How to Use Procedures for Event Processing › About Event Disposition Files

About Event Disposition Files

When CA Spectrum receives an SNMP trap and is mapped to a CA Spectrum event that is generated for the model, an event disposition file is used to determine how to process the event. The processing instructions in an event disposition file (an ASCII text file) can include any of the following information:

• Whether the event is logged
• The severity of the event
• Whether the event generates an alarm of a specific severity
• Whether the event clears one or more alarms
• Whether the event triggers an event rule (a series of events that are monitored and that trigger another event when they occur in a specific pattern or time frame)

CA Spectrum predefined events all have processing instructions that are defined in global and model type-specific event disposition files. In addition, whenever you create a new, custom event (either using MIB Tools, to map a trap to a new event, or later, using Event Configuration), a custom event disposition file is automatically created. Typically manual creation of the event disposition file is not required.

Important! A few types of modification, such as adding event-processing procedures to event maps, must be done in a text editor. For most other event modifications, we recommend specifying the processing instructions using Event Configuration. The Event Configuration utility can save your customizations to one or more landscapes.

If you are adding trap support for a new device, first use MIB Tools to map the traps to new CA Spectrum events and specify basic event settings. Then launch Event Configuration (it can be launched directly from MIB Tools) and can complete the event configuration. This workflow avoids most manual modifications to event disposition files. However, we have provided reference information about the proper syntax to use if manual modifications are required.

More information:

Location of Event Disposition Files

File Syntax of Event Disposition Files