dialog box (see Figure 32 on page 122).
Chapter 8
121
Using deprecated slots
Figure 32
Event count section of Events View subtab of Edit Configuration dialog box
In the Second Event Count section of the Events View subtab, all status types are selected by default, but you may select one status or any combination of statuses. For example, if you select only the Open status, the event count will not include events of other statuses. Not even the event count for the All Events collector will include events of any status other than Open.
To customize the second counter 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, click the Events View subtab, if necessary. 3 In the Events View subtab, under Second Event Count, activate the status that you
want to count for the event.
4 Click Apply to save the changes, or click OK to save and exit the dialog box.
Using deprecated slots

Deprecated slots are obsolete in the product and may not be available in a future release. They were retained for a limited time for backward compatibility with earlier releases. If you are using slots that have been deprecated and want to continue to use them, define them and enable them. The definitions for deprecated slots are located in mc_root_redef.baroc. You can enable this file in the .load file, or you can define the individual slots that you need. If you enable deprecated slots, their values are displayed in the Deprecated subtab of the details pane in the Events View. Administrators can access the Deprecated subtab, and they can grant access to other user roles.
122
Customizing access to Help for events
Customizing access to Help for events

Provided that your administrator has set up online event Help, you can use the Help Info subtab in the Edit Configuration dialog box to select options for displaying that additional event information. See your administrator for details about using static or dynamic Help. Static Help is based on classes and is created by the console with a combination of the Help Info URL, the class name of the event, and the HTML suffix. An .html or .htm file must already exist for each class used in your enterprise environment. These files must be available to your browser. Dynamic Help is based on slot information for the selected event. When you access dynamic Help, a script creates a web page from a combination of the Help Info URL, the slot names, and the slot values of the selected event.
Before you begin

Before you enable either static or dynamic Help, you must obtain the following information:
I I I I
whether you have static or dynamic Help the URL of the backup web server you will use the local path to the directory location of the Help HTML files the location of the directory for dynamic Help
To customize access to event Help 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Configuration. 2 In the Edit Configuration dialog box, click the Help Info subtab. 3 Use the information in Table 21 to determine the appropriate settings.
Table 21
Field
Help Info subtab display settings (part 1 of 2)

Description
Enable dynamic CGI lookups enables or disables dynamic Help for Help Info check box (required for dynamic Help only) Help Info URL box Backup Info URL box specifies the URL for the web server from which the online Help information is obtained specifies the URL for a secondary web server that will be accessed if the Help Info URL cannot be accessed
Chapter 8
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Adding buttons for actions to the toolbar
Table 21
Field
Help Info subtab display settings (part 2 of 2)

Description
HTML Suffix box specifies the type of HTML suffix (.html or .htm) (required for static Help only) Preferred Web Browser box specifies the web browser to use on this console; provides a Browse function for locating the correct browser file
4 Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialog box.

After this configuration, you can click to see Help information for an event.
NOTE
If you have not configured a default web browser for the console, you will be prompted to select the Web browser the first time that you access the Help.

You can modify your toolbar to provide appropriate buttons for local actions that you need. You can add up to 16 custom toolbar buttons for local actions. Also, you can change the order in which the buttons are displayed, and you can remove buttons. Each button is associated with only one action, which is platform independent. You can specify a GIF image to be used as the icon for the additional toolbar buttons. The images must be available on the local computer where the console is installed, but they are not stored by the console. You must maintain the availability of these images. When the specified image is not available, the console displays a generic image.
NOTE
You can create custom toolbar buttons for local actions only on the Events tab. This functionality is not available on either the Services or Administration tab.
To add a local action button to the toolbar 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Toolbar Actions.
The Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box is displayed, but it is empty except for a toolbar, as shown in Figure 33 on page 125.
124
Figure 33
Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box
Delete a toolbar action Create a new toolbar action
2 Click Create a new toolbar action.

The Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box is updated to display the Action Parameters box.
3 Provide information about your new button in the Action Parameters box: A In the Name box, enter the name of the new toolbar button. B In Local Action, select an action from the list, as shown in Figure 34.
Figure 34 Local toolbar action selection
C At Icon Search,
, click the ellipsis (. . .) to locate an icon to use on the button.
D In Tool Tip, enter the text that you want to display when the mouse cursor is
placed over the button.
E Click OK.
The new button is displayed on the console toolbar at the far right.
Chapter 8 Customizing the BMC IX console 125
To reorder local action toolbar buttons

As you create more local action toolbar buttons, you might want to change the order in which they are displayed (for example, to group some of them together).
1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Toolbar Actions.

The Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box is displayed with the local toolbar actions listed in the left pane in the same order that their buttons appear in the toolbar.
2 Click an action in the list, and then click a directional arrow on the toolbar to move
that action up or down one position in the list box, as shown in Figure 35. Figure 35 Local action toolbar button order
Directional Arrows
Toolbar Actions
3 Click OK to save the changes. To delete a local action button from the toolbar 1 From the menu bar, choose Edit => Toolbar Actions.
The Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box is displayed.
2 Select the action that you want to delete from the list of actions. 3 On the dialog box toolbar, click Delete a toolbar action.
The action is deleted from the list of actions, and its corresponding button is deleted from the toolbar.
4 Click OK.
126
Appendix
A
128 130 133 136
Console interface reference

This appendix contains the following information: Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Toolbar buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shortcut keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Appendix A
127
Icons
Icons
Table 22 lists the icons contained on the BMC Impact Explorer Events, Services, and Administration tabs. Table 22
Icon
BMC Impact Explorer icons (part 1 of 3)

Name cell disconnected cell secondary cell in standby mode MetaCollector MetaCollector with secondary cell in standby mode cell group disconnected cell group disconnected cell group with secondary server in standby mode collector collector with secondary cell in standby mode severity indicator event group tree node event group event group with secondary cell in standby mode collector with visible subcollectors (in event group) collector with visible subcollectors (in event group) and secondary cell in standby mode
Events tab (collectors, MetaCollectors, and event groups)
128
Icons
Table 22
Icon

Name collector with hidden subcollectors (in event group) subcollector (in event group) subcollector (in event group) and secondary cell in standby mode
Services tab Global Services My Services My Services subgroup
Administration tab (event management policies, Dynamic Data Editor, Infrastructure Management) Event Management Policies policy group folder policy selector group policy policy selector event class policy group Dynamic Data Editor cell group cell
Appendix A
129
Menu commands
Table 22
Icon

Name data class infrastructure management
Menu commands
Table 23 lists all the menu commands contained on the BMC Impact Explorer Events, Services, and Administration tabs. Table 23
Command Events tab menu commands File => Export File => Page Setup File => Print File => Exit Edit => Event Operations => Take Ownership Edit => Event Operations => Assign To Edit => Event Operations => Decline Ownership export the events selected from the event list to an external file set up the page properties for printing print the events selected from the event list exit the console assign one or more events to yourself assign one or more events to a person for action decline to act on one or more events that have been assigned to you
BMC Impact Explorer menu commands (part 1 of 4)

Description
Edit => Event Operations => Set set a level of urgency for one or more open events Priority Edit => Event Operations => Acknowledge Event Edit => Event Operations => Close Event Edit => Event Operations => Reopen Event Edit => Execute Edit => Copy Events acknowledge one or more events
close one or more events reopen one or more closed events run either a local or remote action in response to an event copy events selected from the event list to the Copy/Paste buffer
130
Menu commands
Table 23
Command

Description in a test environment, send a test event to the cell to check the cells status Use this command instead of using the msend command from a command line. Note: The account that you are using to log on to Impact Explorer must have Full Access, Service Administrator, or Service Manager - Senior permissions to access this command. For more details, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
Edit => Send Manual Events
Edit => Delete Events
delete events from a cell that match a specified criteria Note: The account that you are using to log in to Impact Explorer must have Full Access, Service Administrator, or Service Manager - Senior permissions to access this command. For more details, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
Edit => Event Views Edit => Toolbar Actions Edit => MetaCollectors Edit => Edit Image View Edit => Add Event Group Edit => Edit Event Group Edit => Delete Event Group Edit => Edit Event Group Properties Edit => Reload Event Group Data Edit => Configuration View => Refresh View => Event Details View => Related Events View => Service Impacts View => Event Relationships View => Information View => Local Action Results Server => Login Server => Logout Server => Change Password Help => Contents
create, modify, reorganize, or delete a filter or slot add an action to the console toolbar edit MetaCollector properties; accessed from the MetaCollectors subtab create a custom image view for objects in event groups; accessed from the Event Groups subtab create a new event group; accessed from the Event Groups subtab edit an existing event group; accessed from the Event Groups subtab delete an event group; accessed from the Event Groups subtab. change the name, description, status, and permissions of an existing event group; accessed from the Event Groups subtab accessed from the Event Groups subtab access the Edit Configuration dialog box to configure the console refresh the contents of the event list access detailed information for an event display a list of associated events open an Impacts view for a selected component in the Services View display the relationships window, in which you can to explore the details of abstracted, correlated, or propagated event relationships access dynamic Help for an event access the results from a local action log on to an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server log off of an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server change the current password for an authentication server connection access the console Help Appendix A Console interface reference 131
View => Remote Action Results access the results from a remote action
Menu commands
Table 23
Command

Description display version information exit the console edit the relationship between components in the service model edit properties of a component in the service model add a component to the service model delete logical groupings and registered components from the service model access the Edit Configuration dialog box to configure the console refresh the contents of the Services tab log on to an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server log off of an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server change the current password for an authentication server connection access the console Help display version information export the event data selected from the data list to an external file set up the page properties for printing print the data selected from the data list exit the console create a new event selector to specify selection criteria for an event management policy; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab create a new event selector by copying an existing event selector; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab edit properties of an event selector; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab delete an event selector; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab create a new data instance; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab create a new data instance that is copied from an existing data instance; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab edit the slot data for a selected data instance; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab delete a data instance from the data list; accessed from the Event Management Policies subtab create a new dynamic data instance; accessed from the Dynamic Data Editor subtab
Help => About Services tab menu commands File => Exit Edit => Edit Relationship Edit => Edit Component Edit => Create Component Edit => Delete Component Edit => Configuration View => Refresh Server =>Login Server => Logout Server => Change Password Help => Contents Help => About File => Export File => Page Setup File => Print File => Exit Edit => Selectors => New Selector Edit => Selectors => New Selector Copy Edit => Selectors => Edit Selector Edit => Selectors => Delete Selector Edit => New Policy Edit => New Policy Copy Edit => Edit Policy Edit => Delete Policy Edit => New
Administration tab menu commands
132
Toolbar buttons
Table 23
Command

Description create a new dynamic data instance by copying an existing instance; accessed from the Dynamic Data Editor subtab edit a dynamic data instance; accessed from the Dynamic Data Editor subtab delete a dynamic data instance; accessed from the Dynamic Data Editor subtab copy a data instance to the clipboard paste the contents of the clipboard into a new location access the Time Frame dialog box to set up new or modify existing time frames for application of policies; access from the Event Management Policies subtab edit the properties of a component in the infrastructure management service model; accessed from the Infrastructure Management subtab For more details, see the BMC Impact Solutions: General Administration guide.
Edit => New Copy Edit => Edit Edit => Delete Edit => Copy Edit => Paste Edit => Timeframe Editor
Edit => Edit Component
Edit => Edit Relationship
edit the relationships between the objects in the infrastructure management service model; accessed from the Infrastructure Management subtab create logical components in the infrastructure management service model; accessed from the Infrastructure Management subtab delete logical groupings and registered components from the infrastructure management service model; accessed from the Infrastructure Management subtab access the Edit Configuration dialog box to configure the console refresh the contents of the data list log on to an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server log off of an authentication server, either BMC Impact Portal or BMC Impact Administration Server change the current password for an authentication server connection access the console Help display version information for BMC Impact Explorer
Edit => Create Component Edit => Delete Component
Edit => Configuration View => Refresh Server => Login Server => Logout Server => Change Password Help => Contents Help => About
Toolbar buttons
Table 24 on page 134 displays all the toolbar buttons contained on the BMC Impact Explorer Events, Services, and Administration tabs.
Appendix A
133
Toolbar buttons
Table 24
Button Events tab
BMC Impact Explorer toolbar buttons (part 1 of 3)

Name Edit Event Views Edit MetaCollectors Refresh Current Event List Acknowledge Event Take Ownership Decline Ownership Close Event Event Details Impact Service View Explore Event Relationships Event Dynamic Information Copy Selected Event Export Event Details Print Event Details Execute Remote and Local Actions View Remote Action Results View Local Action Results
134
Toolbar buttons
Table 24
Button

Name Refresh View Hide/Show Find Create Component Edit Component Delete Component
Services tab
Administration tab View/Update Timeframes Refresh Current Policy List Add Event Selector Copy and Add Event Selector Update Event Selector Delete Event Selector Add Event Policy Copy and Add Event Policy Update Event Policy Delete Event Policies Copy Event Policies Paste Event Policies
Appendix A
135
Shortcut keys
Table 24
Button

Name Export Event Policies Print Event Policies
Shortcut keys
Table 25 lists all the shortcut keys available in BMC Impact Explorer. Table 25
Action Acknowledge Event Change Focus Close Event Copy Events New Policy Copy Delete Policy Edit Policy Event Details Event Relationships Execute Information Local Action Results Move through event or data list New Policy Paste (system) Print Refresh Remote Action Results Reopen Event Service Impacts Set Priority Decline Ownership Assign To Take Ownership
BMC Impact Explorer shortcut keys

Shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + A F9 Ctrl + Shift + C Ctrl + C Ctrl + Insert Delete Ctrl + E Ctrl + D Ctrl + Shift + R Ctrl + Shift + X Ctrl + l Ctrl + L PgUp, PgDn, and the Up and Down arrow keys Insert Ctrl + V Ctrl + P F5 Ctrl + R Ctrl + Shift + O Ctrl + M Ctrl + Shift + P Ctrl + Shift + D Ctrl + Shift + N Ctrl + Shift + T
136
Shortcut keys
Table 25
Action
BMC Impact Explorer shortcut keys

Shortcut key Alt +.(period) Ctrl + N Ctrl + I Ctrl + O Ctrl + U
Timeframe Editor New Selector New Selector Copy Edit Selector Delete Selector
Appendix A
137
Shortcut keys
138
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Index
A
Acknowledge event icon 77 event operation 77 Acknowledged (ACK) event status icon 51 actions adding buttons to toolbar 124 deleting 126 reorder action buttons in toolbar 126 responding to an event 80 adapters configuration file 20 configuration file, described 19 EventLog 107 integration of user-defined 21 multiple instances of same type 20 SNMP (trap) 21 starting 89 stopping 91 tracing 95 adding buttons to local action toolbar 124 cell to MetaCollector 58 Administration tab icons 129 menu commands 132 Administration View, overview 18 Allow float field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 annotating events 80 Assign To (event operation) 77, 78 Assigned event status icon 51 Attempts cell connection property 35 Auto Bind cell connection property 36 Auto Connect cell connection property 35 Auto dock field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 Auto float field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 Auto Switch cell connection property 35 automatic refresh 56, 115 Blackout event status icon 51 BMC Impact Explorer consoles, types of 25 starting 25 BMC Impact Explorer console Java Web Start, described 26 standalone, described 25 starting Java Web Start application 28 starting standalone console on UNIX 26 starting standalone console on Windows 26 BMC Impact Portal connecting BMC IX 29 starting BMC Impact Explorer from 27 BMC IX. See BMC Impact Explorer BMC Software, contacting 2
C
cell groups adding 32 adding cells 33 creating 32 disconnected cell group icon 128 disconnected cell group with secondary cell in standby mode icon 128 disconnecting from 37 editing name 32, 33 icon 47, 128 Infrastructure Management 31 MyProduction 31 MyTest 31 removing 33 cells adding to cell group 33 connecting to 37 connection properties 34 designating a backup 39 disconnected cell icon 128 icon 47, 128 multiple cells in event groups 72 secondary cell in standby mode icon 128 viewing event list 53 changing passwords 30 Class Chooser dialog box 62, 67
B
backup cell specifying 39 Basic Information option of default filters 59
Index
139
Close event icon 79 operation 77, 79 Closed event status icon 51 collectors color affected by status and severity 120 event count affected by status 121 icon 47, 128 setting color in navigation tree 120 subcollectors with secondary cell in standby mode, icon (event group) 129 subcollectors, icon (event group) 129 viewing event list 53 with hidden subcollectors, icon 129 with secondary cell in standby mode icon 128 with visible subcollectors and secondary cell in standby mode, icon 128 with visible subcollectors, icon 128 Collectors tab (Events View navigation) 47 color affected by event severity 51 affected by status and severity 120 event status icon 51 severity for event group 70 commands kill 91 complex logic in creating filters 63 component service setting maintenance model manually 85 setting status manually with remote action 85 Components subtab (Impact Manager Info dialog box) 40 configuration files adapters 20 Engine parameter 21 configuring access to multiple cells 31 event Help 123 Events tab display settings 118 general display settings 114 Connect Freq cell connection property 35 connecting BMC IX to BMC Impact Portal 29 multiple cells in event groups 72 properties 34 to a cell or cell group 37 console adding action buttons to toolbar 124 adding cell groups 32 BMC Impact Explorer, types of 25 docking panes 116 editing cell group names 32, 33 floating panes 116 Help, viewing 124 icons 128 menu commands 130 removing cell groups 33 settings, default configuration 40, 114 starting BMC Impact Explorer from BMC Impact Portal 27 toolbar reorder actions 126 console toolbar adding local action buttons 124 copying event information 76 creating a cell group 32 filter groups 64 local filter 61 customer support 3 customizing access to multiple cells 31 event Help 123 Events tab display settings 118 general display settings 114
D
data class icon 130 Decline Ownership event operation 77, 78 icon 78 default filters Basic Information option 59 in Event Sources list 45, 58 SMC Impact Events option 60 SMC Information option 59 SMC Status History Events option 60 Supervisor Information option 59 deleting a filter 64 actions 126 filter group 65 deprecated slots 122 details pane (Events View) 45 disconnecting from a cell or cell group 37 docking a pane 116 downloading Java Web Start application 27 Dynamic Data Editor tab 129 dynamic Help 123
E
Edit Configuration dialog box event count 122 Events View subtab 119 Global subtab 37, 114 Help Info subtab 123 Impact Managers subtab 31, 56 severity 121
140
Edit Event View dialog box 62 Edit Filters icon 61 Edit Toolbar Actions dialog box 124 editing cell group names 32, 33 local filter 63 slot orders 67 Encrypted Mode cell connection property 35 Engine parameter configuration file 21 error events 96 event class icon (event management policy) 129 event classes definition for adapters 19 event collector, described 15 event count affected by status 121 in Events View navigation 47 Event Count field 120 Event Details window 54 event groups collector with hidden subcollectors, icon 129 collector with visible subcollectors and secondary cell in standby mode, icon 128 collector with visible subcollectors, icon 128 described 16 icon 128 icon for tree node 128 multiple cells 72 subcollector with secondary cell in standby mode, icon 129 subcollector, icon 129 understanding 70 viewing event list 53 with secondary cell in standby mode icon 128 Event Groups tab 47, 71 event management policies icon 129 Event Operation Confirmation check box 119 event operations, performing 77 event priority icons 52 setting 79 shown in image-view widget 70 understanding 52 event relations icons 49 event relationships, exploring 75 event severity icons 52 levels 52 Event Sources list effect on event list 48 location in Events View 45 using 54 event state 49 See also event status event status icons 51 understanding 51 EventLog adapter 107 events acknowledging 77 annotating 75, 80 assigning to an individual 78 closing 79 copying event data 76 copying event information 76 declining ownership 78 error 96 event details 54 MC_ADAPTER_ERROR 96 MC_ADAPTER_START 96 MC_ADAPTER_STOP 96 performing operations 77 printing event information 76 reopening 79 reopening in event list 79 responding with an action 80 setting the priority 79 sorting 66 sorting fields 68 taking ownership 78 viewing details 54 events list adjusting column widths 55 current operator information 50 default columns 48 elements 48 location in Events View 45 organizing 57 refreshing 56 selecting the type to view 54 slot orders, editing 67 viewing 53 Events tab icons 128 menu commands 130 Events View configuring display settings 118 customizing display settings 118 described 44 illustrated 14, 44 location of elements 44 navigation pane 46 overview 13 subtab (Edit Configuration dialog box) 119 Explore Event Relationships icon 75 exploring relationships 75
Index
141
F
filter groups creating 64 deleting 65 renaming 65 filtering events, by severity 61 events, by slot name 60 events, overview 58 filters associating a slot order 68 creating global 62, 67 creating local 61 default 45, 59 deleting 64 editing 63 filter groups 64 global 58 local 61 organizing 64 severity quick filter 61 slot quick filter 60 using complex logic 63 firewall 36 floating a pane 116
G
General subtab (Impact Manager Info dialog box) 40 global filters 62, 67 Global Services icon 129 Global subtab (Edit Configuration dialog box) 37, 114
H
Help for events, configuration 123 for events, customizing 123 icon for event Help 124 viewing 124 viewing online 76 Help Info subtab 123
I
icons Acknowledge Event 77 cell 47, 128 cell group 47, 128 Close event 79 collector 47, 128 collector with hidden subcollectors (event group) 129
collector with secondary cell in standby mode 128 collector with visible subcollectors (event group) 128 collector with visible subcollectors (event group) and secondary cell in standby mode 128 Collectors tab 47 data class 130 Decline Ownership 78 disconnected cell 128 disconnected cell group 128 disconnected cell group with secondary cell in standby mode 128 Dynamic Data Editor tab 129 Edit Filters 61 event class (event management policy) 129 event group 128 event group tree node 128 event group with secondary cell in standby mode 128 Event Groups tab 47 event Help 124 Event Management Policies tab 129 event priority 52 event relations 49 event severity 52 event status 51 Explore Event Relationships 75 Global Services 129 Icon Search for locating file for new action button 125 MetaCollector 128 MetaCollector with secondary cell in standby mode 128 MetaCollectors tab 47 My Services 129 My Services subgroup 129 New Basic Filter 62 New Slot Order 66 policy 129 policy group 129 policy group folder 129 policy selector 129 policy selector group 129 Refresh 42 Reopen Event 79 secondary cell in standby mode 128 Set Priority 79 severity indicator 128 severity level indicator 47 severity quick filter 58 slot quick filter 58 subcollector in event group 129 subcollector in event group and secondary cell in standby mode 129 Take Ownership 78 icons versus text for columns in event list 119 image views illustrated 15, 71 understanding 70 viewing 72
142
Impact Manager Info dialog box Components subtab 40 General subtab 40 Workload subtab 40 Impact Managers subtab (Edit Configuration dialog box) 31 Information Display Selection tabs (Events View) 44 Infrastructure Management cell group 31 instance control 92 IP adapters instance control 92 IP Address cell connection property 36 icon 128 viewing event list 53 with secondary cell in standby mode icon 128 MetaCollectors tab (Events View navigation) 47 modifying slot orders 67 multihomed computer as the console 36 My Services icon 129 MyProduction cell group 31 MyTest cell group 31
N
Network Interface Card, connecting the console to 36 New Basic Filter icon 62 New Slot Order icon 66
J
Java Web Start application downloading 27 starting BMC Impact Explorer console 28 Java Web Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 26
O
online Help 124 Open event status icon 51 operations. See event operations, performing organizing events in the event list 57 filters 64
K
Keep Severity Color on Close check box 119 keyboard shortcuts for accessibility, BMC Impact Explorer 136 kill command 91
L
Line Color Severity check box 51, 119 local actions accessing results of 82 adding toolbar buttons for 124 responding to an event 81, 83 local filters 58, 61
P
parameters TraceFile 95 TraceFileCount 95 TraceLevel 95 parsing engine, described 19 passwords, changing 30 Pending Events indicator (Events View) 45 Perl interpreter, regular expression 20 policy icons group folder 129 policy 129 policy group 129 selector 129 selector group 129 printing event information 76 priority. See event priority product support 3 properties cell connection 34
M
Manager Group Status field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 manually refresh event list 56 map files contents of 20 described 19 MC_ADAPTER_ERROR event 96 MC_ADAPTER_START event 96 MC_ADAPTER_STOP event. 96 mcxactrl.pl command description 92 menu commands 130 MetaCollectors adding a cell 58 creating 57 described 16
Index
143
Q
Query size field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 quick filters severity 58 severity quick filter 61 slot quick filter 58, 60 quotation marks 117
R
Refresh Freq cell connection property 35 Refresh icon 42 refreshing the event list automatically 56 manually 56 Regular expressions,Perl interpreter 20 relations, event icons 49 remote actions accessing results of 81 responding to event 80 removing actions 126 filter group 65 renaming a filter group 65 Reopen Event icon 79 operation 77, 79 reopening events 79 results of a local action 82 of a remote action 81
S
service component maintenance mode, setting manually with a remote action 85 status, setting manually with a remote action 85 Services tab icons 129 menu commands 132 Services View illustrated 18 overview 17 Set Priority event operation 77, 79 icon 79 severity effect on color of collector 120 effect on event status icon 51 indicator 128 keeping color on close 119 level indicator (Events View navigation) 47, 52
quick filter 58 setting color in collector tree 120 setting color in event list 119 shortcut keys 136 slot orders associating with a filter 68 creating 66 described 48 editing 67 slot quick filter 58, 60 SMC Impact Events option of SMC Events filter 60 Information option of default filters 59 Status History Events option of SMC Events filter 60 SNMP (trap) adapter 21 sorting events creating new slot order 66 multiple columns 69 single column 68 standalone BMC Impact Explorer console described 25 starting on UNIX 26 starting on Windows 26 starting adapters 89 BMC Impact Explorer as Java Web Start application 28 BMC Impact Explorer from BMC Impact Portal 27 BMC Impact Explorer standalone console on UNIX 26 BMC Impact Explorer standalone console on Windows 26 starting Adapters using mcxactrl.pl 94 static Help 123 status affects color of collector 120 affects event count for collector 121 contribution to event count 120 event icons 51 of cell group 115 service component, setting manually with remote action 85 stopping adapters 91 string fields 117 String Limit field (Edit Configuration dialog box) 115 subgroups in My Services 129 Supervisor Information option of default filters 59 support, customer 3
T
Take Ownership event operation 77, 78 icon 78 technical support 3
144
Timeout cell connection property 35 toolbar adding action buttons to 124 deleting an action 126 reordering actions 126 TraceFile parameter 95 TraceFileCount parameter 95 TraceLevel parameter 95 tracing 95
U
user-defined adapters 21 using mcxactrl.pl 94
V
View Manager Info menu command 40 View Selection tabs Events View 44 Events View navigation 47 viewing cell performance data 40 cell properties 40 event details 54 event list 53 Help for a console window or dialog box 124 Help in console 124 image view 72 online Help 76 types of event lists 54
W
Web Start application, BMC Impact Explorer 26 widgets 70 Workload subtab (Impact Manager Info dialog box) 40
Index
145
146
Notes
*83756* *83756* *83756* *83756*

*83756*

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BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

Contacting BMC Software

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Outside United States and Canada

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Before contacting BMC

License key and password information

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC IX Events View

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC IX Events View

BMC Impact Explorer Events View

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC IX image View

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC Impact Explorer Windows event collectors

Event groups and image views

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC IX Services View

BMC IX Services View

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC IX Administration View

BMC Impact Explorer Services View

BMC IX Administration View

BMC Impact Event Adapters overview

BMC Impact Event Adapters overview

Each Adapter, regardless of type, consists of the following functions:

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC Impact Event Adapters

BMC Impact Event Adapters

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Event Adapters

Introduction to BMC Impact Explorer

BMC Impact Event Adapters

Perl EventLog Adapter for Windows

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

BMC IEA versus BMC IELA comparison

BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows (IELA)

Process Platform Windows Service name

Configuration location mcxa.conf file

BMC Impact Event Log Adapter for Windows

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

Before you begin

Before you begin

Starting BMC IX as a stand-alone application

For Microsoft Windows, choose

2 In Username, enter your logon ID.

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal

Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal

Before you begin

Starting BMC IX from the BMC Impact Portal

BMC Impact Solutions: Event Monitoring Operators Guide

Connecting to an authentication server

Connecting to an authentication server

BMC Impact Solutions 7.1 - Event Monitoring Operator's Guide - 83756

BMC Impact Solutions 7.1 - Event Monitoring Operator's Guide - 83756