1 Alarm Topic Description
Alarm Generation
Alarms on each configured node are written to the syslog and are then captured by the smsAlarmDaemon for entry in the SMF database.
For management of these alarms, see Service Management System Technical Guide.
Severity Levels
This table describes the alarm severity levels.
| Level | Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | C | These alarms are raised when the application has encountered an error indicating that the system is unable to function. |
| Error | E | These alarms indicate the application has encountered a serious problem completing a necessary task and could not complete the task. |
| Warning | W | Warnings are raised to indicate the application encountered a problem completing a non-mission critical task. |
| Notice | N | Notices are raised to indicate that the application has completed a task successfully. |
Alarm Format
Alarms usually follow this format:
Mon DD 24:MM:SS hostname process name: [ID alarmID user.severity] process(PID) SEVERITY: Alarm text with possible variables
Where:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| Mon DD | Month and date the alarm was logged. |
| 24:MM:SS | Time the alarm was logged in 24 hour format. |
| hostname | Name of the machine on which the alarm was generated. |
| process name | Name of the process which logged the alarm. |
| alarmID | ID number of the alarm. |
| severity | Alarm severity. |
| process | Name of the process which logged the alarm. |
| PID | Process ID of the process which logged the alarm. |
| SEVERITY | Alarm severity. |
| Alarm text |
Alarm text. This may include variables such as node number. Note: In some cases, the entire alarm text is generated from variables. |
Note: Some alarms from some subsystems may have a different format.
Example: This text shows an smsMaster alarm about pending update queues.
Mar 30 13:34:54 prodsmp1 smsMaster: [ID 953149 user.warning] smsMaster(17833) WARNING: Pending queue now above 15 (Worst Node 317)
Alarm Text and Variables
The %d and %s symbols represent variables within the alarm text. These values are generated by the subsystem and added to the message when the alarm is raised.
Usually the %d is a number and the %s is text in the context of the message to complete the alarm message. Occasionally other % symbols are also used (for example, %u) for different variables.