Patent ID: 7516208

Claim:
A method for providing an improved network monitoring system, the network monitoring system comprising an event database for storing event data representing events occurring on the network, the event data being gathered by a plurality of monitoring devices located at a plurality of different, remote locations on the network, the method comprising: allowing users to insert one or more triggers into the event database, the triggers automatically initiating a programmed response at the detection of an event including gathered event data prior to insertion of the gathered event data into the event database, the event is one of a primitive event, a database event or a temporal event; distributing the event database to a plurality of remote network locations, wherein each remote network location stores a local table containing event data generated at the remote location and one or more replica tables containing event data generated at other remote locations, and wherein a union of the local and replica tables is generated to form a combined event database at the remote location; and using triggers and local and replica table unions during delivery of event data to users of the network monitoring system wherein the local and replica tables update one another when the event data of one of said tables changes.