Table of Contents

Alarm Monitoring and Management

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

To troubleshoot specific alarms, refer to the Cisco ONS 15454 SDH Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide.

Table 10-1   ONS 15454 SDH Alarm Monitoring Procedures

10.1 Overview

CTC detects and reports SDH alarms generated by the Cisco ONS 15454 SDH and the larger SDH network. You can use CTC to monitor and manage alarms at card, node, or network levels and view alarm counts on the LCD front panel. Default alarm severities conform to the ITU-T G.783 standard, but you can reset severities to customized alarm profiles or suppress CTC alarm reporting. For a detailed description of the standard ITU categories employed by ONS nodes, see the Cisco ONS 15454 SDH Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide.

Note   ONS 15454 SDH alarms can also be monitored and managed through a network management system (NMS).

10.2 Viewing ONS 15454 SDH 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 10-2 lists the tab's column headings and the information recorded in each column.

Alarms display in one of five background colors, listed in Table 10-3, to quickly communicate the alarm severity. Events, conditions, and cleared alarms are also color coded. Conditions and events display in the History or Conditions tab.

10.2.1 Controlling Alarm Display

You can control the display of the alarms on the Alarms tab. Table 10-4 shows the actions you can perform from the Alarms tab.

10.2.2 Viewing Alarm-Affected Circuits

You can view which ONS 15454 SDH circuits are affected by a specific alarm. Figure 10-2 illustrates the Select Affected Circuits option.

Procedure: View Affected Circuits for a Specific Alarm

The Select Affected Circuit dialog appears.

Step 2   Left-click Select Affected Circuits.

The Circuits screen appears with affected circuits highlighted (Figure 10-3.)

10.2.3 Conditions Tab

The Conditions tab displays retrieved fault conditions. A fault is a problem detected by ONS 15454 SDH 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 this particular fault currently exists on the ONS 15454 SDH. 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 the Cisco ONS 15454 SDH Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide for more information on the classifications for alarms and conditions.

Displaying all existing fault conditions is helpful while troubleshooting the ONS 15454 SDH. The Conditions tab does not adhere to ITU guidelines for reporting alarms, events, and conditions. Alarm reporting under the Alarms tab is ITU-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 15454 SDH, as maintained by the alarm manager. Figure 10-4 illustrates the fault conditions retrieved under the Conditions tab. Users can perform the same operation at the card view for the card level and at the network view for the network level.

10.2.3.2 Conditions Column Descriptions

Table 10-5 lists the tab's column headings and the information recorded in each column.

10.2.4 Viewing History

The History tab displays historical alarm data. It also displays events, which are non-alarmed 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:

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.

10.2.5 Viewing Alarms on the LCD

The Critical, Major and Minor alarm LEDs on the fan-tray assembly front panel indicate whether a critical, major, or minor alarm exists on the ONS 15454 SDH. These LEDs are viewable through the front door so that you can quickly determine if any alarms are present on the node. These LEDs are independent of the Card, Port, and Status indicators on the LCD.

When you press the Slot, Status, or Port buttons on the LCD to toggle to a certain slot or port, the LCD displays the Critical, Major, or Minor alarm count for the selected slot and port. Figure 10-8 illustrates the LCD panel.

Procedure: View Alarm Counts on a Specific Slot and Port

Set the slot number to Node to see a summary of alarms for the node.

Step 2   Use the Port button to toggle to the port.

Step 3   Press the Status button to display the slot and port.

Figure 10-8 shows the LCD panel.

10.3 Alarm Profiles

The alarm profiles feature allows you to change default alarm severities by creating unique alarm profiles for individual ONS 15454 SDH 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 ITU-T G.783 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's severity 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 10-9.) A default alarm profile (in the Default column) is pre-provisioned for every alarm. Default alarm profiles are loaded clicking Node/Profile Ops > Load > From Node > Default > OK. After loading the Default profile (Figure 10-10) 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 tab shows the default profile and the new profile.

Procedure: Create an Alarm Profile

Step 2   Click the Provisioning > Alarm Profiles tabs.

Step 3   Click Load.

Step 4   Highlight the node name you are logged into under Node Names and highlight Default under Profile Names.

Step 5   Click OK.

Step 6   Right-click anywhere in the Default column to display the Profile Editing menu.

Step 7   Choose Clone from the menu. (You can also clone any other profiles that appear under the Available button, except Inherited.)

Step 8   In the Clone Profile Default dialog box, enter a name in New Profile Name.

Profile names must be unique. If you import or name a profile that has the same name as another profile, CTC adds a suffix to create a new name.

Step 9   Click OK.

A new alarm profile (named in Step 8) is created. This profile duplicates the severities of the default profile and is added as a new column on the far right-hand side.

Step 10   Modify (customize) the alarm profile:

Note   You can also clone alarm profiles shown under the Available tab.

Note   The Alarm Profile is not effective on the node until selected in the shelf/prov/alarm tab. See 10.3.2

10.3.1.1 Alarm Profile Menus

The Alarm Profiles tab displays two menus on the right-hand side, Node/Profile Ops and Profile Misc, which include six alarm profile buttons. Table 10-6 lists and describes each of the alarm profile buttons.

10.3.1.2 Alarm Profile Editing

Table 10-7 lists and describes the five profile editing options available when you right-click in an alarm profile column.

10.3.1.3 Alarm Severity Option

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

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

10.3.1.4 Row Display Options

In addition to the alarm profile tabs, the Alarm Behavior tab displays two checkboxes at the bottom of the screen: Hide default values and Hide identical rows. The Hide default values checkbox highlights alarms with non-default severities by clearing alarm cells with default severities. The Hide identical rows checkbox hides rows of alarms that contain the same severity for each profile.

10.3.2 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 10-11 shows the profile of an STM-1 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 10-12 shows the affected STM-1 card; notice the CTC shows Parent Card Profile: Inherited.

Procedure: Apply an Alarm Profile at the Card View

Step 2   Click the Provisioning > Alarm Behavior tabs.

Step 3   To apply profiles on a port-to-port basis:

Step 4   To set a profile for all the ports on a card:

Tip If you choose the wrong profile, click Reset to return to the previous profile setting.

Procedure: Apply an Alarm Profile at the Node View

Step 2   Click the Provisioning > Alarm Profiles tabs.

Step 3   To apply profiles on a card basis:

Step 4   To apply the profile to an entire node:

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Note    The Port Overrides column at the node view reads true when additional profiles are available and false when only the inherited profile is available.

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Tip If you choose the wrong profile, click Reset to return to the previous profile.

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 non-reporting (NR) severities. Under the Conditions tab, the suppressed alarms appear with their alarm severity, color code, and service-affecting status.

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

Procedure: Suppressing Alarms

At the card level, you can suppress alarms on a port-by-port basis. At the node level, you can suppress alarms on a card-by-card basis or the entire node.

Step 2   Check the Suppress Alarms box for the card or port you want to suppress. Figure 10-13 shows the Suppress Alarms box.

Step 3   Click the Apply button.

The node sends out autonomous messages to clear any raised alarms.

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Note    When you uncheck the Suppress Alarms checkbox and click Apply, the node sends out autonomous messages to raise any actively suppressed alarms.

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