Chapter 10, Alarm Monitoring and Management

This chapter explains how to manage alarms with Cisco Transport Controller (CTC), which includes:

10.1 Overview

The CTC detects and reports SONET alarms generated by the Cisco ONS 15327 and larger SONET network. You can use CTC to monitor and manage alarms at the card, node, or network level. Default alarm severities conform to the Telcordia GR-253-CORE standard, but you can reset severities to customized alarm profiles or suppress CTC alarm reporting. For a detailed description of the standard Telcordia categories employed by ONS nodes, see Chapter 14, "Alarm Troubleshooting".

Note ONS 15327 alarms can also be monitored and managed through TL1 or a network management system (NMS).

10.2 Viewing ONS 15327 Alarms

At the card, node, or network-level CTC view, click the Alarms tab to display the alarms for that card, node or network. Table 10-1 lists the tab column headings and the information recorded in each column as shown from the CTC node view.

Table 10-1 Alarms Column Descriptions
Column	Information Recorded
New	Indicates a new alarm. To change this status, check either the Synchronize Alarms or Delete Cleared Alarms check box, or reset the active TCC+ card.
Date	Date and time of the alarm.
Node	Node where the alarm occurred (displayed in network view only).
Object	TL1 access identifier (AID) for the alarmed object.
Type	Card type in this slot.
Slot	Slot where the alarm occurred (displayed in network and node view only).
Port	Port where the alarm occurred.
Sev	Severity level: CR (critical), MJ (major), MN (minor), NA (not alarmed), NR (not reported).
ST	Status: R (raised), C (clear), T (transient).
SA	When checked, indicates a service-affecting alarm.
Cond	The error message/alarm name.
Description	Description of the alarm.
Num	A count of incrementing alarm messages (hidden by default).
Ref	The reference number assigned to a cleared alarm (hidden by default).

Alarms are displayed in one of five background colors, listed in Table 10-2, to quickly communicate the alarm severity. Events, conditions, and cleared alarms are also color-coded. Conditions and events are displayed in the History or Conditions tab.

Table 10-2 Color Codes for Alarms, Conditions, and Events
Color	Description
Red	Critical Alarm (CR)
Orange	Major Alarm (MJ)
Yellow	Minor Alarm (MN)
Magenta	Event (NA)
Blue	Condition (NR)
White	Cleared alarm or event (CL)

10.2.1 Controlling Alarm Display

You can control the display of the alarms on the Alarms tab. Table 10-3 shows the actions you can perform from the Alarms tab.

Table 10-3 Alarm Display
Button	Action
Synchronize Alarms	Updates the alarm display; although CTC displays alarms in real time, the Synchronize Alarms button allows you to verify the alarm display. This is particularly useful during provisioning or troubleshooting.
Delete Cleared Alarms	Deletes alarms that have been cleared.
AutoDelete Cleared Alarms	If checked, CTC automatically deletes cleared alarms.
Show Events (NA)	If checked, CTC shows alarms and NA events or conditions. Not-alarmed events do not require action and normally are displayed only under the Conditions tab.

10.2.2 Viewing Alarm-Affected Circuits

User can view which ONS 15327 circuits are affected by a specific alarm. To do this, highlight an alarm and right-click it. The Selected Affected Circuits shortcut menu appears. Figure 10-2 illustrates the Select Affected Circuits option. When the option is clicked, the affected circuits are shown as in Figure 10-3.

10.2.3 Conditions Tab

The Conditions tab displays retrieved fault conditions. A fault is a problem detected by ONS 15327 hardware or software. When a fault occurs and continues for a minimum time period, it raises a fault condition, which is a flag showing whether or not this particular fault currently exists on the ONS 15327. Fault conditions include all existing conditions, whether the severity is that of an alarm (Critical, Major or Minor) or a condition (Not Reported or Non Alarmed.) See the trouble notifications information in Chapter 14, "Alarm Troubleshooting," for more information on the classifications for alarms and conditions.

Displaying all existing fault conditions is helpful while troubleshooting the ONS 15327. The Conditions tab does not adhere to Telcordia guidelines for reporting alarms, events, and conditions. Alarm reporting under the Alarms tab is Telcordia-compliant.

10.2.3.1 Retrieve and Display Conditions

At the node view, click the Conditions tab and the Retrieve Conditions button to retrieve the current set of all existing fault conditions from the ONS 15327 as maintained by the alarm manager. Users can perform the same operation at the card view for the card level and at the network view for the network level. See Figure 10-4.

10.2.3.2 Conditions Column Descriptions

Table 10-4 lists the Conditions tab column headings and the information recorded in each column.

Table 10-4 Conditions Columns Description
Column	Information Recorded
Node	Node where the condition occurred (displayed in network view only)
Object	TL1 AID for the alarmed object
Type	Card type in this slot
Slot	Slot where the condition occurred (displayed in network and node view only)
Port	Port where the condition occurred
Sev	Severity level: CR, MJ, MN, NA, NR
SA	When checked, indicates a service-affecting alarm
Cond	Condition name
Description	Description of the condition

10.2.4 Viewing History

The History tab displays historical alarm data. It also displays events, which are nonalarmed activities such as timing changes and threshold crossings. For example, protection switching events or performance monitoring threshold crossings appear here. The History tab presents two alarm history views:

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The Session subtab ( Figure 10-5) presents alarms and events that have occurred during the current CTC session.

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The Node subtab shows the alarms and events that occurred at the node since the CTC software installation. The ONS 15327 can store up to 640 critical alarms, 640 major alarms, 640 minor alarms, and 256 events. When the limit is reached, the ONS 15327 discards the oldest alarms and events.

Tip

Double-click an alarm in the alarm table or an event in the history table to display the corresponding view. For example, double-clicking a card alarm takes you to card view. In network view, double-clicking a node alarm takes you to node view.

10.3 Alarm Profiles

The alarm profiles feature allows you to change default alarm severities by creating unique alarm profiles for individual ONS 15327 nodes. A profile you create can be applied to any node on the network. Alarm profiles must be stored on a node before they can be applied to a node, card, or port. CTC can store up to ten alarm profiles; eight are available for custom use and two are reserved. CTC can load an unlimited number of alarm profiles that have been stored on a node, server, or CTC workstation.

The two reserved profiles include the default profile, which sets severities to standard Telcordia GR-253-CORE settings, and the Inherited profile, which sets all alarm severities to transparent (TR). If an alarm has an Inherited profile, it inherits (copies) its severity from the same alarm at the next level. For example, a card with an Inherited alarm profile copies the severities used by the node that contains the card. The Inherited profile is not available at the node level.

10.3.1 Creating and Modifying Alarm Profiles

Alarm profiles are created at the network view using the Provisioning > Alarm Profiles tabs ( Figure 10-6.) A default alarm profile (in the Default column) is preprovisioned for every alarm. After loading the Default profile on the node, you can use the Clone feature to create new profiles based on the default alarm profile. After the new profile is created, the Alarm Profiles subtab shows the default profile and the new profile.

Figure 10-6 Network View Alarm Profiles subtab showing the default profiles of listed alarms

10.3.2 Alarm Profile Menus

The Alarm Profiles subtab displays two menus on the right side, Node/Profile Ops and Profile Misc, which include six alarm profile buttons. Table 10-5 lists and describes each of the alarm profile buttons.

Table 10-5 Alarm Profile Buttons
Heading	Button	Description
Node Profile Ops	Load	Loads a profile to either a node or a file
	Store	Saves profiles on a node (or nodes) or in a file
	Delete	Deletes profiles from a node
Profile Misc.	Compare	Displays differences between alarm profiles (i.e., individual alarms that are not configured equivalently between profiles)
	Available	Displays all of the profiles available on each node
	Usage	Displays all of the entities present in the network and which profile(s) each is using

10.3.3 Alarm Profile Editing

Table 10-6 lists and describes the five profile editing options available when you right-click in an alarm profile column.

Table 10-6 Alarm Profile Editing Options
Button	Description
Store	Saves a profile in either a node or a file
Rename	Changes a profile name
Clone	Creates a new profile that contains the same alarm severity settings as the highlighted profile (the profile being cloned)
Reset	Restores a profile to the state of that profile before it was last applied or to the state when it was first loaded, if it has not yet been applied
Remove	Removes a profile from the table editor

10.3.4 Alarm Severity Option

You change or assign alarm severity using a menu. To view this menu, right-click the alarm you want to change in its alarm profile column. Seven severity levels appear for the alarm:

Note Transparent and Unset only appear in alarm profiles; they do not appear when you view alarms, history, or conditions.

10.3.5 Row Display Options

The Alarm Profiles subtab also displays two check boxes at the bottom of the screen: Hide default values and Hide identical rows. The Hide default values check box highlights alarms with nondefault severities by clearing alarm cells with default severities. The Hide identical rows check box hides rows of alarms that contain the same severity for each profile.

10.3.6 Applying Alarm Profiles

In CTC card view, the Alarm Behavior subtab displays the alarm profiles of the selected card. In node view, the Alarm Behavior subtab displays alarm profiles for the node. Alarms form a hierarchy. A node-level alarm profile applies to all cards in the node, except those that have their own profiles. A card-level alarm profile applies to all ports on the card, except those that have their own profiles.

At the node level, you may apply profile changes on a card-by-card basis or set a profile for the entire node. Figure 10-7 shows the profile of an OC-12 card being changed to Inherited at the node view.

At the card level, you can apply profile changes on a port-by-port basis or set all ports on that card at once. Figure 10-8 shows the affected OC-12 card; notice that CTC shows Parent Card Profile: Inherited.

10.4 Suppressing Alarms

Suppressing alarms causes alarms to appear under the Conditions tab instead of the Alarms tab. It prevents alarms from appearing on CTC Alarm or History tabs or in any other clients. The suppressed alarms behave like conditions, which have their own nonreporting (NR) severities. Under the Conditions tab, the suppressed alarms appear with their alarm severity, color code, and service-affecting status ( Figure 10-9).

Note Use alarm suppression with caution. If multiple CTC/TL1 sessions are open, you will suppress the alarms in all other open sessions.

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Alarm Monitoring and Management