Perform probable cause analysis

Probable cause analysis (PCA) is an existing feature of the BMC ProactiveNet Performance Manager solution that leverages its analytics capabilities and PCA rules to narrow down the probable cause for a problem to a handful of devices, which are then presented to the user and ranked according to their PCA scores.

In this use case BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management event management automatically queries BMC BladeLogic Server Automation for job history information. BMC ProactiveNet Performance Management uses this information to expedite probable cause analysis. When you invoke PCA for a service degradation event, the PCA results page in BMC ProactiveNet flags servers where BMC BladeLogic Server Automation jobs have executed in the same time frame as the event you are troubleshooting. The PCA results page indicates whether there has been a BMC BladeLogic Server Automation job executed on the server in the past 24 hours. If a job has executed, the results page shows the server where the job ran, the job name, job type, and the start and end time of the job. PCA filters and ranks events from most probable cause to least.

No automatic remediation is incorporated into this use case.

Benefits

When a service degradation event occurs, administrators must often perform a laborious hunt for the root cause of the problem. They obtain system information, search logs, and explore other sources of information to determine which recent events could have triggered the problem. Probable cause analysis automates much of that information gathering and ranks recent events, making it easier for administrators to identify possible contributing events.

What to do next

To perform probable cause analysis, you must take the following steps: