Notification status set to WAS_ACTIVE

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance
• Network Observability

Issue/Introduction

SMARTS notification in a state called WAS_ACTIVE. After re-starting the OI server or SAM server, previously active events are now showing as WAS_ACTIVE.
A notification remains active in APM (state is actually WAS_ACTIVE) for a long time although the underlying domain hasn't got it anymore

Environment

All supported Smarts Versions

Cause

Notifications marked as WAS_ACTIVE remain in the WAS_ACTIVE state until the Global Manager can verify their status.

Resolution

If the Global Manager is not able to reconnect to the underlying domain(s) that generated these notifications in 1800 seconds (30 minutes), the value of the severity attribute is set to 4, changing the color of the notification in a Notification Log to blue.  The value of 1800 seconds is referred to as the detachTime.  When the connection between the Global Manager and the underlying domain(s) is re-established, the Global Manager does the following:

• Notifications that are still active in the underlying domain have their Event State changed to ACTIVE and their severity value updated accordingly.
• Notifications that have cleared in the underlying domain remain in the WAS_ACTIVE state until the attachTime has elapsed.  The default value of attachTime is 6000 seconds (100 minutes).  However, the actual value that is used to calculate when to clear the notifications is determined as follows:
  • When the uptime for the underlying domain is greater than the attachTime, then the value is 240 seconds plus the smoothing interval.  The smoothing interval is specified in the DomainType section of the ics.conf file.
  • When the uptime for the underlying servers is less than the attachTime, the value is attachTime minus uptime.  For temporary disconnects, this value is typically used to determine the state of WAS_ACTIVE notifications.