Patent ID: 8365190

Claim:
A method comprising: providing a message identifier of a first event to a correlation engine, the correlation engine configured to correlate the first event to one or more second events according to a predetermined correlation technique; receiving message identifiers of the second events from the correlation engine; generating a correlated message identifier for the first event based on the message identifier of the first event and on the message identifiers of the second events; and, outputting the correlated message identifier for the first event; wherein the first event is directly correlated to all the second events, such that none of the second events is correlated to any other second event, generating the correlated message identifier for the first event is based directly on the message identifier of the first event and directly on the message identifiers of the second events; and wherein generating the correlated message identifier for the first event comprises: concatenating the message identifier of the first event and the message identifiers of the second events, resulting in a concatenation; determining a hash of the concatenation; setting a first predetermined number of bits of the correlated message identifier for the first event equal to a predetermined number of bits of the hash of the concatenation; setting a second predetermined number of bits of the correlated message identifier for the first event to denote that the first event is directly correlated to all the second events such that none of the second events is correlated to any other second event; and, setting a third predetermined number of bits of the correlated message identifier for the first event to denote the predetermined correlation technique employed by the correlation engine.