Abstract:
A common event format associated with unique index value is provided to allow a common structure to rules, regardless of from which system the message is originating. Messages coming from different sources into an enterprise manager are tokenized to contain essential information, and standardized into a common event format. Each token is then assigned an index, referred to as an alert index. This index may be a unique identifier that corresponds to a set of alerts having common token values or attributes, or a unique index for a particular alert. This alert index is then used to facilitate the identification and handling of the various events generated by various sources.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/369,017 filed on Apr. 1, 2002. 

   TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present application relates to computer system alerts and, more particularly, to a system and method for providing and processing events and alerts using alert indices for alerts generated in various computer systems. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Enterprise management generally refers to managing computing environment in an enterprise that includes a variety of computer platforms and applications. An enterprise management programs referred to herein as enterprise managers, typically include a number of software tools to perform functions such as monitoring databases, scheduling jobs, configuring various data in the enterprise, to manage the overall functions of the computing environment in an enterprise. In doing so, enterprise managers invariably consolidate and process messages and events that are communicated among the platforms, applications, and various tools running on the platforms. 
   One common problem that users and developers encounter while using enterprise management tools to consolidate enterprise messages is that the messages from different sources such as MVS, UNIX, Tandem, have different message syntax. Thus, while building rules in alert logic filter engines (“ALFE”), users and developers frequently fall into a trap of defining token names that are specific to the originating system. 
   These different naming conventions for similar types of tokens may raise many inherent problems when processing them. The different naming conventions from different sources also require high maintenance, especially with increasing amount of alerts coming into an enterprise manager. 
   Further, various alert messages from different systems having different formats make gathering of information and notifying appropriate parties difficult and extremely cumbersome. Different sources shown in  FIG. 1  are illustrative of such an example where the different sources communicate messages in different format using their respective names. 
     FIG. 1  illustrates various systems  102 ,  104 ,  106 ,  108 ,  110 ,  112 ,  114 ,  116 ,  118 ,  120  that communicate their alert messages to an enterprise manager, all in different formats. For example, event messages generated by one known event manager, connectPATROL conforms to the following format: 
 
   In this instance, the only tokens being used here are objectName and message. 
   In another example, Topaz 114 sends PEM alerts through SNMP 124, which are parsed by bmcMessageProcessor transformer in the following order: 
   As illustrated in the above examples, the formats of various messages shown above, as well as other message alerts such as ESQ and ITO, received in PEM, an enterprise manager have entirely different formats. In addition, as described above, each intermediary process may parse the messages differently. With increasing number of actionable alerts coming in, it becomes more and more difficult for the operators to manage, process, and handle alerts. Further, it becomes extremely difficult to automate and coordinate the alert handling and alert reporting processes. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   To overcome this problem, a common event format (“CEF”) designed to allow a common structure to rules, regardless of from which system or application the message is originating, has been implemented. Common event format includes a set of tokens, which contain essential information coming from different sources into an enterprise manager. For example, token “domainClass” may include the type of domain the alert is associated with, such as MVS and Solaris, while token “domain” may include the specific source of the alert such as MVSD and Apollo. Each token is then assigned an index, referred to as an alert index. This index may be a unique identifier that corresponds to a set of alerts having common token values or attributes or a unique index for a particular alert. 
   In another aspect, the indices assigned are used to coordinate alert reporting functionalities such as service views and notifications, both automatic and manual. In one aspect, indices may, for example, be assigned based on a business group originating the alerts regardless of the originating platforms. In this way, alerts may be grouped according to businesses that generate the alerts, facilitating event handling and reporting functionalities considerably. 
   Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  illustrates various systems that communicate their alert messages to an enterprise manager, all in different formats; 
       FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an overview of different phases involved in providing a common event format; 
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating the flow of events in one embodiment; 
       FIG. 4  shows and example of a service view web page; 
       FIG. 5  shows an example of an action table; 
       FIG. 6  shows an example of a view from which users may query the alerts received by the enterprise manager; 
       FIG. 7  illustrates an example of an alert index table; 
       FIGS. 8 and 9  illustrate directory information screen shots; 
       FIG. 10  is a diagram illustrating interaction and processing among different components in one embodiment; and 
       FIG. 11  is a flow diagram illustrating the common event format processing in one embodiment. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an overview of different phases involved in providing a common event format. At  202 , a listener or receiver listens for incoming alerts. In data normalization phase, alert messages are translated into a common message string. Normalization may be done by the enterprise manager server before the alert string reaches the enterprise manager, for example, through a data normalization transformer  204 . The data normalization transformer  204  typically gathers information such as the source, type, and status of a problem associated with an alert message. In data enrichment phase, a transformer  206 , for example, additional data associated with the alert message. These additional data added during the data enrichment phase will be describe in more detail hereinbelow. 
     FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating the flow of events in one embodiment. As briefly described with reference to  FIG. 2 , in message normalizing phase, the tokens such as OriginDateTime, OriginClass, OriginKey, OriginSeverity, Domain, ObjectClass, Object, Parameter, ParameterValue, and FreeText, for example, may be extracted from an incoming alert. 
   The following tables show examples of the tokens and their values that may be updated or assigned values during the normalization phase in one embodiment. It should be understood that the following tokens are described as examples only. For example, not all of the following tokens may be defined during this phase, or additional tokens may be defined during this phase. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               OriginDateTime 
                 
             
             
               Description 
               The date/time that the event occurred at the 
             
             
                 
               origin. 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Used in understanding the time at which the 
             
             
                 
               event occurred according to the local 
             
             
                 
               environment. 
             
             
               Format 
               In the same format as it comes in 
             
             
               Remarks 
               If the original date/time is present, then 
             
             
                 
               that may be used, otherwise the connecting 
             
             
                 
               agent (SPO, ESQ etc.) may add a date 
             
             
               Example 
               20010315 14:34:05 
             
             
               OriginClass 
             
             
               Description 
               The class of mid level manager that produces 
             
             
                 
               the alert 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Primarily used as selection criteria. 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               This may be a part of the enrichment process 
             
             
               Example 
               NNM; SPO; PATROL; AO 
             
             
               OriginKey 
             
             
               Description 
               A unique identification of the event or 
             
             
                 
               alert within the origin 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Event synchronization with the mid level 
             
             
                 
               manager. 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               1234567; ENUM87394 
             
             
               OriginSeverity 
             
             
               Description 
               The severity of the event as reported at the 
             
             
                 
               source 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To determine the severity of the PEM alert 
             
             
               Format 
               may be one character, numeric 
             
             
               Remarks 
               Range, 0–5 
             
             
               Example 
               See remarks 
             
             
               Domain 
             
             
               Description 
               The residence of the configuration item 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Used in map selectors, in the “restore on” 
             
             
                 
               condition and to pinpoint which system has 
             
             
                 
               the problem 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               This may server as the key in the enrichment 
             
             
                 
               process 
             
             
               Example 
               www2; rentcs01; RVAC 
             
             
               ObjectClass 
             
             
               Description 
               The category to which the object belongs. 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Gives an indication of the (lowest) 
             
             
                 
               abstraction layer (granularity) for which 
             
             
                 
               the events are reported. May be used in 
             
             
                 
               selector in the service views 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               This is equivalent to &lt;application&gt; in the 
             
             
                 
               PATROL alert. This may serve as a key in the 
             
             
                 
               enrichment process 
             
             
               Example 
               ROUTER; HUB; CPU; DISK; CICS-SUBSYSTEM; 
             
             
                 
               INTERFACE; MODEM; MQ-CHANNEL; 
             
             
                 
               MQ-QUEUE; PROCESS; TABLE 
             
             
               Object 
             
             
               Description 
               The affected component for which the event 
             
             
                 
               was generated 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To identify the affected component 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               Must uniquely identify the object within the 
             
             
                 
               domain. This is equivalent to &lt;instance&gt; in 
             
             
                 
               the PATROL event. This may serve as the key 
             
             
                 
               in the enrichment process 
             
             
               Example 
               C0t3d0s2; cpu1; filesystem; 
             
             
                 
               DatabaseName_TableName; 
             
             
                 
               MQ_QMGRNAME_MQQUEUE 
             
             
               Parameter 
             
             
               Description 
               Service management metric 
             
             
               Purpose 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               This is equivalent to &lt;parameter&gt; in PATROL 
             
             
                 
               alert 
             
             
               Example 
               CpuUtil; DISKUsage 
             
             
               ParameterValue 
             
             
               Description 
               The value associated with the parameter 
             
             
               Purpose 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               93%; 456 MB 
             
             
               FreeText 
             
             
               Description 
               Free form text field to further describe the 
             
             
                 
               condition being reported 
             
             
               Purpose 
               This may be used to store the original 
             
             
                 
               message is required 
             
             
               Format 
               Extracted from the original message 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               1hcbkp01 is Unreachable, Node may be Down! 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , listener or receiver  302   a ,  302   b ,  302   c , receives messages and a normalizing process, for example, one or more CEF translators  304   a ,  304   b ,  304   c , extracts the above described tokens and assigns an index to the alert. 
   In one embodiment, an alert is assigned an index during a monitoring request phase. For example, when a request to monitor a certain event is received, an index, monitoring rules and additional information for the event are set. The index may represent every type of alert that comes to an enterprise manager, and may be uniquely defined according to OriginClass, Origin, Domain, ObjectClass, Object, and Parameter tokens. An index number may be assigned as, for example, a next available numerical number starting at 1. 
   In one embodiment, the messages or extracted tokens are translated into common event format (“CEF”) before the messages reach PEM, such that the messages coming from different sources are converted into a standard format. For example, each element manager  302   a ,  302   b ,  302   c  connected to PEM communicates the messages in its own standard format. The CEF translator  304   a ,  304   b ,  304   c  receives these messages and extracts the following information from the message. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               OriginClass 
               The category of the monitoring tool that is 
             
             
                 
               sending the message. (e.g. PATROL, 
             
             
                 
               AutoOperator, SiteScope etc.) 
             
             
               Origin 
               The domain on which the monitoring tool 
             
             
                 
               resides. (e.g. Apollo or cabana fro PATROL, 
             
             
                 
               SCmon or SOmon for SiteScope, MVSA or MVS5 for 
             
             
                 
               AutoOperator etc.) 
             
             
               Domain 
               The host that the event or alert message 
             
             
                 
               refers to. 
             
             
               ObjectClass 
               The category to which the object belongs. 
             
             
                 
               (e.g. Router, Hub, CPU, FileSystem, Queue 
             
             
                 
               etc.) 
             
             
               Object 
               The affected component for which the event was 
             
             
                 
               generated. (e.g. router_name, hub_name, 
             
             
                 
               cpu_number, filesystem_name, queue_name etc.) 
             
             
               Parameter 
               Service management metric. (e.g. CPUUtil, 
             
             
                 
               DiskUsage, QueueDepth etc.) 
             
             
               ParameterValue 
               The value of the parameter. 
             
             
               Text 
               The message text 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   These values are stored in CEF tokens and passed on to the CEF pre-processor  306 . 
   Thus, CEF translators  304   a ,  304   b ,  304   c , receive an alert, CEF translators performs a lookup to, for example, in an alert index database table ( 700   FIG. 7 ), to assign an index to the received alert. Further actions in the event flow may then be based on this index field. 
   In data enrichment phase, additional information  308  may be added into the alert based on the index of the alert. The information may include a help reference number, a type of platform that the alert originated from, an on-call group for that alert, whether this alert should send out an auto page, etc. For example, in the enrichment phase, the following tokens may be assigned values for the alert: DomainClass, Action, HelpRef, ITMgtLayer, ITMgtProcess, ITMgtProcessState. The token “Action” defines the automation which is required of the alert. This includes notification, automatic corrective action, and automatic trouble ticket opening. The tokens ITMgtLayer, ITMgtProcess, ITMgtProcessState may be used for reporting functionalities. 
   The following are examples of the tokens and their values that may be assigned values during the enrichment phase. It should be understood that these tokens are described as examples only. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               CEFVersion 
                 
             
             
               Description 
               The version of Common Event Format which is 
             
             
                 
               followed 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To provide ‘room for growth’ or future 
             
             
                 
               versions 
             
             
               Format 
               CAPCEFV&lt;n&gt;R&lt;n&gt;M&lt;n&gt; 
             
             
               Remarks 
               V = Version, R = Release, M = Modification 
             
             
               Example 
               CAPCEFV010 
             
             
               Origin 
             
             
               Description 
               The component of process that is responsible 
             
             
                 
               for generating/issuing the event. In general, 
             
             
                 
               this is the mid level manager reporting the 
             
             
                 
               event 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To identify which mid level manager or 
             
             
                 
               application the event came from 
             
             
               Format 
               Any 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               SPOA; MVS5; KM-NAME; 
             
             
                 
               APPLICATIONNAME 
             
             
               OriginEventClass 
             
             
               Description 
               The event class as defined by the origin is 
             
             
                 
               applicable 
             
             
               Purpose 
               Event synchronization with the mid level 
             
             
                 
               manager. 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               11; MQ9845 
             
             
               DomainClass 
             
             
               Description 
               The class (i.e., platform type, network 
             
             
                 
               type) to which the domain belongs 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To identify the class of the domain, as well 
             
             
                 
               as how we can communicate back to it 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               This may be the part of the enrichment 
             
             
                 
               process, or a key in the enrichment process. 
             
             
               Example 
               OS390; TANDEM; SOLARIS; WinNT; TCPIP 
             
             
               Action 
             
             
               Description 
               Defines the kind of action to be taken for 
             
             
                 
               this particular alert 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To have a single trigger for every kind of 
             
             
                 
               automation 
             
             
               Format 
               Single character, numeric 
             
             
               Remarks 
               O = none; 1 = AutoPage; 2 = Email 
             
             
               Example 
               See remarks 
             
             
               ActionItem 
             
             
               Description 
               Additional info in case Action &gt; 0 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To be passed as parameter to the automation 
             
             
                 
               script 
             
             
               Format 
             
             
               Remarks 
               May be on-call group name for phone point 
             
             
                 
               triggers, or Email group tag for email 
             
             
                 
               triggers 
             
             
               Example 
               COMMSERV; MQONCALL 
             
             
               HelpRef 
             
             
               Description 
               Action table reference number 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To uniquely identify the action table entry 
             
             
                 
               for this alert 
             
             
               Format 
               One word, alphanumeric 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               RTD145 
             
             
               ClarifyTicket 
             
             
               Description 
               Clarify ticket number, if one has been 
             
             
                 
               opened on this alert 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To update the clarify case with changing 
             
             
                 
               status of the alert 
             
             
               Format 
               Number 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
             
             
               ITMgmtLayer 
             
             
               Description 
               The IT layer to which the alert pertains 
             
             
               Purpose 
               May be used as selector in service views 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
             
             
               Example 
               NETWORK; SERVER; OS; MIDDLEWARE; 
             
             
                 
               DATABASE; PROCESS; APPLICATION; 
             
             
                 
               USERS 
             
             
               ITMgmtProcess 
             
             
               Description 
               The main information technology (“IT”) 
             
             
                 
               management process which is monitored 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To identify the IT management discipline to 
             
             
                 
               which the event belongs. 
             
             
               Format 
               One word 
             
             
               Remarks 
               May be one of: CONFIGURATION; 
             
             
                 
               AVAILABILITY; CAPACITY; SECURITY; 
             
             
                 
               STORAGE; SCHEDULING; OUTPOUT 
             
             
               Example 
               See remarks 
             
             
               ITMgmtProcessState 
             
             
               Description 
               State of the ITMgmtProcess 
             
             
               Purpose 
               To express the desired state and to be used 
             
             
                 
               in the closure process of an event 
             
             
               Format 
               One word depending on the ITMgmtProcess 
             
             
                 
               (See remarks, underscored items represent the 
             
             
                 
               desired state) 
             
             
               Remarks 
               CONFIGURATION: KNOWN, UNKNOWN, 
             
             
                 
               CHANGED, ON, OFF, REMOVED, ERROR 
             
             
                 
               AVAILABILITY: AVAILABLE, 
             
             
                 
               UNAVAILABLE 
             
             
                 
               CAPACITY: NOMINAL, UNUSED, 
             
             
                 
               UNDERSUED, 
             
             
                 
               OVERUSED, EXCEEDED, FULL 
             
             
                 
               SECURITY: SECURE, INSECURE, 
             
             
                 
               VIOLATION 
             
             
                 
               STORAGE: OK, FAILED 
             
             
                 
               SCHEDULING: ENDED OK, 
             
             
                 
               ENDED_NOT_OK, 
             
             
                 
               WAITING_RESOURCES 
             
             
                 
               OUTPUT: PRINTED, PURGED, PAUSED 
             
             
               Example 
               See remarks 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   In one embodiment, the tokens which are added during the enrichment phase are defined during the monitoring request phase and these values may be stored in a database  308 , e.g., Sybase, indexed by the “index” token. In one embodiment, a CEF pre-processor  306  may add or associate the enrichment data to the received alert. 
   Thus, a CEF pre-processor  306 , for example, adds the following CEF tokens as enrichment data, to the alert. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               DomainClass 
               The class or platform to which the domain 
             
             
                 
                 
               belongs. (e.g. Solaris, NT, Cisco etc.) 
             
             
                 
               Action 
               Whether there is an automatic action 
             
             
                 
                 
               associated with the alert or not. (0 for no, 1 
             
             
                 
                 
               for yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsInMap 
               Whether the event appears on the service view 
             
             
                 
                 
               or not. (0 for no, 1 for yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsRecurring 
               Whether the event is recurring or not. For 
             
             
                 
                 
               recurring events, if the alert is already 
             
             
                 
                 
               active, then a new event simply increases the 
             
             
                 
                 
               count on the original alert. (0 for no, 1 for 
             
             
                 
                 
               yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsCorrelated 
               Whether there is a correlation rule defined 
             
             
                 
                 
               for the alert or not. (0 for no, 1 for yes) 
             
             
                 
                 
               (Note: Not yet implemented) 
             
             
                 
               HelpRef 
               Link to Action Table. 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtLayer 
               Business group affected. (e.g. RTD, E- 
             
             
                 
                 
               Commerce, GT8 etc.) 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtProcess 
               The process in the business group that is 
             
             
                 
                 
               affected. (e.g. Database, OS etc.) 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtProcess 
               The state of the business group process. 
             
             
                 
               State 
             
             
                 
               Message 
               Event messages rewording rules. 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   The alert is then forwarded to PEM  310  for distribution. 
   An enterprise manager, typically runs on a computer platform, receives and pulls messages from different sources and stores them in a database. PATROL Enterprise Manager (“PEM”) is one example of such product running on a Solaris platform, and which stores its messages in a Sybase database. PATROL and PEM are BMC products. PATROL resides on individual hosts and monitors different parameters for exceptions, and generates alert information, which PEM may gather. 
   An enterprise manager such as PEM gathers alert information or messages from many different sources such as HP OpenView ITO running in Unix environment, Network Node Manager running as Network components, PATROL running in Unix/Windows environment, ESQ running in Tandem environment, AutoOperator (“AO”) running in Mainframe environment, Single Point Operations (“SPO”) running in UNISYS environment, and SiteScope, Topaz, Keynote, whose processing is related to Internet sites and transactions. 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , PEM  310  receives the token having the index value and one or more added enrichment values. Upon receiving the token, PEM  310  may generate a new alert, update an existing alert or clear an old alert. PEM also may direct alerts to operator consoles and other PEM processes; display information on service effected on the operator console; run automatic operations in response to alerts; send out pager and e-mail notifications; and, open trouble tickets, for example, Clarify, for alerts. 
   In one embodiment, for example, in an event correlation phase, each alert is assigned a list of indices the alert may cause, or those that may cause this alert. Each alert thus may be a cause alert or an effect alert. An operator may be enabled to bring up an action table for alerts using a local automation based on the token “helpRef.” The HelpRef token is a link into different tables, such as an action table that provides actions to be performed when this alert occurs. This event correlation may be performed in the CEF preprocessor. 
   In one aspect, an alert may be shown on a service view  314  and specify which business groups are affected. Service view  314  is, for example, an information page presented to an operator  312  and may include various information regarding alerts and hyperlinks to other information. In one aspect, Service view  314 , for example, may link to a web front end to custom tables on the database that may be used to edit CEF custom tables, notification groups, blackout periods of alerts based on an index, and action items of alerts based on an index. 
   In one aspect CEF post-processor  316  may lookup automatic notification rules  318  associated with the alert index and perform notifications  320 , for example, using PhonePoint, Clarify, E-mail. The notification may also be presented by the Service view  314 . 
     FIG. 4  shows an example of a service view web page  400 . The page shows a number of business groups  402   a ,  402   b ,  402   c ,  402   d ,  402   e ,  402   f ,  402   g ,  402   i ,  402   j , in an enterprise, and which may be affected by an alert. When an alert is generated affecting a group, that group&#39;s icon or a button  404  may, for example, be highlighted or shown in a different color to show that an alert affecting that group is pending. The business groups that may be affected by various alerts may also be shown in a hierarchical directory format  406  on the Service View web page. In addition, the detailed information of the alert may be listed as shown at  408 . This information may include the index number, the date and time of the alert, and a brief text describing the text. 
   The service view entry may further be linked to an action table by an index of the alert, wherein clicking on the alert entry  408  opens the action table. In turn, clicking on action entries listed in the action table may automatically initiate the action. The actions may include contacting an operator or resource to handle the alert or automatically performing a problem solving process.  FIG. 5  shows an example of an action table  500 . Additional queries and reports may be generated, for example, by using a query web screen as shown in  FIG. 6 . This query screen  600  is web-based application that may be used to get a list of alerts received on the enterprise manager grouped by a IT management layer (a business group) or by domain, etc. The web-based query application also represents these alerts in form graphs and/or charts. Users, for example, may use this query screen  600  by selecting any one of the queries provided. 
   In one embodiment, a universal trigger executes the automation associated with the alert based on the action token. The information required for the action may be fetched from a database. For example, if it is e-mail notification, then the e-mail addresses may be fetched, if a clarify ticket needs to be opened, the severity and the queue may be fetched. In addition, reports may be generated automatically on a timely basis, for example, daily or weekly, via time initiated triggers in a desired format and may be sent to appropriate support group. 
   As described with reference to  FIG. 4 , Service View is a Windows based application which classifies the alerts into different business groups. Based on whether the IsInMap token is true or false, the alerts may be made to appear on the service view under a particular business group icon. IsInMap is a Boolean token, for example, to indicate whether to display the alert using the service view. When an alert pertaining to a particular group becomes active, the icon for that group changes color and the alert shows up on the bottom part of the screen. The operator at a management or control center may then acknowledge the alert and take appropriate or necessary actions. 
   As described with reference to  FIG. 5 , an action table  500  may comprise a database such as Lotus Notes/Domino that contains information on actionable alerts coming to the enterprise manager such as PEM. Each alert on the enterprise manager may have a link to the action table entry via a token, for example, “HelpRef” token. The token may be used to present this action table, for example, on a web browser, for example, from the service view display by clicking on a button or an entry. In one embodiment, more than one alert may be associated with an entry in the action table. Each action table entry includes a general description of the alert  504 , the on-call group information  502 , and the action steps  506  that an operator needs to take on receiving the alert. Based on the action table entry, an operator may initiate a page, and open or update trouble tickets for the alert from the web browser. 
   PhonePoint is an NT based application used by PEM to send out pager and phone notifications for alerts received on PEM. This paging notification may either be initiated manually by an operator through the service view or automatically as soon as the alert becomes active on PEM. The on-call person may need to call back into the Phone Point voice response unit to accept the alert. If the on-call person does not call back within a specific time, the notification may be automatically escalated to the next person in the group. 
   Star is an HTML front-end for an event dispatch system and is used to perform real-time pre-defined queries on the PEM alerts database. Queries may be performed on a particular alert, set of alerts, e.g., as defined by alert index, or a particular domain. A screen page may be displayed showing various statistics on the alerts received with hyperlinks to detailed information on the alert. 
     FIG. 7  illustrates an alert index table. In one embodiment, alert indices may be setup as set forth below. Alerts coming to an enterprise manager such as PEM are defined in the alert index table  700 , e.g., CEFAlertIndexTable, in order to be recognized as a valid alert. Alerts whose index is not defined in the index table may not be forwarded to the enterprise manager, PEM by the common event format (“CEF”) processes. Each monitoring tool such as processes residing on different platforms or systems that monitors events and alerts on respective systems may send alert messages. The messages may include information to be extracted into a set of tokens along with alert messages. These token information may include the following. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               OriginClass 
               The category of the monitoring tool that is 
             
             
                 
               sending the message. (e.g. PATROL, 
             
             
                 
               AutoOperator, SiteScope etc.) 
             
             
               Origin 
               The domain on which the monitoring tool 
             
             
                 
               resides. (e.g. Apollo or cabana fro PATROL, 
             
             
                 
               SCmon or SOmon for SiteScope, MVSA or MVS5 for 
             
             
                 
               AutoOperator etc.) 
             
             
               Domain 
               The host that the event or alert message 
             
             
                 
               refers to. 
             
             
               ObjectClass 
               The category to which the object belongs. 
             
             
                 
               (e.g. Router, Hub, CPU, FileSystem, Queue 
             
             
                 
               etc.) 
             
             
               Object 
               The affected component for which the event was 
             
             
                 
               generated. (e.g. router_name, hub_name, 
             
             
                 
               cpu_number, filesystem_name, queue_name etc.) 
             
             
               Parameter 
               Service management metric. (e.g. CPUUtil, 
             
             
                 
               DiskUsage, QueueDepth etc.) 
             
             
               ParameterValue 
               The value of the parameter. 
             
             
               Text 
               The message text 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Upon receiving an alert from the monitoring tool, the CEF translator extracts these tokens from the full message and performs a lookup to see whether the alert is defined in the index table  700 , e.g., CEFAlertIndexTable. The definition in the CEFAlertIndexTable is, for example, based on these tokens, e.g., Origin, Domain, ObjectClass, Object, and Parameter. Each token may have a wildcard, allowing match of any data. When an index is found for the alert in the index table, for example, by matching a rule in the look up table, the alert index for that definition may be added to the alert. The rule for matching an index, for example, may specify an exact match on some of the tokens and wildcard matches on others. Another rule may specify, exact matches on all the tokens. This alert index determined then is used for any further actions associated with this alert. Accordingly, in one aspect, the first step in setting up a new alert is to make sure that there is an alert index present in the definitions table for the five tokens. 
   If an index definition for the requested event is not found in the alert index table  700 , a new definition needs to be added. A new definition would be a new entry in the alert index table  700  and, for example, would include the combination of token values for the requested event assigned to a next available index number. 
   Once the alert index is known, the enrichment tokens for the alert may be defined. These tokens are: 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               DomainClass 
               The class or platform to which the domain 
             
             
                 
                 
               belongs. (e.g. Solaris, NT, Cisco etc.) 
             
             
                 
               Action 
               Whether there is an automatic action 
             
             
                 
                 
               associated with the alert or not. (0 for no, 1 
             
             
                 
                 
               for yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsInMap 
               Whether the event appears on the service view 
             
             
                 
                 
               or not. (0 for no, 1 for yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsRecurring 
               Whether the event is recurring or not. For 
             
             
                 
                 
               recurring events, if the alert is already 
             
             
                 
                 
               active, then a new event simply increases the 
             
             
                 
                 
               count on the original alert. (0 for no, 1 for 
             
             
                 
                 
               yes) 
             
             
                 
               IsCorrelated 
               Whether there is a correlation rule defined 
             
             
                 
                 
               for the alert or not. (0 for no, 1 for yes) 
             
             
                 
                 
               (Note: Not yet implemented) 
             
             
                 
               HelpRef 
               Link to Action Table. 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtLayer 
               Business group affected. (e.g. RTD, E- 
             
             
                 
                 
               Commerce, GT8 etc.) 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtProcess 
               The process in the business group that is 
             
             
                 
                 
               affected. (e.g. Database, OS etc.) 
             
             
                 
               ITMgtProcess 
               The state of the business group process. 
             
             
                 
               State 
             
             
                 
               Message 
               Event messages rewording rules. 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   If the new alert uses an action table entry that is already defined in the action table, the “HelpRef” for the action table is linked with the new alert. If the new alert has a new action table entry, the following information is provided to create a new action table entry. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               Title 
               Title of the action table entry 
             
             
                 
               OnCall group 
               OnCall group name as it appears in Athena 
             
             
                 
               Description 
               Description of the alert(s) linked to this 
             
             
                 
                 
               action table 
             
             
                 
               Action 
               Action steps that the operator needs to take on 
             
             
                 
                 
               receiving this alert 
             
             
                 
               Buttons 
               The list of buttons that need to be active on 
             
             
                 
                 
               the action table page. (Page Oncall, Open 
             
             
                 
                 
               Ticket, Send Email and Ping Machine) 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Based on the alert index, the alerts may be suppressed on an enterprise manager, for example, PEM, during a particular time frame. During a blackout period, the alerts specified are not processed by the enterprise manager. The following information may be provided to suppress the alert. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               AlertIndex 
               The AlertIndex of the alert 
             
             
                 
               Suppression Type 
               Daily or weekly 
             
             
                 
               DeactivateDay 
               If it&#39;s a weekly schedule, then the day of 
             
             
                 
                 
               the week when the alert needs to be 
             
             
                 
                 
               deactivated. 
             
             
                 
               DeactivateTime 
               Time of the day when the alert needs to be 
             
             
                 
                 
               deactivated 
             
             
                 
               ActivateDay 
               If it&#39;s a weekly schedule, then the day of 
             
             
                 
                 
               the week when the alert needs to be 
             
             
                 
                 
               activated. 
             
             
                 
               ActivateTime 
               Time of the day when the alert needs to be 
             
             
                 
                 
               activated 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   For alerts coming into the enterprise manager such as the PEM, the CEF post-processor may send out automatic notifications based on defined rules or an operator may initiate notifications based on the notification rules defined on PEM. To define notification rules, the following may be provided as applicable. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               AlertIndex 
               The AlertIndex of the alert 
             
             
               Severity 
               The alert severity for which the 
             
             
                 
               notifications need to be sent. (One of 
             
             
                 
               critical, major, minor, warning, 
             
             
                 
               informational and clear) 
             
             
               Auto 
               1 if this is an automated action or 0 if this 
             
             
                 
               is a user-initiated action 
             
             
               Delay 
               Time in seconds for which the alert needs to 
             
             
                 
               be active before the notification is sent out 
             
             
               GroupName 
               Group name of the on call group as is appears 
             
             
                 
               on Athena 
             
             
               FYI GroupName 
               Group Name as it appears on Athena for the 
             
             
                 
               FYI page 
             
             
               Email Address 
               If applicable, the internet email id(s) for 
             
             
                 
               E-Mail notification 
             
             
               Queue Name 
               If applicable, then the Clarify queue to 
             
             
                 
               which the ticket should be dispatched 
             
             
               Call Type 
               If applicable, the call type of the Clarify 
             
             
                 
               ticket 
             
             
               Clarify Severity 
               If applicable, the severity of the Clarify 
             
             
                 
               ticket 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Notifications may include phone calls, paging, e-mails, or any other notifications methods to a system or a person responsible for handling the alerts. More than one notification rules may be defined for an alert index, resulting in multiple notifications. 
   In embodiment, on-call groups may define and maintain their own call group information on an application such as Athena, and automatically propagate that information to a paging application such as PhonePoint. Athena is a web-based application that list information such as contact information for operators or employees of a company. 
   PhonePoint, for example, receives on-call group information from, for example, Athena. As soon as a person or a group is added, updated or deleted on Athena, the information is replicated on PhonePoint. The information on Athena is stored in a format different than PhonePoint. 
   Athena documents may be mapped to PhonePoint documents as follows. Athena has two types of contact resources, person and resource. A Person is an associate who has fixed contact information. A resource is a contact that keeps passing from one associate to another, for example, primary on-call pager or cell phone. The definition of both these documents may be same on PhonePoint. 
   In one embodiment, when defining a person on Athena, up to four contact numbers may be defined. These are pager number, office phone, cell phone number and home phone. For each person or resource, one of these may be defined on PhonePoint as the primary contact method. This is defined by the “Primary Contact Mode” radio button on the “Edit document” screen. The screen shot  800  of this Athena page is shown in  FIG. 8 . 
   These persons and resources may be added to an on-call group roster. This is done by either defining a new group or editing an existing group. The “Escalation time” defines the time period in minutes before the page or call is escalated to the next person in the roster.  FIG. 9  shows a screen shot  900  of Athena for defining new persons. For the example shown in the following page, the escalation time has been set to 15 minutes. The primary on-call is the resource “PRPager PEM-SerManT”, the secondary on-call is “Navjot Marwaha,” so on and so forth. If the primary on-call does not call back into PhonePoint within 15 minutes of the notification, the call is escalated and the secondary on-call is notified of the alert. 
   When a new alert is set up, an on-call group responsible for handling the alert may expect to be notified when the alert becomes active. As explained above, the notification is typically based on the rules set up with the new alert. This immediate notification ensures that problems are detected and fixed with a minimum downtime. Also, daily reports run on all actionable alerts aid in a long-term study on these alerts to help identify root cause of the various problems and correlations between different configuration items. 
   When an alert becomes active, it appears on the service view. At this time, two processes may occur simultaneously, automated and user-initiated. In case of automated notifications, the CEF post-processor sends a request to an application equipped to handle sending out pages, for example, PhonePoint. At the same time, the alert appears on the service view. The operator may acknowledge the alert, which updates the “Acknowledge” field of the alert with the current time. The operator then may bring up the action table for the alert and carry out the actions as described in the action table. These actions may include verifying the auto-notification, initiating a notification or additional house keeping before sending out notifications. 
   In one embodiment, each alert may include a set of tokens in addition to the alert text, which store additional information for the alert. These tokens are described below. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               Alert ID 
               The alert number on PEM 
             
             
               Text 
               The alert text as it will appear on the 
             
             
                 
               service view and pager notifications. 
             
             
               Severity 
               The alert severity as classified by the 
             
             
                 
               source of the alert 
             
             
               TimeReceived 
               Time the alert was received on PEM 
             
             
               Acknowledged 
               Time alert was acknowledged by IM operator 
             
             
               Assigned 
               Time PhonePoint sent out notification to the 
             
             
                 
               support group 
             
             
               Accepted 
               Time the alert was accepted by the on call 
             
             
                 
               group 
             
             
               Closed 
               Time the alert was closed on PEM 
             
             
               cefAction 
               &lt;IsInMap&gt;: :&lt;Action&gt;: :&lt;HelpRef&gt; 
             
             
               cefAlertIndex 
               The Alert Index of the alert 
             
             
               cefDomain 
               &lt;DomainClass&gt;: :&lt;Domain&gt; 
             
             
               cefITMgt 
               &lt;ITMgtLayer&gt;: :&lt;ITMgtProcess&gt;: :&lt;ITMgtProcess 
             
             
                 
               tate&gt; 
             
             
               cefObject 
               &lt;ObjectClass&gt;: :&lt;Object&gt; 
             
             
               cefOrigin 
               Tokens specific to the source of the alert 
             
             
               cefParameter 
               &lt;Parameter&gt; 
             
             
               cefParameterValue 
               &lt;ParameterValue&gt; 
             
             
               Comments 
               Text field which can be used to add user 
             
             
                 
               comments to the alert. It is also used by 
             
             
                 
               automation to log the progress of 
             
             
                 
               automation. 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   PhonePoint notifications notify an operator by, for example, sending a page. The page received by an on-call person, for example, may have the following format:
     PEM #&lt;alert_number&gt; (&lt;severity&gt;)&gt; &lt;alert_text&gt;: Call 270–1540: &lt;date —     Or, for an informational page:   PEM FYI#&lt;alert_number&gt; (&lt;severity&gt;) &gt; &lt;alert_text&gt;: &lt;date_time&gt;   

   The maximum length of the page may be defined, for example, as 200 characters and depending on the length of &lt;alert_text&gt;, may be truncated. On initiating the alert, PhonePoint updates the “Assign” field of the alert with the current time. 
   On receiving this alert, the on-call person&#39;s first action may be to call back into PhonePoint, for example as specified on the page, to accept or reject the page. If the primary on-call does not respond to PhonePoint, then the notification is escalated to the next person/resource in the group definition. 
   On dialing into PhonePoint, the on-call person is prompted to enter a user ID and a password. Once the user logs in, PhonePoint goes through the alert numbers that are assigned to the user. For each of these alerts, the on-call person is given an option to accept or reject the alert. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               Accept 
               Support person acknowledges the alert and is 
             
             
                 
                 
               working on the incident. Support person provides 
             
             
                 
                 
               an update to Operator within 30 minutes of 
             
             
                 
                 
               accepting the page. 
             
             
                 
               Reject 
               Support person rejects the alert and is not 
             
             
                 
                 
               working on the incident. Support person 
             
             
                 
                 
               immediately notifies Operator providing an 
             
             
                 
                 
               explanation for rejecting the alert. 
             
             
                 
                 
               REJECTED alerts causes an automatic escalation of 
             
             
                 
                 
               paging based on the defined escalation criteria of 
             
             
                 
                 
               the support group. 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   When an alert is accepted, PhonePoint updates the Accepted field of the alert with the current time. The actions taken by PhonePoint may be also added to the comments field of the alert. 
   E-mails may be sent out automatically or initiated manually from the service view on receiving an alert. The e-mail is sent from a designated domain address with a designated subject, for example, “Event Alert.” The body of the e-mail message may include: 
   Alert Number: 11601279 
   Alert Index: 0200100000 
   Alert Text: SOmon: Link is inactive 
   Time Received: Feb. 14 2002 9:42:58:866AM 
   CEF Tokens: 
   CEF Action: 0::1::SiteScope 
   CEF Domain: N/A::N/A 
   CEF Object: SiteScope Mail Link::SOmon 
   CEF Parameter: HeartBeat 
   CEF ParameterValue: Inactive 
   CEF Origin: SOmon 
   CEF IT Management Layer: N/A::N/A::N/A
         This is an automatic notification from PEM. Please do not reply to this E-Mail.   Please contact SerManT Integration Team if you do not wish to receive this E-Mail.       

   The alerts on PEM may be used to open trouble tickets, for example, Clarify trouble tickets, manually or through automation. These tickets may be opened with the title:
         PEM #&lt;alert_number&gt; (&lt;PEM_host&gt;): &lt;First 50 characters of the alert text&gt;       

   Trouble tickets typically address one or more problems. 
   The full alert text may be added to the case description along with the time that the alert was received. The case may be further updated with everything that is added to the alert comments on PEM automatically. 
   In one embodiment, an operator may run daily, weekly, and monthly reports on PEM alerts received during that period along with statistics about the average times taken to resolve the issue. Study of these reports over a period of time may help the support group to find root-cause problems and refine the alert thresholds. 
   Quick pre-formatted reports may also be performed on “Star,” the HTML front end to the event handler. Information may be gathered about a particular alert, an alert index or a particular domain or host. The report provides information about the occurrence of alerts in the past, for example, 10 days, the distribution by severity, average times taken to respond to the alert and resolve the issue and the list of alerts. 
   As described above, alert tokens are sent by various monitoring tools, e.g., via following token values: AlertText; OriginClass; Origin; Domain; ObjectClass; Object; Parameter; Parameter Value. In addition, alert enrichment information may be sent by various monitoring tools, e.g., via following token values: DomainClass; Action; IsInMap; IsRecurring; ITMgtLayer; ITMgtProcess; ITMgrProcessState. ITMgrProcessState, for example, may have values such as critical, major, minor, warning, informational, and clear, to indicate the condition of the alert. Further, the monitoring tool may send reworded alert messages, the alert index if known, and a link to an action table, or “helpRef.” 
   Action table definitions may be sent by a monitoring requester, for example, by sending information relating to action table title; on-call group name; action table description; action steps; whether to activate paging, e-mail notification, open ticket, ping machine; and “HelpRef.” 
   Notification rules may be defined by using the following information sent by various monitoring tools. Alert information used in defining notification rules may include alert index, severity, delay in unit of time, and whether to automate. Paging information used in defining notification rules may include names of one or more groups to be paged. E-mail information includes e-mail address, and trouble ticket information includes queue name, call type, and severity. Blackout schedule information may include schedule type, i.e., whether to schedule the blackout weekly, daily, etc. Blackout schedule information additionally may include alert index, deactivate day, deactivate time, activate day, and activate time. Alert index refers to the alert being blacked out, the deactivate day and time refers to the time to begin the blackout and the activate day and time refers to the time to resume the notifications for the alert. 
     FIG. 10  is a diagram illustrating interaction and processing among the components in the present system in one embodiment. A  1002   a , B  1002   b , C  1002   c  monitoring tools send alert messages in their own standard format. These monitoring tools are, for example, application programs or daemon processes running on different systems or platforms. One or more translator component, CEFTransA  1004   a , CEFTransB  1004   b , CEFTransC  1004   c , for example, translate these alert messages into a standard or common event format (“CEF”) using tokens. Descriptions for these tokens were provided above. 
   CEFTransA  1004   a , CEFTransB  1004   b , CEFTransC  1004   c , also perform searches on the index table to determine if an index exists for this alert. A match, for example, is performed on the token values and predefined rules. If found, an index for the alert is retrieved, and subsequent processing on this alert is performed using this index. Although shown as three separate translators for each sources, one translator that translates messages from all sources may be used. 
   CEFProcessor  1006  uses the alert index to determine enrichment rules or data associated with the index. The enrichment rules or data provide information on the business group affected by the alert, the machine and domain class originating the alert, links to an action table, this alert and any related alerts to be shown in Service View, and whether this alert is automatic or recursive. 
   CEFTransactionsD  1008  is a daemon process that monitors the database  1010  and notifies the other processes of change in the database tables. The database, for example, may be a Sybase Database. The tables monitored may include, for example, the alert index table and enrichment data table. 
   CEFBlackoutsD  1012  is a daemon process that monitors incoming blackout data, and activates or deactivates the alert for the requested duration. Activation and deactivation, for example, may be performed by changing a boolean value of a blackout flag in the alert index table or any other table. 
   EHD  1014  is an event handler daemon that may be a part of an enterprise manager, for example, the PEM. EHD  1014  receives tokenized alerts from the CEFProcessor  1006  and sends the alerts to CEFNotificationD  1016  or a Map process  1018 . CEFNotificationD  1016  receives automatic alerts from the EHD  1014  and activates a Trigger  1020  for automatic notifications such as e-mail or paging. Map  1018  is a view presented to an operator, for example, listing the alerts and affected business group.  FIG. 4  is a Service View screen shot that shows an example of a map. From the map  1018 , an operator may activate an action by, for example, clicking on the alert. 
   An ActionTable  1022  may be opened when an operator clicks on the alert from the map  1018 . The operator then may further activate the actions specified in the ActionTable  1022 , for example, by clicking on appropriate buttons or entries. CEFActionD  1024  is a daemon process that receives the signal to act when an operator clicks on an action specified in the ActionTable  1022 . CEFActionD  1024  then notifies EHD  1014 , which activates a Trigger  1020  for notifications such as e-mail or paging. Using an alert index for accessing into these tables and daemon process simplifies the alert processing coordination among disparate systems, platforms, and business groups. 
   CEFStatisticsD  1026  is a daemon process that monitors the database  1010  and provides various statistics and history on alert data. These statistical data may be shown via a web browser  1028 . 
   As described above, generally the action table for an alert may be made available to the operator on the click of a button. Each alert may carry a help reference number which may be used to link it to an action table entry in a database. The action table may be HTML based, and may include hyperlinks to related documents for further investigation. 
   Further, as described above, an incoming alert event may be made to automate the opening of a trouble ticket, for example, initiated through a user-initiated automation. It may be further made to track/update the trouble ticket with information such has who was paged on the issue, when they were paged and when the alert was cleared on the enterprise manager. 
   CEF may considerably reduce the maintenance required on the enterprise manager. Updating maps or service views would not be so cumbersome. With simplified SQL selector statements, an event handler daemon (“EHD”) may run much more smoothly. Triggers include a paging application such as PhonePoint that may further be consolidated into a single trigger, with the on-call group information stored in the alert itself. 
     FIG. 11  is a flow diagram  1100  illustrating the common event format processing in one embodiment. At  1100 , mid level managers such as the monitoring tools residing in various platforms send alert messages. At  1102 , the message is normalized, for example, by extracting necessary information from the message and formatted into a standard format or a token. An index is also assigned to the standardized token. At  1106 , additional information is added to the standardized token. At  1108 , during event correlation, each alert is assigned a list of indices the alert may cause, or those that may cause this alert. At  1110 , EHD receives tokenized alerts, and updates database  116  appropriately. At  1112 , Active Alert Display (“AAD”) displays, for example, on an operator display terminal, the active alerts in the EHD. At  1114 , action table may be accessed by the AAD in a similar manner that a service view application accesses and uses the table. 
   At  1118 , a web front end to the custom tables on the database may be provided to allow operators to edit CEF custom tables, notification groups, blackout periods of alerts based on an index, and action items of alerts based on an index. At  1120 , a universal trigger is activated to initiate automatic notifications such as e-mail  1122 , corrective actions  1124 , or paging  1126 . 
   The system and method disclosed may be implemented and run on a general purpose computer. The Internet and the World Wide Web have been used as an example of a communication medium, for example, for presenting alert information to operators. The communication network and presentation medium, however, is not limited only to the Internet or a web browser. The system and method disclosed may be utilized in connection with LAN, WAN, wireless, and any other communication medium and network. 
   The embodiments described above are illustrative examples of the present invention and it should not be construed that the present invention is limited to these particular embodiments. Various changes and modifications may be effected by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.