Creating a new escalation policy

An escalation policy raises or lowers the priority level of an event after a specified period of time. A specified number of event recurrences can also trigger escalation of an event.

For example, if the abnormally high temperature of a storage device goes unchecked for 10 minutes or if a cell receives more than five high-temperature warning events in 25 minutes, an escalation event management policy could increase the priority level of the event to critical.

To create an escalation policy

1. From the Event Management Policies tab of the Administration View, expand the By Policy Type folder.
2. Under the By Policy Type folder, select Escalation Policy and click OK.
3. Click Add Policy .
   
   A Selector Chooser dialog box is displayed.
   
4. From the Selector Chooser dialog box, select the event selector that you want to use for this policy and click OK.
   The Escalation Policy Details tab is displayed in the details pane of the Administration View, as shown in the following figure.
   
   Escalation Policy Details tab
   
5. In the Policy Name field, type a unique alphanumeric name for the event management policy. The name must contain no spaces.
6. In the Description field, type a description of the event management policy.
7. To enable the event management policy, select the Enabled check box. If you do not want to enable the policy at this time, you can return to this dialog box and enable the policy later.
8. In the Policy Activation Timeframes section, define the periods of time the event management policy should be active (when enabled) by performing the following actions:
   1. Select one of the following choices:
      • To make the event management policy active continuously, select Always Active.
      • To specify when the policy is active or inactive, select Define Activation Timeframes.
        
        The Active Timeframes and Not Active Timeframes lists are enabled.
   2. If you selected Define Activation Timeframes, depending on how you want to define the timeframe for your policy do one or both of the following:
      • To specify the periods of time when the policy should be active, select the Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list. }

      • To specify the periods of time when the policy should be inactive, select the Not Active Timeframes check box and one or more timeframes from its scrollable list.

        Note

        You can select both check boxes to create active and inactive time periods. However, the inactive time period takes precedence over the active time period.

9. In the Time Escalation section, shown in the following figure, use the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selectors to enter the number of a specified period of time that must elapse before an event is escalated. The default time period is seconds, but this time period can be changed to minutes, hours, or days by selecting one of these time periods from the drop list.

   Note

   You can set Time Escalation or Rate of Event Arrival, or both. To set only one, leave the fields of the other set to zero.

   Time Escalation Controls
   
   Choose one of the following radio buttons to determine how the priority of the event is escalated after the specified time has elapsed:

   • Levels to Escalate/De-escalate Priority By—Choose this option to escalate or de-escalate the event by a specified number of levels after the time period specified by the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selector has elapsed. Enter the number of levels that the event is to be escalated. 
   • Set Priority to This Value—Choose this option to set the event to a specified priority level after the time period specified by the Timespan Before Priority is Escalated selector has elapsed. Choose the priority level from the drop list.
10. (Optional) To prevent the event from being escalated after it has been acknowledged, select the Do not Escalate if Acknowledged check box.
11. (Optional) To prevent the event from being escalated after it has been assigned, select the Do not Escalate if Assigned check box.

12. In the Rate of Event Arrival section, in the Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector, enter the number of events that must occur before the event is escalated.

    Note

    You can set Time Escalation or Rate of Event Arrival or both. To set only one, leave the fields of the other set to zero.

13. In the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector, enter the time in which the events must arrive before the event is escalated or the event priority is changed.
14. Choose one of the following options to determine how the priority of the event is escalated after the number of events have arrived within the specified timespan:
    • Levels to Escalate Causal Event Priority—Escalates the causal event by a specified number of levels after the number of events specified in the Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector. Enter the number of levels that the event is to be escalated. 
    • Set Priority to This Value—Sets the event to a specified priority level after the number of events specified Number of Events Needed for Escalation selector have occurred within the time period specified by the Timespan in which Events Must Arrive selector. Choose the priority level from the drop list.
15. To save the completed event escalation policy, click OK.
    
    administration console saves the defined event management policy, and it is displayed in the list of event policies for the selected event selector.