Events and Alarms Overview

Activity on a network device consists of a series of events. A software component on the network device, called an entity, is responsible for running the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to log and monitor these events. When certain types of events are persistent, or when the condition causing the event crosses a threshold, SNMP sends a notification, also called a trap to Connectivity Services Director. Connectivity Services Director correlates traps, describing a condition, into an alarm . For example, multiple power supply traps coming from a device are correlated into a single power supply alarm for the device. There are many types of alarms. An alarm can be as routine as when the device changes state or as serious as when a power supply has failed. When an alarm is sent, or raised, it stays raised until the triggering condition is resolved or cleared. The system can clear the alarm when the state changes again or an administrator can clear it manually, which indicates that the condition is now resolved. SNMP also plays another role in Connectivity Services Director. Enabling devices for SNMP with the appropriate read-only V1/V2/V3 credentials, can speed up device discovery.