Assured service quality by improved fault management

ABSTRACT

The paradigm shift from device-oriented to service-oriented management has also implications to the area of event correlation. Today's event correlation mainly addresses the correlation of events as reported from management tools. However, a correlation of user trouble reports concerning services should also be performed. This is necessary to improve the resolution time and to reduce the effort for keeping the service agreements. We refer to such a type of correlation as service-oriented event correlation. The necessity to use this kind of event correlation is motivated in the paper.

To introduce service-oriented event correlation for an IT service provider, an appropriate modeling of the correlation workflow and of the information is necessary. Therefore, we examine the process management frameworks IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) for their contribution to the workflow modeling in this area. The different kinds of dependencies that we find in our general scenario are then used to develop a workflow for the service-oriented event correlation. The MNM Service Model, which is a generic model for IT service management proposed by the Munich Network Management (MNM) Team, is used to derive an appropriate information modeling. An example scenario, the Web Hosting Service of the Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ), is used to demonstrate the application of service-oriented event correlation.

REFERENCES

• 1: K. Appleby, G. Goldszmidt, and M. Steinder. Yemanja - A Layered Event Correlation Engine for Multi-domain Server Farms. In Proceedings of the Seventh IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, pages 329--344. IFIP/IEEE, May 2001.
• 2: Spectrum, Aprisma Corporation. http://www.aprisma.com.
• 3: C. Ensel. New Approach for Automated Generation of Service Dependency Models. In Network Management as a Strategy for Evolution and Development; Second Latin American Network Operation and Management Symposium (LANOMS 2001). IEEE, August 2001.
• 4: Christian Ensel , Alexander Keller, An Approach for Managing Service Dependencies with XML and the Resource Description Framework, Journal of Network and Systems Management, v.10 n.2, p.147-170, June 2002 [doi>10.1023/A:1015902715532]
• 5: M. Garschhammer, R. Hauck, H.-G. Hegering, B. Kempter, M. Langer, M. Nerb, I. Radisic, H. Roelle, and H. Schmidt. Towards generic Service Management Concepts - A Service Model Based Approach. In Proceedings of the Seventh IFIP/IEEE International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, pages 719--732. IFIP/IEEE, May 2001.
• 6: B. Gruschke. Integrated Event Management: Event Correlation using Dependency Graphs. In Proceedings of the 9th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations & Management (DSOM 98). IEEE/IFIP, October 1998.
• 7: M. Gupta, A. Neogi, M. Agarwal, and G. Kar. Discovering Dynamic Dependencies in Enterprise Environments for Problem Determination. In Proceedings of the 14th IFIP/IEEE Workshop on Distributed Sytems: Operations and Management. IFIP/IEEE, October 2003.
• 8: Heinz-Gerd Hegering , Sebastian Abeck , Bernhard Neumair, Integrated management of networked systems: concepts, architectures, and their operational application, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1999
• 9: IT Infrastructure Library, Office of Government Commerce and IT Service Management Forum. http://www.itil.co.uk.
• 10: G. Jakobson and M. Weissman. Alarm Correlation. IEEE Network, 7(6), November 1993.
• 11: G. Jakobson , M. Weissman, Real-time telecommunication network management: extending event correlation with temporal constraints, Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on Integrated network management IV, p.290-301, January 1995
• 12: S. Klinger , S. Yemini , Y. Yemini , D. Ohsie , S. Stolfo, A coding approach to event correlation, Proceedings of the fourth international symposium on Integrated network management IV, p.266-277, January 1995
• 13: M. Langer, S. Loidl, and M. Nerb. Customer Service Management: A More Transparent View To Your Subscribed Services. In Proceedings of the 9th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations & Management (DSOM 98), Newark, DE, USA, October 1998.
• 14: Lundy M. Lewis, A Case-Based Reasoning Approach to the Resolution of Faults in Communication Networks, Proceedings of the IFIP TC6/WG6.6 Third International Symposium on Integrated Network Management with participation of the IEEE Communications Society CNOM and with support from the Institute for Educational Services, p.671-682, April 18-23, 1993
• 15: Lundy Lewis, Service Level Management for Enterprise Networks, Artech House, Inc., Norwood, MA, 1999
• 16: NETeXPERT, Agilent Technologies. http://www.agilent.com/comms/OSS.
• 17: InCharge, Smarts Corporation. http://www.smarts.com.
• 18: Enhanced Telecom Operations Map, TeleManagement Forum. http://www.tmforum.org.
• 19: Verizon Communications. http://www.verizon.com.
• 20: H. Wietgrefe, K.-D. Tuchs, K. Jobmann, G. Carls, P. Froelich, W. Nejdl, and S. Steinfeld. Using Neural Networks for Alarm Correlation in Cellular Phone Networks. In International Workshop on Applications of Neural Networks to Telecommunications (IWANNT), May 1997.
• 21: S. Yemini, S. Kliger, E. Mozes, Y. Yemini, and D. Ohsie. High Speed and Robust Event Correlation. IEEE Communiations Magazine, 34(5), May 1996.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems
          Subjects: Distributed applications

General Terms:
Management, Performance, Reliability

Keywords:
event correlation, fault management, service level agreements, service management