Managing NerveCenter - Managing NerveCenter Alarm Actions - Specifying Settings for Log Management -
Setting Dialing Properties for Paging Notification on UNIX      Troubleshooting: Managing Alarm Actions

Specifying Settings for Log Management

NerveCenter offers two ways that a behavior model can log network data:

• The Log to File alarm action writes information about an alarm transition to an ASCII text file.
• The Log to Database alarm action, available only on Windows systems, writes information about an alarm transition to the NerveCenter database. You can extract logged data from the database using any ODBC-compliant reporting tool.

When a behavior model is created, the user specifies the name of the log as well as the type of data that will be recorded. However, an administrator must specify how NerveCenter will manage these logs.

NerveCenter logs have changed over the course of several releases. Some of the more significant characteristics of NerveCenter logs include:

• Time fields appear in the following format:

  mm/dd/yy hh.mm.ss day

  For example, 10/04/98 12.03.44 Wed

• NerveCenter will delimit fields with a semi-colon
• No spaces will appear around the equal sign (=)
• Values will appear in the following format:

  attribute.instance=value

  For example, ifInOctets.3=5

• NerveCenter will print all fields when a default format is chosen. For example, the same trap in verbose and nonverbose format:

  verbose: Time=11/11/2002 15:14:43 Mon; LogId=4894; DestStateSev=Normal; NodePropertyGroup=Mib-II; NodeName=MyComputer; AlarmName=AllTraps_LogToFile; OrigState=Ground; TriggerName=allTraps; DestState=Logging; TrapPduTime=321; TrapPduGenericNumber=4; TrapPduEnterprise=1.3.6.1.41.78; TrapPduSpecificNumber=0; TriggerInstance=; TriggerBaseObject=

  nonverbose: 11/11/2002 15:14:43 Mon;4875;Normal;Mib-II;MyComputer;AllTraps_LogToFile;Logging;allTraps; Logging;321;4;1.3.6.1.41.78;0;;

 
  To specify the settings NerveCenter uses to manage logging:

1. Open NerveCenter Administrator and connect to the appropriate NerveCenter Server. See Connecting Administrator to a NerveCenter Server on page 38.
2. Select the Log tab.

   NerveCenter displays the Log tab.

   

3. In the Log Directory field, type the complete path of the directory where NerveCenter stores the log.

   By default, this field specifies a Log folder created in the NerveCenter directory during installation.

4. In the Max Log Entry Age field, type the number of hours you want to keep individual log entries before they are deleted from the rest of the log.

   The way NerveCenter uses this number depends on which logging action is performed:

   • Log to File: NerveCenter checks every file every 20th entry. It deletes any entry it finds that is older than the maximum age specified.
   • Log to Database: NerveCenter waits until the log reaches its size limit. It then deletes any entry it finds that is older than the maximum age specified.
5. In the Max Log File Size field, type the size limit, in kilobytes, of the ASCII text file storing the results of the Log to File alarm action.

   This field does not affect the Log to Database alarm action.

6. In the Max. Number of Records field, type the highest number of records in the database file storing the results of the Log to Database alarm action.

   This field does not affect the Log to File alarm action.

7. In the Max. Queue Depth field, type the highest number of changes that you want queued before saving to the database.

   When the maximum is reached, no more changes are saved until the queue is reduced. You can have more than one change queued for a single database record.

8. In the Log Deletion Percentage field, type the percentage of the log to clear when the maximum file size or the maximum number of records is reached.

   This field applies to both the Log to File and Log to Database alarm actions:

   • Log to File: NerveCenter checks a log file every 20th entry. If the file log exceeds the amount specified in the Max Log File Size, NerveCenter deletes the percentage specified here, starting with the oldest entries.
   • Log to Database: NerveCenter checks a database log every 20th entry. If the database log exceeds the amount specified in the Max. Number of Records field, NerveCenter first deletes any records older than the age specified by the Max Log Entry Age. If the database log still exceeds the allowable amount, NerveCenter removes the percentage specified here, starting with the oldest entries.
9. Select Save.

NerveCenter will manage logs according to these settings whenever the Log to File or Log to Database alarm actions are used in a behavior model.