Event states

The event list displays sufficient information for you to recognize an event's current state quickly. Each event's state depends on multiple factors:

Severity, reflected in the severity icon and color of the event line
Priority, reflected in the priority icon
The most recent event operation performed on the event, reflected in the status icon

Event status

The status of an event provides basic information about the event's response activity. BMC Helix Operations Management assigns a status value to each event, and then you can change the status by performing event operations or other actions on the event. Also, a rule can change the status of an event automatically.

The following table lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event status:

Icon	Event status
	Open
	Closed
	Acknowledged
	Assigned
	Blackout

Event states resulting from event operations

When you perform an event operation on an event, the state of the event changes according to the following table. For information about performing event operations, see Performing event operations.

The following figure shows how an event in any state is affected by the operations that are valid for that current state. The circles represent the event states. Each arrow represents an action, with the direction of the arrow indicating the flow of the action.

For example, if the event is currently in the Acknowledged state, you can perform a Take Ownership, Assign To, Close Event, or Unacknowledge Event action. Conversely, for that event to be in the Acknowledged state, you must perform an Acknowledge Event or Decline Ownership action.

Event states.png

An event state can also change based on the scheduled event retention and pruning rules. For more information about the retention policy, see BMC Helix Operations Management service.

Event severity

Each event has a severity level associated with it and indicates the seriousness of the event. In combination with status and priority, the severity level indicates the urgency of the need to take action. For example, a Major severity level for an event in the Closed status is no cause for alarm, but a Major severity level for an event in the Open status and with a priority of 1 indicates an urgent need for action.

The following table lists the default severity levels and colors for the events that appear in the event list. For closed events, the icons are in gray color.

Event priority

In addition to a severity level, each event has a priority level. Distinguishing between severity and priority helps you to understand which event requires action first.

The priority icon for an event has the same color as the event severity. For closed events, the icons are in gray color.

The following table lists the icons that are displayed in the event list to represent event priority: