Viewing Events with the Event Log Viewer

Related Topics

Event Log Window Views

There are two possible event views in the window:

Summary View - Displays an event summary in a table form. See How to Interpret Event Summary Data, below.

Detail View - Displays details about a selected event. See How to Interpret Event Details, below.

When the View Details checkbox is selected, the window divides into the two views. To resize the panes, select the splitter bar between the two views and move it up or down.

How to Display Events

Note: When you open the Event Log Window, only critical events are displayed. The default number of critical events displayed is 50.

1

Specify the number of events to retrieve in the Retrieve most recent events spinner box. The numbers increment by 25, or you can type in the number you want.

NOTE: When only critical events are selected, the label on this toggle will be Retrieve most recent critical events and the toggle will increase or decrease in increments of five.

2

Toggle between all events or critical events only by selecting the View only critical events check box.

3

Select Update to retrieve new events from the storage subsystem for display.

The Update button:

  • Refreshes the window to display the most recent events
  • Retrieves a new number of events if the Display most recent events box is changed
  • Resorts the data back to the original order (by sequence number)

4

Select Clear All to delete all entries in the Event Log.

Important: If you want to save the current Event Log entries, be sure to save a copy of the log before clearing it.

How to Interpret Event Summary Data

The Event Summary table has five columns:

Column

Description

Date/Time

The date and time stamp of the event, according to the controller clock.

Note: The Event Log initially sorts events based on sequence number (shown in the event details). Normally, this will correspond to the date/time. However, the two controller clocks in the storage subsystem could be unsynchronized. In this case, some perceived inconsistencies could be displayed in the Event Log relative to events and the date/time shown. Use the Storage Subsystem >> Set Controller Clocks option to synchronize storage subsystem controller clocks with the clock on your storage management station.

Priority

There are two priority values:

  • Critical - There is a problem with the storage subsystem. However, immediate action by the user may prevent losing access to data. Critical events are used for alert notifications. All critical events are sent to any Network Management Station (through SNMP traps) or e-mail recipient you configured with the Edit >> Alert option in the Enterprise Management Window. For critical event codes, see the Critical Event Descriptions.

  • Information - Non-critical information related to the storage subsystem.

Component Type

The component affected by the event. The component could be hardware (like a drive or a controller), or it could be software (like a logical drive or controller firmware).

Component Location

The physical location of the component in the storage subsystem.

Description

A description of the event.

Example: Drive write failure - retries exhausted

How to Interpret Event Details

Use the View Details checkbox to show event details of a single selected Summary event. When you have enabled the View Details checkbox, click on a single event in the Summary View to show the details about that event in the Event Details View.

Note: Because some of the fields in the Event Details View require no explanation, this table only focuses on those fields which require additional detail.

Column

Description

Date/Time

The date and time stamp of the error, according to the controller clock.

Note: The Event Log initially sorts events based on sequence number (shown in the event details). Normally, this will correspond to the date/time. However, the two controller clocks in the storage subsystem could be unsynchronized. In this case, some perceived inconsistencies could be displayed in the Event Log relative to events and the date/time shown. Use the Storage Subsystem >> Set Controller Clocks option to synchronize storage subsystem controller clocks with the clock on your storage management station.

Category

Category Name

Description

Failure

Some component on the storage subsystem has failed.
Examples: Drive failure, battery failure.

State Change

An element of the storage subsystem has changed state.
Examples: A logical drive transitioned to optimal; a controller transitioned to offline.

Internal

Internal controller operations that do not require user action.
Example: The controller has completed start-of-day.

Command

A command has been issued to the storage subsystem.
Example: A hot spare has been assigned.

Host entry

Host software has posted the entry into the Event Log.

Error

An error condition has been detected on the storage subsystem.
Examples: A controller is unable to synchronize and purge cache; a redundancy error is detected on the storage subsystem.

General

Any events that do not fit well into any other category.

Description

A description of the event.

Example: Drive write failure - retries exhausted

How to Save Selected Events to a File

To save selected events from the Summary area to a file, perform the following steps:

1

Select the events you want to save to a file in the Summary View.

  • Press CTRL + click to save multiple events that are not next to each other in the display
  • Press SHIFT + click to save a range of events, clicking on the first and the last event you wish to save
  • Select Select All to save every displayed event

2

Select Save As.

Result: The Save Events dialog is displayed.

3

Save the selected events by choosing an appropriate directory and filename.

The Save dialog can filter on files with a .log extension. Therefore, you may want to save the file with a .log extension using the filename conventions you used for any previous log files. If no extension is specified, the Save As dialog will append a .log extension by default.

4

Type the file name of your choice in the File Name text box.

Example: Name the file january13.log.

5

Select Save.

Result: An ASCII text file containing the selected events, with a .log extension, is saved to the designated directory.

Related Topics

Learn About the Event Log

Critical Event Descriptions