FACILITY DESCRIPTION
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Contents
2 Overview 3
3 Description 7
3.1 Alarm Status Matrix 7
3.2 Alarm List Viewer 10
3.3 Alarm Log Browser 14
3.4 Commands for Searching Alarms 17
3.5 Alarm Status Viewer 17
Glossary 21
Reference List 23
• Purpose
• Target groups
• Prerequisites
• Typographic conventions
1.1 Purpose
This document describes the following application components within the Fault
Manager:
1.3 Prerequisites
It is assumed that the user of this document:
2 Overview
It is possible to view the alarms with the Alarm Viewer and the Alarm Status
Viewer.
The purpose of the Alarm Status Viewer is to give a graphical overview of the
current alarm situation in the supervised telecommunications network.
The Alarm Status Viewer presents the current alarm status in the GNIP
(Geographical and Logical Network Information Presentation) framework, which
provides both maps showing each managed object at its geographical position,
and views showing the logical relation between managed objects.
The Alarm Viewer consists of three applications with graphical user interfaces:
With the Alarm Status Matrix, you can overview the current alarm situation
in a network in a compressed view. The Alarm Status Matrix is described in
Section 3.1 on page 7.
With the Alarm List Viewer, you can view details of the current alarms, also
handle these alarms and search the alarm log. The Alarm List Viewer is
described in Section 3.2 on page 10.
With the Alarm Log Browser, you can search for specific alarms in the alarm
log and view details and statistics of these alarms. The Alarm Log Browser is
described in Section 3.3 on page 14.
Current alarms
Fault Manager
Kernel Log of all alarms
Network
generating
alarms
With the commands for searching alarms, you can also search for specific
alarms in the alarm log and view details and statistics of these alarms. The
commands for searching alarms are described in Section 3.4 on page 17.
User
Alarm Viewer
Network
generating
alarms
Figure 2 The Alarm Viewer In Its Context
3 Description
The Alarm Status Matrix is the starting point for alarm supervision. It displays
the current status for a network or a part of a network. The Alarm Status Matrix
shows the alarm status for a number of objects in a space efficient matrix. The
user is notified when any change occurs in the alarm status of an object.
By default the matrix consists of nine cells (three rows and three columns).
Rows and columns can be added manually. Each cell can contain a managed
object or group, viewed in detailed view mode or compact view mode. See
the figure below.
Unacknowledged Alarms
Active Alarms
Figure 4 Managed Object In The Matrix In Detailed View Mode With Default
Configuration
A managed object in compact view mode shows only the highest severity level
of the alarms. See the figure below.
Unacknowledged Alarms
Object Symbol
Object Name
Active Alarms
Figure 5 Managed Object In The Matrix In Compact View Mode With Default
Configuration
• Toolbar
• Alarm Information
• Object Information
• Notification
• Column Width
• Alarm List Viewer, where the user can see details about current alarms and
acknowledge alarms, see Section 3.2 on page 13.
• Alarm Log Browser, where the user can search among all alarms in the
alarm log, see Section 3.3 on page 16.
3.1.4 Synchronization
Normally the Fault Manager continuously receives alarm information from the
managed objects. The following situations require that a synchronization is
ordered:
• The alarm list in the Fault Manager might differ from the alarm list in the
managed object, for example, after a link fault.
• Mailing, printing, storing, and copying alarm information, see Section 3.2.7
on page 13
The Alarm List Viewer window shows the alarms which have not been
both acknowledged and cleared from one or several objects in the
telecommunications network. The Alarm List Viewer window consists of one
or several List Frames. Every List Frame can display alarms from different
managed objects. By using filters, the user can specify which kind of alarm is
shown in each Alarm List. For example, the user can have unacknowledged
alarms in one Alarm List and acknowledged alarms in another Alarm List.
Menu bar
Toolbar
Figure 6 Alarm List Viewer With Two List Frames Showing Alarms From Two Different
Managed Objects
• Number of Alarms
• Alarm Severity
• Update Status
• Filters
• Toolbar
• Previous alarm, that is, the alarm which has been replaced by the current
alarm. Repeated alarms and alarm clearings have previous alarms.
• Other related alarms, for example, the alarms which are correlated with the
current alarm by the Fault Management Expert (FMX) application.
If the related alarms are related to yet other alarms, these can also be displayed.
If an alarm has been acknowledged by mistake, a user with the proper authority
can undo the acknowledgement. When undoing an alarm acknowledgement,
the time and user identity are added to the alarm information.
The user can add comments to the alarms. Together with the comment, the
time and user identity are added to the alarm information. The Comment Entry
field is shared by all List Frames.
• Expanded format, the alarm attributes shown in the Expanded Alarm area
The Alarm List Viewer has a predefined interface to the Alarm Log Browser,
where the user can search among all alarms in the alarm log.
There is also an interface from the Alarm List Viewer towards the ALEX library.
The search result is displayed in an Alarm Log List. The Alarm Log List is
similar to the Alarm List except it has a grey background and is static, that
means it's a snapshot from when the search was initiated and will not be
updated with any incoming alarms.
The user can mail, print, store and copy the alarms from the Alarm Log List.
• View the search result as individual alarms, see Section 3.3.3 on page 16
• View the search result as alarm statistics, see Section 3.3.4 on page 17
• A wizard interface
• A conventional interface
With the wizard interface, the user guided step by step when specifying which
alarms to be searched for and how the search result is presented. With the
conventional interface, the user can specify which alarms to be searched for
and how the search result is presented on a number of tabs.
the search by applying filters. Alarms from the specified managed objects
and time interval, matching at least one of the applied filters, are included in
the search result.
3.3.2.1 Filters
Each filter can be a combination of alarm attribute values. For most alarm
attributes, the alarm attribute values can be chosen in a list. If an attribute value
is a text string, you can use the wildcard characters ‘*’ (matches zero or more
characters) and ‘?’ (matches one character).
• Expanded, that is, individual alarms are displayed with each alarm attribute
on one row.
• Tab separated, that is, individual alarms are displayed with each alarm
attribute separated by the <TAB> character. This format is suitable for use
in spreadsheet programs.
• Standard alarm text, that is, individual alarms are displayed in a format
standardised within the Fault Manager.
The example below shows individual alarms, displayed in the tab separated
format. The alarms are primarily sorted on time, with the oldest alarm on
top, secondarily on severity, with the most severe alarm on top and thirdly
on object name.
When specifying which alarms to be searched for, the user specifies the
time interval and the managed objects of interest. The user can further limit
the search by specifying filters. Alarms from the specified time interval and
managed objects, matching at least one of the specified filters, are included in
the search result. Each filter can be a combination of alarm attribute values. All
alarm attributes can be used for filtering.
• Managed objects
• Alarm status
• New alarms
• Supervision status
• Synchronization status
The figure below shows how the Alarm Status Viewer presents the alarm status
in the GNIP Viewer window.
• Presentation functions
The presentation functions concerns how the alarm status and other information
is presented on the screen. The user can select the following:
• Which objects are displayed (all objects, only objects with alarms, or only
objects with not acknowledged alarms)
• How not acknowledged alarms are indicated in the alarm status symbols
The object handling functions concerns the selected object. The user can do
the following:
• Start the Alarm List Viewer for any object, provided this application is
installed. With the Alarm List Viewer, the user can see details about current
alarms, and acknowledge alarms.
• Start the Alarm Log Browser for any object, provided this application is
installed. With the Alarm Log Browser, the user can access all alarms
in the alarm log.
• View the contents of any management group, for example, to see from
which of the group members an alarm comes.
The system administrator can do the following to customize the Alarm Status
Viewer:
• Localize the displayed object names. Each managed object has a name
in Latin characters in the information model, but the name on the label
displayed together with an object can be translated to the characters of
any language.
• Define different symbol layers for different object types. The reason to have
more than one symbol layer for the objects is to provide more flexibility, as
the user then can select which object types are displayed.
If other symbols are desired than the standard symbols provided by the Alarm
Status Viewer, new symbols can be created with the symbol editor included in
the GNIP application.
Glossary
Reference List
[2] OSS Library Typographic Conventions, 1/154 43-AOM 901 017/4 Uen