ZXTM 5.1 brings a new 'Event Handling' capability that allows the administrator to configure precisely what actions ZXTM should take when particular events occur. This article gives an overview of this new feature.

Introduction

An Event Handler specifies the actions that should be performed when an event of a particular type occurs:

ZXTM already contains one built-in event handler that causes all events to be written to the global Event Log. This built-in handler and its "Log all Events" action can not be deleted, but you can add additional actions if required. Other Event Handlers may be created to preserve previous behavior if you upgrade an earlier version of ZXTM to version 5.1 or later.

You can add additional event handlers, such as the handler illustrated above that sends an email when there is a problem with a license key.

Components of an Event Handler

Each Event Handler is triggered by events of a particular type. When an event that matches the Event Type occurs, the Event Handler will invoke the actions it is configured to perform:

Event Type:

An Event Type is a set of events that can trigger an Event Handler. ZXTM includes a number of predefined event types, such as 'Service Failed' or 'Any critical problem', so that you can easily create simple event handlers, such as 'email the administrator if any part of the infrastructure fails'.

You can create new event types, and even create new events that you can raise from TrafficScript or Java Extensions.

Actions:

An Event Handler will invoke a list of actions when it is triggered. ZXTM contains several built-in action types, such as 'send an SNMP trap', and you can create additional actions using either the SOAP alerting interface or scripts and programs that you can upload to ZXTM.

Find out more

For more information on ZXTM 5.1's Event Handling capabilities, refer to chapter 19 of the ZXTM User Manual.

Owen Garrett [Zeus Dev Team] 08 December 2008