Event Change Detector fields are NULL for re-Notified events from Smarts

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

The seven Event-Change-Detector (ECD) fields FirstTimeToAcknowledged, AcknowledgedFirstUser, FirstTimeToOwner, OwnerFirstUser, FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID, TroubleTicketIDFirstUser and TroubleTicketIDFirstValue are NULL on RE-NOTIFIES of Smarts events. For example:

First occurrence of NOTIFICATION-A_B_C, it is picked up by the Smarts listener and stored in a row int he events_live table. The ECD picks up the changes as they happen and populates the seven ECD fields:


mysql> select Name,OpenedAt,ClosedAt,Owner,Acknowledged,Active,TroubleTicketID,FirstTimeToAcknowledged,AcknowledgedFirstUser,FirstTimeToOwner,OwnerFirstUser,FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID,TroubleTicketIDFirstUser,TroubleTicketIDFirstValue from events_live where Name like "%A_B_C%" order by Name;
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| Name               | OpenedAt   | ClosedAt   | Owner | Acknowledged | Active | TroubleTicketID      | FirstTimeToAcknowledged | AcknowledgedFirstUser | FirstTimeToOwner | OwnerFirstUser | FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID | TroubleTicketIDFirstUser | TroubleTicketIDFirstValue |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| NOTIFICATION-A_B_C | 1426175713 |       NULL | admin |            1 |      1 | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE] |              1426175819 | admin                 |       1426175779 | admin          |                 1426175799 | admin                    | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE]      |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)



Then the event is cleared in Smarts:

mysql> select Name,OpenedAt,ClosedAt,Owner,Acknowledged,Active,TroubleTicketID,FirstTimeToAcknowledged,AcknowledgedFirstUser,FirstTimeToOwner,OwnerFirstUser,FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID,TroubleTicketIDFirstUser,TroubleTicketIDFirstValue from events_live where Name like "%A_B_C%" order by Name;
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| Name               | OpenedAt   | ClosedAt   | Owner | Acknowledged | Active | TroubleTicketID      | FirstTimeToAcknowledged | AcknowledgedFirstUser | FirstTimeToOwner | OwnerFirstUser | FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID | TroubleTicketIDFirstUser | TroubleTicketIDFirstValue |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| NOTIFICATION-A_B_C | 1426175713 | 1426175813 | admin |            1 |      0 | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE] |              1426175819 | admin                 |       1426175779 | admin          |                 1426175799 | admin                    | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE]      |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)



Second occurrence, a new row is created in events_live, the seven ECD fields are NULL:

mysql> select Name,OpenedAt,ClosedAt,Owner,Acknowledged,Active,TroubleTicketID,FirstTimeToAcknowledged,AcknowledgedFirstUser,FirstTimeToOwner,OwnerFirstUser,FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID,TroubleTicketIDFirstUser,TroubleTicketIDFirstValue from events_live where Name like "%A_B_C%" order by Name;
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| Name               | OpenedAt   | ClosedAt   | Owner | Acknowledged | Active | TroubleTicketID      | FirstTimeToAcknowledged | AcknowledgedFirstUser | FirstTimeToOwner | OwnerFirstUser | FirstTimeToTroubleTicketID | TroubleTicketIDFirstUser | TroubleTicketIDFirstValue |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| NOTIFICATION-A_B_C | 1426175713 | 1426175813 | admin |            1 |      0 | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE] |              1426175819 | admin                 |       1426175779 | admin          |                 1426175799 | admin                    | 1735 [OPEN]-[SAMPLE]      |
| NOTIFICATION-A_B_C | 1426175853 |       NULL |       |            0 |      1 | 1735-[OPEN]-[SAMPLE] |                    NULL | NULL                  |             NULL | NULL           |                       NULL | NULL                     | NULL                      |
+--------------------+------------+------------+-------+--------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------+----------------+----------------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Environment

Warch4net|M&R - 7.x

Resolution

• This is expected behaviour as per the design of the the Event Change Detector.
• Events that are re-notified in Smarts are considered NEW events in M&R / Watch4net and hence no change has occurred on them.
• This is why the 7 ECD fields are NULL on after a re-notify.
• The ECD fields in the new occurrence of the event will be populated as the relevant changes are made to the active event in Smarts.