14 Managing and Configuring EDRs, CDRs and Alarms

This chapter describes how to configure and manage Event Data Records (EDRs), Charging Data Record (CDRs), and Alarms for your Oracle Communications Marketing and Advertising installation.

Basic information about the status of the server is created through the server's internal event mechanism. An event is fired at designated times as the server functions, for example, whenever a request crosses module boundaries, specific methods are called, or exceptions are thrown. This event information is sent to the EDR Service, where an XML-based filter processes the events, separating them into types. The filters can also be used to transform the data in the original event, including adding other useful information.

There are three built-in filters that produce three distinct types of data: EDRs, CDRs, and Alarms. After the information has been processed by the filters, it is delivered to type-specific listeners. This event-based information can also be published to a standard JMS topic and delivered to any JMS-based external listener, which can be anywhere on the network.

EDRs document basic functional information. Simple EDRs are distributed to listeners, but not persisted in the database.

CDRs document information needed to charge for services. You can choose to persist CDRs to the database using the EDR Service configuration panel.

Alarms are produced by unexpected system events that may require corrective action. You can choose to persist alarms to the database using the EDR Service configuration panel.

This chapter focuses on aspects of these facilities as they relate to Marketing and Advertising. The mechanism itself was originally developed for Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper.

For a complete explanation of EDRs, CDRs and alarms in that context, see "Managing and Configuring EDRs, CDRs and Alarms" in Oracle Communication Services Gatekeeper System Administrator's Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_edr.htm#i1124350

EDRs

There are two types of configuration associated with EDRs: changes to the XML EDR configuration file, which is where the type filters are defined, and changes to the EDR Service itself.

EDR Configuration File

The Marketing and Advertising installation comes with a default set of descriptors (filters) that define what constitutes plain EDRs, CDRs and alarms:

For many users, the standard settings should be sufficient. However you can view and edit the default configuration from the Administration console:

1. In the Domain Structure panel of the Administration console, expand the OCSG item.

2. Select EDR Configuration.

   The default EDR descriptors appear in the right panel.

For information about how to edit these descriptors, see the "EDR categories and XML markup" section in Oracle Communication Services Gatekeeper System Administrator's Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_edr.htm#i1124350

Note:

These descriptors include information for all aspects of Services Gatekeeper, even those that are not available in the modified version of the software that is distributed as the delivery mechanism for Marketing and Advertising.

EDR Service

To make changes to the EDR Service itself, for example, to store CDRs in the database, use the EDR Service panel:

1. In the Domain Structure panel of the Administration console, expand the OCSG item.

2. Select ServerName -> Container Services -> EdrService.

For information on attributes and operations available in this panel, see the "Reference: Attributes and Operations for EDRService" section in Oracle Communication Services Gatekeeper System Administrator's Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_edr.htm#i1124350

CDRs

You define what constitutes a CDR using the same mechanism used to define EDRs, the EDR Configuration panel. Using the Administration console, you can view a filtered list of CDRs, based on a number of criteria.

You can also set up the CDRtoDiameter service as a mechanism to prepare for the transfer of CDR-based information via Diameter Rf to Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) or to other Diameter Rf based billing systems.

CDR Display

To view CDRs in the Administration console:

1. In the Domain Structure panel of the Administration console, expand the OCSG item.

2. Select CDRs.

The CDRs panel appears.

For information about the fields in this panel, see Table 3-2 in the "Operation and Maintenance: General" chapter of Oracle Communication Services Gatekeeper System Administrator's Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_oam.htm#sthref18

CDRs and Diameter

The CdrToDiameter service prepares CDRs to be forwarded to a Diameter server using the Diameter Rf interface. This enables Oracle Communications Marketing and Advertising to use Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) for billing.

The CDRtoDiameter service is not deployed by default. For instructions on how to deploy, configure and manage the service, see CDRs and Diameter at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_cdrtodiameter.htm#i1128987

Marketing and Advertising provides slightly different information in its AVPs than those sent by Services Gatekeeper. Table 14-1 provides these Attribute-Value Pairs (AVPs), which are not identical to those in the cited chapter.

Note:

In the case of overlay installations, a single CDR for an Advertising campaign can create two Diameter Rf messages, one using the Services Gatekeeper message structure and one using the Marketing and Advertising structure. This allows BRM to track both the application (the ad space owner) that initially sent the message and the advertiser who created the campaign that uses the message as a bearer of its own ad content, facilitating charging and revenue sharing arrangements.

Table 14-1 AVPs

AVP	AVP Code	Type	Specification	Description
Session_ID	263	UTF8String	RFC 3588	Used to identify a specific session
Origin-Host	264	DiameterIdentity	RFC 3588	Identifies the endpoint that originated this message. Is equal to the delivery-mechanism host
Origin_Realm	296	DiameterIdentity	RFC 3588	Identifies the Realm of the originator of the delivery-mechanism
Destination-Host	293	DiameterIdentity	RFC 3588	Identifies the destination host
Destination-Realm	283	DiameterIdentity	RFC 3588	Identifies the Realm of the destination hos.t
Accounting-Record-Type	480	Enumerated	RFC 3588	The type of accounting record being sent.
Accounting-Record_Number	485	Unsigned32	RFC 3588	Identifies this record within this session.
Acct-Application-ID	259	Unsigned32	RFC 3588	Advertises support of the Accounting portion of an application. The field corresponds to the application ID of the Diameter Accounting Application and is defined with the value .3
User-Name	1	UTF8String	RFC 3588	The Advertiser External ID, assigned when the organization was created.
Event-Timestamp	55	Time	RFC 3588	Time the event happened, in seconds since January 1, 1900 00:00 UTC
Service-Indication	704	OctetString	3GPP 29.329	Always "advertisement-service".
Event-Type	823	Grouped	3GPP 32.299	Contains information about the type of event for which the accounting-request is generated.
Event-Type.Event	825	UTF8String	3GPP 32.299	Specifies the Ad-event type. Possible values: AtoP-ad-served AtoP-ad-impression AtoP-ad-CT Bulk-ad-served Bulk-ad_impression AtoP-ad-CT
Participants-Involved	887	UTF8String	3GPP 32.299	Lists the external ID of the related ASO, ASP and NP. The IDs are delimited by comma.
CC-Money	413	Grouped	RFC4006	Specifies the monetary amount in the given currency, used for storing the price of the ad message.
CC-Money.Unit-Value	445	Grouped	RFC4006	Specifies the units as decimal value.
Unit-Value.Value-Digits	447	Integer64	RFC4006	Contains the significant digits of the number.
Unit-Value.Exponent	429	Integer32	RFC4006	Contains the exponent value to be applied for the Value-Digit AVP within the Unit-Value AVP.
CC-Money.Currency-Code	425	Unsigned32	RFC4006	Specifies the currency, given as the numeric values defined in the ISO 4217 standard.

Note:

Billing and Revenue Management does not natively understand Diameter Rf, so the use of an additional product, Oracle Communications Network Mediation is required to translate the Diameter Rf into the proprietary Solution42 format that BRM requires.

Alarms

You can use the Administration console to view and filter system alarms:

1. In the Domain Structure panel, under your the Oracle Communications Marketing and Advertising domain, expand the OCSG item.

2. Select Alarms.

The Alarms pane appears. For information about the fields in this pane, see the WebLogic Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper Alarms pane section of "Operations and Maintenance: General" in Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper System Administrator's Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16623/adm_oam.htm#sthref18

All of the alarms raised are from the Services Gatekeeper components of the product. A complete list can be found in Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper Alarm Handling Guide at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E16625_01/doc.50/e16614/toc.htm

Note:

Alarms can also be distributed as traps to standard SNMP trap receivers. See SNMP Service for more information.