When a change in a computer system occurs, things happen.
But in ITIL, you don't just watch for events that go wrong or create problems.
All events should be promptly identified, monitored and rectified if necessary.
Comprehensive event management makes IT systems more proactive and holistic.
Definition of ITIL event management
Event management monitors events that occur during changes
and improvements to the IT infrastructure. This allows normal operations to
continue while also detecting “exception conditions” or “exceptional events”.
What is an “exceptional event” in ITIL?
An exceptional event occurs when a problem occurs, such as a
server failure. Thousands, if not millions, of “events” occur every day in an
IT infrastructure, and only a few are exceptional.
An event is any change in configuration item (CI) from one
state to another within an IT department. Exception events are considered
significant because they require a response to remedy them.
For example, a server going from online to idle mode can be
an event. It is worth knowing because it means that action can be taken if
necessary. But this is only considered an exception if it has gone wrong and
requires immediate action.
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Event management tools
Monitoring Tools, or CIs (Configuration Items), send
notifications about events. There are two types of these tools available:
Active monitoring tools - query the status and availability
of key configuration items. An exception generates an alert.
Passive monitoring tools - detect and correlate CI alerts.
For example, let's say that a switch on a network needs to
stay “on”. An event management tool would confirm this by monitoring the switch
by sending "pings" to it. Failure to respond would be logged as a
status change, sending an alert that galvanizes action to address it.
Examples of event management
Events fall into one
of three categories:
Information - a successful task, such as a user login or an
email received by the participant.
Warning - when a device or service reaches a threshold
limit, such as a scheduled backup not running or a server's memory is less than
10% of its usable memory.
Exception - an error thrown when a system component acts
abnormally, such as a down server or a failed backup.
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Event management measures
You can define event management metrics during the design
phase of IT services. Decide what types of events should be generated and how
they will be generated for each type of CI. Typical event management measures
include:
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In summary
Observation of services and components is essential for the
proper functioning of the system. You should therefore regularly record and
report the selected changes in the system, i.e. events. This helps you
prioritize services and processes. In other words, knowing the cause and fixing
a problem allows you to identify it and stop it before it happens again.
