CA SystemEDGE User Guide › Concepts › State Management Model › How State Management and Aggregation Works

How State Management and Aggregation Works

The SystemEDGE agent calculates and aggregates object status while carrying out self monitoring and process monitoring instructions as mentioned in this section.

Note: This process represents the default state management and aggregation behavior. For information about configuring the agent to manage status and aggregate object status differently, see State Management Configuration Options.

1. You create a self monitor or process monitor entry that contains a severity greater than none in the Self Monitor or Process Monitor table. You should define object instance, class, and attribute information, or the agent will populate these columns with meaningful default information.

   The agent requires a restart to recognize changes to the sysedge.cf file unless you use CA Virtual Assurance. If you make an entry and deploy the changes through CA Virtual Assurance, the agent performs a warm start and begins reading the entry while it is running.

2. The agent monitors the attribute defined in the entry according to a specified polling interval and derives the current state of monitor according to the specified row status, threshold breach condition, and severity, and populates a read-only attribute in the monitor entry with the current state.
3. The agent adds the state information to the Aggregate table in the following way:
   • If an entry in the Aggregate table already exists with the object class, instance, and attribute values of the monitor. The agent (internally) connects the monitor to that entry in the table.
   • If no entry in the Aggregate table exists with the monitor’s object class, instance, and attribute values, the agent adds a new entry to the Aggregate table.
4. The agent sends an aggregate add trap to all systems in the trap community when it adds a new entry in the Aggregate table.
5. When a monitor crosses a threshold, the agent changes the current state of the monitor in the Self Monitor or Process Monitor table, aggregates the worst state of all connected monitors and updates the corresponding entry in the Aggregate table.
6. The agent sends a state change trap only if the state of the aggregate changed.

   Note: Aggregation adheres to the specified lag setting. If you set a lag value for monitor entries, individual monitor state changes or aggregate state changes do not occur until the lag time is satisfied. For more information about using table flags to set lag values, see Self Monitoring and Process and Service Monitoring chapters.

7. The agent executes actions associated with the worst monitor.
8. The agent continues to poll the attribute, and behaves as follows in the following situations:
   • If the threshold breach condition endures, the agent keeps executing the action associated with the monitor (as long as it still represents the worst state monitor) but does not send additional state change traps.
   • If the threshold breach condition disappears, the agent updates the current state in the monitor, updates the current state in the Aggregate table with the worst current state and sends the appropriate state change trap.
   • If a connected monitor with a greater severity crosses its threshold, the agent changes the aggregate state and sends a state change trap.

   Note: The agent continues to manage individual self monitor and process monitor entries in the Self Monitor and Process Monitor tables. The agent continues to poll attributes for each individual monitor and maintains the state of each monitor in the tables. For these reasons, you should set the same poll interval for all connected monitors so that all object monitors are evaluated simultaneously and prevents unnecessary state changes (for example, from 'ok' to 'critical', followed by 'critical' to 'fatal' with staggered poll intervals).