Patent ID: 8738760

Claim:
A method for supporting automated fault isolation, the method comprising: receiving at a service provider an alarm from a customer network indicating a fault within the customer network that includes one or more network elements, the customer network being monitored by the service provider, the service provider being remotely located from the customer network; retrieving one of a plurality of scripts for specifying a dialogue with the network elements by the service provider for data collection; transmitting a command from the service provider to the customer network according to the one script to obtain data from the network elements, wherein the data is utilized to determine the fault; determining, via automation rules applied by at least one processor, how the determined fault will be repaired; determining, via the at least one processor, whether to proceed with an automation process, based on a flag set in accordance with a customer preference; and generating a workflow event corresponding to the alarm for resolving the fault if, based on the flag, the automation process is determined to proceed, wherein resolution of the fault is automated according to the workflow event.