- About this Manual
- Chapter 1, Shelf and Backplane Hardware
- Chapter 2, Common Control Cards
- Chapter 3, Electrical Cards
- Chapter 4, Optical Cards
- Chapter 5, Ethernet Cards
- Chapter 6, DWDM Cards
- Chapter 7, Card Protection
- Chapter 8, Cisco Transport Controller
- Chapter 9, Security and Timing
- Chapter 10, Circuits and Tunnels
- Chapter 11, SONET Topologies
- Chapter 12, DWDM Topologies
- Chapter 13, IP Networking
- Chapter 14, Alarm Monitoring and Management
- Chapter 15, Performance Monitoring
- Chapter 16, Ethernet Operation
- Chapter 17, FC_MR-4 Operations
- Chapter 18, SNMP
- Appendix A, Regulatory and Compliance Requirements
Alarm Monitoring and Management
This chapter describes Cisco Transport Controller (CTC) alarm management. To troubleshoot specific alarms, refer to the Cisco ONS 15454 Troubleshooting Guide. Chapter topics include:
•
Documenting Existing Provisioning
•Viewing Alarm Counts on the LCD for a Node, Slot, or Port
•Provisioning External Alarms and Controls
14.1 Overview
The CTC detects and reports SONET alarms generated by the Cisco ONS 15454 and the 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 standard, but you can reset alarm severities in customized alarm profiles or suppress CTC alarm reporting. For a detailed description of the standard Telcordia categories employed by Optical Networking System (ONS) nodes, refer to the Cisco ONS 15454 Troubleshooting Guide.
Note ONS 15454 alarms can also be monitored and managed through Transaction Language One (TL1) or a network management system (NMS).
14.2 Documenting Existing Provisioning
In the card-, node-, or network-level CTC view, choose File > Print to print CTC information in graphical or tabular form on a Windows-provisioned printer. Choose File > Export to export card, node, or network information as editable delineated text files to other applications. Printing and exporting data are useful for record keeping or troubleshooting purposes.
Print card-, node-, or network-level CTC information in graphical or tabular form on a Windows-provisioned printer, or export card, node, or network information as editable delineated text files to other applications. This feature is useful for viewing the node inventory, circuit routing, or alarm data in network record-keeping and troubleshooting.
Whether you choose to print or export data, you can choose from the following options:
•Entire frame—Prints or exports the entire CTC window including the graphical view of the card, node, or network. This option is available for all windows.
•Tabbed view—Prints or exports the lower half of the CTC window containing tabs and data. The printout includes the selected tab (on top) and the data shown in the tab window. For example, if you print the History window Tabbed view, you print only history items appearing in the window. This option is available for all windows.
•Table Contents—Prints or exports CTC data in table format without graphical representations of shelves, cards, or tabs. This option applies to all windows except:
–Provisioning > General > General, Power Monitor windows
–Provisioning > Network > General, RIP windows
–Provisioning > Security > Policy, Access, or Legal Disclaimer windows
–Provisioning > SNMP window
–Provisioning > Timing window
–Provisioning > UCP > Node window
–Provisioning > WDM-ANS > Provisioning window
–Maintenance > Cross-Connect > Cards window
–Maintenance > Database window
–Maintenance > Diagnostic window
–Maintenance > Protection window
–Maintenance > Timing > Source window
The Table Contents option prints all the data contained in a table with the same column headings. For example, if you print the History window Table Contents view, you print all data included in the table whether or not items appear in the window.
The above items are also not available for the Export option.
14.3 Viewing Alarm Counts on the LCD for a Node, Slot, or Port
You can view node, slot, or port-level alarm counts and summaries using the buttons on the ONS 15454 LCD panel. The Slot and Port buttons toggle between display types; the Slot button toggles between node display and slot display, and the Port button toggles between slot and port views. Pressing the Status button after you choose the display mode changes the display from alarm count to alarm summary.
The ONS 15454 has a one-button update for some commonly viewed alarm counts. If you press the Slot button once and then wait eight seconds, the display automatically changes from a slot alarm count to a slot alarm summary. If you press the Port button to toggle to port-level display, you can use the Port button to toggle to a specific slot and to view each port's port-level alarm count. Figure 14-1 shows the LCD panel layout.
Figure 14-1 Shelf LCD Panel
14.4 Viewing Alarms
In the card-, node-, or network-level CTC view, click the Alarms tab to display the alarms for that card, node, or network. The Alarms window shows alarms in conformance with Telcordia GR-253. This means that if a network problem causes two alarms, such as loss of frame (LOF) and loss of signal (LOS), CTC only shows the LOS alarm in this window because it supersedes the LOF and replaces it.
In Release 4.6, the Path Width column has been added to the Alarms and Conditions tabs. This column expands upon alarmed object information contained in the AID string (such as "STS-4-1-3") by giving the number of STSs contained in the alarmed path. For example, the Path Width will tell you whether a critical alarm applies to an STS1 or an STS48c. The column reports the width as a 1, 3, 6, 12, 48 etc. as appropriate, understood to be "STS-n."
Table 14-1 lists the column headings and the information recorded in each column.
|
|
|
|---|---|
New |
Indicates a new alarm. To change this status, click either the Synchronize button or the Delete Cleared Alarms button. |
Date |
Date and time of the alarm. |
Node |
Node where the alarm occurred (appears only in network view). |
Object |
TL1 access identifier (AID) for the alarmed object. For an STSmon or VTmon, the object. |
Eqpt Type |
Card type in this slot. |
Slot |
Slot where the alarm occurred (appears only in network and node view). |
Port |
Port where the alarm is raised. For STSTerm and VTTerm, the port refers to the upstream card it is partnered with. |
Path Width |
Indicates how many STSs are contained in the alarmed path. This information compliments the alarm object notation, which is explained in Table 14-3. |
Sev |
Severity level: CR (critical), MJ (major), MN (minor), NA (not-alarmed), NR (not-reported). |
ST |
Status: R (raised), C (clear). |
SA |
When checked, indicates a service-affecting alarm. |
Cond |
The error message/alarm name. These names are alphabetically defined in the "Alarm Troubleshooting" chapter of the Cisco ONS 15454 Troubleshooting Guide. |
Description |
Description of the alarm. |
Num |
An incrementing count of alarm messages. |
Ref |
The reference number assigned to the alarm. |
Table 14-2 lists the color codes for alarm and condition severities. The inherited (I) and unset (U) severities are only listed in the network view Provisioning > Alarm Profiles tab. They are not currently implemented.
In network view, CTC identifies STS and VT alarm objects using a TL1-type access identifier (AID), as shown in Table 14-3.
14.4.1 Viewing Alarms With Each Node's Time Zone
By default, alarms and conditions are displayed with the time stamp of the CTC workstation where you are viewing them. But you can set the node to report alarms (and conditions) using the time zone where the node is located by clicking Edit > Preferences, and clicking the Display Events Using Each Node's Timezone check box.
14.4.2 Controlling Alarm Display
You can control the display of the alarms shown on the Alarms window. Table 14-4 shows the actions you can perform in the Alarms window.
14.4.3 Filtering Alarms
The alarm display can be filtered to prevent display of alarms with certain severities or alarms that occurred between certain dates. You can set the filtering parameters by clicking the Filter button at the bottom-left of the Alarms window. You can turn the filter on or off by clicking the Filter tool at the bottom-right of the window. CTC retains your filter activation setting. For example, if you turn the filter on and then log out, CTC keeps the filter active the next time your user ID is activated.
14.4.4 Viewing Alarm-Affected Circuits
A user can view which ONS 15454 circuits are affected by a specific alarm by positioning the cursor over the alarm in the Alarm window and right-clicking. A shortcut menu displays (Figure 14-2). When the user selects the Select Affected Circuits option, the Circuits window opens to show the circuits that are affected by the alarm (Figure 14-3).
Figure 14-2 Select Affected Circuits Option
Figure 14-3 Viewing Alarm-Affected Circuits
14.4.5 Conditions Tab
The Conditions window displays retrieved fault conditions. A condition is a fault or status detected by ONS 15454 hardware or software. When a condition occurs and continues for a minimum period, CTC raises a condition, which is a flag showing that this particular condition currently exists on the ONS 15454.
The Conditions window shows all conditions that occur, including those that are superseded. For instance, if a network problem causes two alarms, such as loss of frame (LOF) and loss of signal (LOS), CTC shows both the LOF and LOS conditions in this window (even though LOS supersedes LOF). Having all conditions visible can be helpful when troubleshooting the ONS 15454. If you want to retrieve conditions that obey a root-cause hierarchy (that is, LOS supersedes and replaces LOF), you can exclude the same root causes by checking a check box in the window.
Fault conditions include reported alarms and not-reported or not-alarmed conditions. Refer to the trouble notifications information in the Cisco ONS 15454 Troubleshooting Guide for more information about alarm and condition classifications.
14.4.6 Controlling the Conditions Display
You can control the display of the conditions on the Conditions window. Table 14-5 shows the actions you can perform in the window.
14.4.6.1 Retrieving and Displaying Conditions
The current set of all existing conditions maintained by the alarm manager can be seen when you click the Retrieve button. The set of conditions retrieved is relative to the view. For example, if you click the button while displaying the node view, node-specific conditions are displayed. If you click the button while displaying the network view, all conditions for the network (including ONS 15454 nodes and other connected nodes) are displayed, and the card view shows only card-specific conditions.
You can also set a node to display conditions using the time zone where the node is located, rather than the time zone of the PC where they are being viewed. See the "Viewing Alarms With Each Node's Time Zone" section for more information.
14.4.6.2 Conditions Column Descriptions
Table 14-6 lists the Conditions window column headings and the information recorded in each column.
|
|
|
|---|---|
New |
Indicates a new condition. |
Date |
Date and time of the condition. |
Object |
TL1 AID for the condition object. For an STSmon or VTmon, the object. |
Eqpt Type |
Card type in this slot. |
Slot |
Slot where the condition occurred (appears only in network and node view). |
Port |
Port where the condition occurred. For STSTerm and VTTerm, the port refers to the upstream card it is partnered with. |
Sev1 |
Severity level: CR (critical), MJ (major), MN (minor), NA (not-alarmed), NR (not-reported). |
SA1 |
Indicates a service-affecting alarm (when checked). |
Cond |
The error message/alarm name; these names are alphabetically defined in the "Alarm Troubleshooting" chapter of the Cisco ONS 15454 Troubleshooting Guide. |
Description |
Description of the condition. |
Node |
Node where the alarm occurred (appears only in network view). |
1 All alarms, their severities, and service-affecting statuses are also displayed in the Condition tab unless you choose to filter the alarm from the display using the Filter button. |
14.4.6.3 Filtering Conditions
The condition display can be filtered to prevent display of conditions (including alarms) with certain severities or that occurred between certain dates. You can set the filtering parameters by clicking the Filter button at the bottom-left of the Conditions window. You can turn the filter on or off by clicking the Filter tool at the bottom-right of the window. CTC retains your filter activation setting. For example, if you turn the filter on and then log out, CTC keeps the filter active the next time your user ID is activated.
14.4.7 Viewing History
The History window displays historic alarm or condition data for the node or for your login session. You can chose to display only alarm history, only events, or both by checking check boxes in the History > Node window. You can view network-level alarm and condition history, such as for circuits, at that level. At the node level, you can see all port (facility), card, STS, and system-level history entries. For example, protection-switching events or performance-monitoring threshold crossings appear here. If you double-click a card, you can view all port, card, and STS alarm or condition history that directly affects the card.
The ONS 15454 can store up to 640 critical alarm messages, 640 major alarm messages, 640 minor alarm messages, and 640 condition messages. When any of these limits is reached, the ONS 15454 discards the oldest events in that category.
Note In the Preference dialog General tab, the Maximum History Entries value only applies to the Session window.
Different views of CTC display different kinds of history:
•The History > Session window is shown in network view, node view, and card view. It shows alarms and conditions that occurred during the current user CTC session.
•The History > Node window is only shown in node view. It shows the alarms and conditions that occurred on the node since CTC software was operated on the node.
•The History > Card window is only shown in card view. It shows the alarms and conditions that occurred on the card since CTC software was installed on the node.
Tip Double-click an alarm in the History window 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.
If you check the History window Alarms check box, you display the node history of alarms. If you check the Events check box, you display the node history of Not Alarmed and transient events (conditions). If you check both check boxes, you retrieve node history for both.
14.4.7.1 History Column Descriptions
Table 14-7 lists the History window column headings and the information recorded in each column.
14.4.7.2 Retrieving and Displaying Alarm and Condition History
You can retrieve and view the history of alarms and conditions, as well as transients (passing notifications of processes as they occur) in the CTC history window. The information in this window is specific to the view where it is shown (that is, network history in the network view, node history in the node view, and card history in the card view).
The node and card history views are each divided into two tabs. In node view, when you click the Retrieve button, you can see the history of alarms, conditions, and transients that have occurred on the node in the History > Node window, and the history of alarms, conditions, and transients that have occurred on the node during your login session in the History > Session window. In the card-view history window, after you retrieve the card history, you can see the history of alarms, conditions, and transients on the card in the History > Card window, or a history of alarms, conditions, and transients that have occurred during your login session in the History > Session window.
You can also filter the severities and occurrence period in these history windows, but you cannot filter out not-reported conditions or transients.
14.5 Alarm Severities
ONS 15454 alarm severities follow the Telcordia GR-253 standard, so a condition maybe Alarmed—at a severity of Critical (CR), Major (MJ), or Minor (MN)—severities of Not Alarmed (NA) or Not Reported (NR). These severities are reported in the CTC software Alarms, Conditions, and History windows at all levels: network, shelf, and card.
ONS equipment provides a standard profile named "Default" listing all alarms and conditions with severity settings based on Telcordia GR-253 and other standards, but users can create their own profiles with different settings for some or all conditions and apply these wherever desired. (See the "Alarm Profiles" section.) For example, in a custom alarm profile, the default severity of a carrier loss (CARLOSS) alarm on an Ethernet port could be changed from major to critical. The profile allows setting to Not Reported or Not Alarmed, as well as the three alarmed severities.
Critical and Major severities are only used for service-affecting alarms. If a condition is set as Critical or Major by profile, it will raise as Minor alarm in the following situations:
•In a protection group, if the alarm is on a standby entity (side not carrying traffic)
•If the alarmed entity has no traffic provisioned on it, so no service is lost.
Because of this possibility of being raised at two different levels, the alarm profile pane shows Critical as "CR / MN" and Major as "MJ / MN."
14.6 Alarm Profiles
The alarm profiles feature allows you to change default alarm severities by creating unique alarm profiles for individual ONS 15454 ports, cards, or nodes. A created alarm profile can be applied to any node on the network. Alarm profiles can be saved to a file and imported elsewhere in the network, but the profile must be stored locally on a node before it can be applied to the node, its cards, or its cards' ports.
CTC can store up to ten active alarm profiles at any time to apply to the node. Custom profiles can take eight of these active profile positions, and two are reserved by CTC. The reserved Default profile contains Telcordia GR-253 severities. The reserved Inherited profile allows port alarm severities to be governed by the card-level severities, or card alarm severities to be determined by the node-level severities.
If one or more alarm profiles have been stored as files from elsewhere in the network onto the local PC or server hard drive where CTC resides, you can utilize as many profiles as you can physically store by deleting and replacing them locally in CTC so that only eight are active at any given time.
14.6.1 Creating and Modifying Alarm Profiles
Alarm profiles are created in the network view using the Provisioning > Alarm Profiles tabs. Figure 14-4 shows the default list of alarm severities. A default alarm severity following Telcordia GR-253 standards is preprovisioned for every alarm. After loading the default profile or another profile on the node, you can use the Clone feature to create custom profiles. After the new profile is created, the Alarm Profiles window shows the original profile—frequently Default—and the new profile.
Figure 14-4 Network View Alarm Profiles Window
Note The alarm profile list contains a master list of alarms that is used for a mixed node network. Some of these alarms might not be used in all ONS nodes.
Note The Default alarm profile list contains alarm and condition severities that correspond when applicable to default values established in Telcordia GR-253.
Note All default or user-defined severity settings that are Critical (CR) or Major (MJ) are demoted to Minor (MN) in non-service-affecting situations as defined in Telcordia GR-474.
Tip To see the full list of profiles including those available for loading or cloning, click the Available button. You must load a profile before you can clone it.
Note Up to 10 profiles, including the two reserved profiles — Inherited and Default — can be stored in CTC.
Wherever it is applied, the Default alarm profile sets severities to standard Telcordia GR-253 settings. In the Inherited profile, alarms inherit, or copy, severity from the next-highest level. For example, a card with an Inherited alarm profile copies the severities used by the node housing the card. If you choose the Inherited profile from the network view, the severities at the lower levels (node and card) are copied from this selection.
You do not have to apply a single severity profile to the node-, card-, and port-level alarms. Different profiles can be applied at different levels. You could use the inherited or default profile on a node and on all cards and ports, but apply a custom profile that downgrades an alarm on one particular card. For example, you might choose to downgrade an OC-N unequipped path alarm (UNEQ-P) from Critical (CR) to Not Alarmed (NA) on an optical card because this alarm raises and then clears every time you create a circuit. UNEQ-P alarms for the card with the custom profile would not display on the Alarms tab. (But they would still be recorded on the Conditions and History tabs.)
When you modify severities in an alarm profile:
•All Critical (CR) or Major (MJ) default or user-defined severity settings are demoted to Minor (MN) in Non-Service-Affecting (NSA) situations as defined in Telcordia GR-474.
•Default severities are used for all alarms and conditions until you create a new profile and apply it.
•Changing a severity to TR or U does not change its display or its default severity.
14.6.2 Alarm Profile Buttons
The Alarm Profiles window displays six buttons on the right side. Table 14-8 lists and describes each of the alarm profile buttons and their functions.
14.6.3 Alarm Profile Editing
Table 14-9 lists and describes the five profile-editing options available when you right-click an alarm item in the profile column (such as Default).
14.6.4 Alarm Severity Options
To change or assign alarm severity, left-click the alarm severity you want to change in the alarm profile column. Seven severity levels appear for the alarm:
•Not-reported (NR)
•Not-alarmed (NA)
•Minor (MN)
•Major (MJ)
•Critical (CR)
•UNSET: Unset/Unknown (not normally used)
•Inherited (I)
Inherited and Unset only appear in alarm profiles. They do not appear when you view alarms, history, or conditions.
14.6.5 Row Display Options
In the network view, the Alarm Profiles window displays two check boxes at the bottom of the window:
•Hide reference values—Highlights alarms with non-default severities by clearing alarm cells with default severities.
•Hide identical rows—Hides rows of alarms that contain the same severity for each profile.
14.6.6 Applying Alarm Profiles
In CTC node view, the Alarm Behavior window displays alarm profiles for the node. In card view, the Alarm Behavior window displays the alarm profiles for the selected card. Alarm profiles form a hierarchy. A node-level alarm profile applies to all cards in the node except cards that have their own profiles. A card-level alarm profile applies to all ports on the card except ports that have their own profiles.
At the node level, you can apply profile changes on a card-by-card basis or set a profile for the entire node. At the card-level view, you can apply profile changes on a port-by-port basis or set alarm profiles for all ports on that card. Figure 14-5 shows the E1000-4 card view of an alarm profile.
Figure 14-5 Card View of an E1000-4 Card Alarm Profile
14.7 Suppressing Alarms
ONS 15454 nodes have an alarm suppression option that clears raised alarm messages for the node, chassis, one or more slots (cards), or one or more ports. After they are cleared, these alarms change appearance from their normal severity color to white and they can be cleared from the display by clicking Synchronize. Alarm suppression itself raises an alarm called AS-CMD that is shown in applicable Alarms windows. Node-level suppression is shown in the node view Alarms window, and card or port-level suppression is shown in all views. The AS-CMD alarm itself is not cleared by the suppress command. Each instance of this alarm indicates its object separately in the Object column.
A suppression command applied at a higher level does not supersede a command applied at a lower level. For example, applying a node-level alarm suppression command makes all raised alarms for the node appear to be cleared, but it does not cancel out card-level or port-level suppression. Each of these conditions can exist independently and must be cleared independently.
Suppression causes the entity alarm to behave like a Not-Reported event. This means that the alarms, having been suppressed from view in the Alarms window, are now only shown in the Conditions window. The suppressed alarms are displayed with their usual visual characteristics (service-affecting status and color-coding) in the window. The alarms still appear in the History window.
Note Use alarm suppression with caution. If multiple CTC or TL1 sessions are open, suppressing the alarms in one session suppresses the alarms in all other open sessions.
14.8 Provisioning External Alarms and Controls
External alarm inputs can be provisioned on the AIC or AIC-I cards for external sensors such as an open door and flood sensors, temperature sensors, and other environmental conditions. External control outputs on these two cards allow you to drive external visual or audible devices such as bells and lights. They can control other devices such as generators, heaters, and fans.
You provision external alarms in the AIC card view Provisioning > External Alarms tab and controls in the AIC card view Provisioning > External Controls tab. Up to 4 external alarm inputs and four external controls are available with the AIC card. Up to 12 external alarm inputs and four external controls are available with the AIC-I card. If you also provision the alarm extension panel (AEP) with the AIC-I, there are 32 inputs and 16 outputs.
14.8.1 External Alarm Input
You can provision each alarm input separately. Provisionable characteristics of external alarm inputs include:
•Alarm type
•Alarm severity (CR, MJ, MN, NA, and NR)
•Alarm-trigger setting (open or closed); open means that the normal condition is no current flowing through the contact, and the alarm is generated when current does flow; closed means that normal condition is to have current flowing through the contact, and the alarm is generated with current stops flowing
•Virtual wire associated with the alarm
•CTC alarm log description (up to 63 characters)
Note If you provision an external alarm to raise upon an open contact before you physically connect to the ONS equipment, the alarm will raise until you do create the physical connection.
Note When you provision an external alarm, the alarm object is ENV-IN-nn. The variable nn refers to the external alarm's number, regardless of the name you assign.
14.8.2 External Control Output
You can provision each alarm output separately. Provisionable characteristics of alarm outputs include:
•Control type.
•Trigger type (alarm or virtual wire).
•Description for CTC display.
•Closure setting (manually or by trigger). If you provision the output closure to be triggered, the following characteristics can be used as triggers:
–Local NE alarm severity—A chosen alarm severity (for example, major) and any higher-severity alarm (in this case, critical) causes output closure.
–Remote NE alarm severity—Similar to local NE alarm severity trigger setting, but applies to remote alarms.
–Virtual wire entities—You can provision an alarm that is input to a virtual wire to trigger an external control output.
14.9 Audit Trail
The ONS 15454 keeps a human-readable audit trail of all system actions such as circuit creation or deletion, and security events such as login and logout. You can archive this log in text form on a PC or network. You can access the log by clicking the Maintenance > Audit tabs. The log capacity is 640 entries; when this limit is reached, the oldest entries are overwritten with new events. When the log is 80 percent full, an AUD-LOG-LOW condition is raised. When the log is full and entries are being overwritten, an AUD-LOG-LOSS condition occurs.
Tip You can save the audit trail to prevent loss of information that applies to alarms.
This window contains the columns listed in
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