NOI v1.4.1.2 was released at the end of last week (18th May 2018) and includes fix packs for Netcool/OMNIbus Core v8.1 (FP16), Netcool/OMNIbus Web GUI v8.1 (FP13) and Netcool/Impact v7.1 (FP13). Note, I’d also recommended the latest cumulative patch for Jazz for SM v1.1.3.1 is installed, CP06.
One of the most welcome feature enhancement is the inclusion of a configuration wizard for Event Analytics. Initial testing has been positive and hopefully it will open the door for greater adoption of the Event Analytics tools from NOI.
What’s Changed?
Historically, the base Event Analytics configuration required manual updates to be made to a text file with Netcool/Impact triggers to export/import the file. This was an error-prone method for making changes for Database connections, report fields, event categorisation definitions and event suppressions settings. Report field updates were particularly painful as additionally UI Provider configuration properties required manual updates and Policy output parameters needed to be added. To make matters worse, those changes had to be re-applied after a fix pack update.
The Event Analytics Configuration wizard is based in the Web GUI, accessed from the standard “Insights” folder. The wizard steps the administrator through connections to the Historical event database and ObjectServer, plus Report Fields, Event Pattern (Event Types) and Event Suppression definitions. As implied above, the Report Fields configuration have the potential to save administrators the most time, both during set-up and due to the additional site specific data than can be displayed in the reports. Below are some comments from testing the configuration options in that section.
Event Analytics Configuration Wizard
Report fields
There are three separate sections to the “Configure report fields” page that configure different report pages:
- Aggregate Fields: Fields configured here are directly available in the top-level reports for both related and seasonal events. Specifically, the view “Events” in the “View Related Events” page and the right-hand view in “View Seasonal Events”
- Historical report: This updates the “Historical Events” page accessed from the seasonal events report right-click menu.
- Instance report: The final section configures the related events columns displayed in the “Related Events Details” accessed from right-click menus in the “View Related Events” page
Event Analytics Configuration – Report Fields
SEVERITY or ORIGINALSEVERITY?
One of the first customisations I usually make to the seasonal report is to add the maximum “ORIGINALSEVERITY” to the report. By default, the seasonal report includes a maximum based on the “SEVERITY” column from the historical database. The “SEVERITY” column is continually updated with the latest value from the event in the ObjectServer, and so will represent the final Severity value for deleted events. For sampled events that is often “Clear”, based on the function of the “generic_clear” trigger. Displaying that “Clear” value is not helpful.
In the “Aggregate Section” of the new wizard, the definition for “Maximum Severity” can simply be updated to be based on the “ORIGINALSEVERITY”.
Severity or Original Severity?
Add One Column, See it in 2 reports
How many Netcool users haven’t added a custom columns to the ObjectServer alerts.status table? Those columns are invariably already in the Historical Event Database and often pertinent to the analysis of related and seasonal reports. Those custom columns are easily added to the various pages using drop-down menus, and neatly the aggregate fields defined can be applied to one or both of the related and seasonal reports (as demonstrated with the above “ORIGINALSEVERITY” column change). Previously this required multiple roll-up properties, multiple policy output parameters and UI configuration files.
One point to note when adding new columns, the default sizing is in Pixels and not Percentage (like the pre-defined columns). If you don’t align the sizing units you will likely end-up with unreadable data.
Column Position
The columns in each section can be rearranged simply using the Up/Down Top/Bottom options. Especially useful if you’ve added a custom column and much easier than moving the Policy Output Parameters!
Position columns
Execute Configuration and Restart Impact GUI?
After saving the configuration changes you’ll need to re-run the event analytics. Also, the first time I made a re-configuration via the wizard I had to restart the Impact GUI Server. Was this possibly due to the fact I’d previously made some configuration updates, before Netcool/Impact FP13 install, using the legacy method? The NOI v1.4.1.2 upgrade does indicate that the Event Analytics Configuration wizard must be run post upgrade, but doesn’t mention any subsequent component restarts.
Seasonal Report with updated columns
In summary…
It’s now even easier to set-up Event Analytics with NOI and importantly customise the reports for your environment, so get moving and make the most out of your NOI solution!
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