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EVM(5)
NAME
EVM, evm - Event Management
DESCRIPTION
Introduction to Events and Event Management
The purpose of an event management system is to provide a means for any
system component or application to indicate that something has happened
that may be of interest to some other entity. The indication is known as
an event, and the component posting the event is known as an event
generator or event poster. The entity interested in the indication is
known as an event subscriber.
When a system component has something interesting to report, it makes the
information available through an event channel. The term event channel
describes any facility used to publish or retrieve event information, and
might refer to any of the following:
· A simple log file
· An event management system
· A program that can be run to obtain a snapshot of status information
An event management system is an active event channel, and as such it
provides services for distributing, storing and retrieving event
information.
The UNIX system logger, syslog, and the binary error logger, binlog, are
familiar examples of event management systems. They provide simple event
distribution facilities for other components to use, and their daemons
actively manage the event information they receive. By contrast, the cron
daemon's log file, /var/adm/cron/log, is an example of a passive event
channel. The cron daemon simply writes new event information to the end of
its file, and takes no special action to notify interested entities when it
does so.
In general, an event poster is unaware of any entities that might be
interested in its event information; it simply uses an available event
channel to post the event. It is the responsibility of the event channel
to decide how to make the event available, and to whom. The event
subscriber is responsible for identifying an interest in events to the
event channel. A subscriber might be a user-level process, a kernel
subsystem, or (through some utility program) a user.
About EVM
The Tru64 UNIX Event Manager (EVM) is a comprehensive event management
system that, in addition to providing traditional event handling
facilities, unifies events from many channels to provide a system-wide
source of information. For information about using EVM as an aid to system
administration, see the System Administration guide.
The EVM Event
An EVM event is a package of information that can be passed between
programs and stored in files. The underlying format of an event package is
binary, but supplied commands and programming interfaces can be used to
extract and display the information contained in an event. The term raw
event is used to refer to an event in its binary state, while an event that
has been converted to text form for display is said to be formatted.
An EVM event may contain any or all of a set of standard event data items,
including (but not limited to) an event name, a timestamp, a priority value
and some message text. An event may also carry any number of named
variable data items, each of which can hold further information about the
event. EVM events can carry events from other channels, such as the binary
error logger, by holding them in variable data items.
Full details of the EVM event are provided in the EvmEvent(5) reference
page.
The EVM Daemon
The EVM daemon, evmd, is started automatically when the system is
initialized to level 2. The daemon provides posting and notification
services for system and application clients running on the local system
and, in a cluster environment, on other nodes of the cluster. The daemon
also can be configured to provide services to remote systems. Refer to the
evmd(8) and evmdaemon.conf(4) reference pages for more information.
The EVM Logger
The EVM logger, evmlogger, is an event subscriber that is started
automatically by the daemon. The logger reads its configuration file to
establish the set of events to be logged, subscribes for those events, and
stores them in managed logfiles as they arrive. By default, the logger
also displays high priority events on the system console, and mails
information about them to the root user. The logger can be configured to
manage any number of logfiles, each with its own selection of events, and
to execute user-supplied commands on receipt of selected events.
For more information refer to the evmlogger(8) and evmlogger.conf(4)
reference pages.
The EVM Channel Manager
The EVM channel manager, evmchmgr, is started automatically by the daemon,
and is responsible for managing time-based event channel functions. The
channel manager reads the EVM channel configuration file and periodically
runs event monitoring commands for any configured passive channels. The
program also is responsible for running daily logfile cleanup commands.
The channel manager and the channel configuration file are described in the
evmchmgr(8) and evmchannel.conf(4) reference pages.
Command Line Utilities
EVM's system administration facilities include a set of command line
utilities that can be used from the command line or in shell scripts to
post events, to monitor event activity, to retrieve stored events from log
files, and to sort and view events in a variety of ways. The utilities are
designed to be used together in shell pipelines. For more information
refer to the evmpost(1), evmwatch(1), evmget(1), evmsort(1) and evmshow(1)
reference pages.
The Event Viewer
The event viewer provides a graphical view of historical events through the
common system management interface. The viewer can be launched through the
SysMan Menu or through the SysMan Station. Refer to the sysman(8)
reference page for more information.
Filtering Events
Because a system may generate many events over the course of a day, it is
often desirable to limit your view to the particular set in which you are
interested. For example, you may want to see the events posted by one
particular subsystem, or all events with a high priority value. EVM events
can be selected by using an event filter - a character string that
describes the selection using a predefined filter syntax. You can use a
filter to select events according to several different criteria, including
event name, timestamp, priority and the name of the posting system.
You can use an event filter by specifying the -f option to several of the
EVM command line utilities, and the event viewer provides a graphical
filter builder window. The EVM logger uses event filters in its
configuration file to select the actions to be taken when specific events
occur. Frequently-used event filters can be stored in filter files for
easy reference.
For details of the event filter syntax and the use of filter files, refer
to the EvmFilter(5) and evmfilterfile(4) reference pages.
Event Template Files
Event template files are used to control the set of events that can be
posted on a given system, and to provide a central source for much of the
information that is carried in a given event. For example, the priority
and message text for a given event are likely to be the same each time the
event is posted, and centralizing this information makes it much easier to
see and maintain than if the information was held in the posting program or
the UNIX kernel.
An event template file is a text file that holds template information for
one or more named events. A template file must be installed before the
events it describes can be posted, and is read by the EVM daemon each time
the daemon starts or reloads its configuration. When an event is posted,
the daemon adds the information held in the template to the posted event
before distributing it to subscribers.
For more information about the purpose and the syntax of template files see
the evmtemplate(4) reference page.
Event Authorization
Because the unrestricted ability to monitor or post certain events could
compromise security in some environments, EVM provides a means of
restricting the ability to post and access selected events to specific
authorized users. Refer to the evm.auth(4) reference page for more
information.
The EVM Programming Interface
The EVM application programming interface (API) library, libevm.so,
provides all the functions required for an application program to create,
post and subscribe for events, to read and write them from and to standard
file descriptors, and to manipulate their contents. For a full discussion
of programming with EVM, refer to the Programmer's Guide and the reference
pages for the routines listed in the SEE ALSO section.
EVM supports event posting and subscription in kernel space through the
pseudo-device driver /dev/kevm. See kevm(7) for more information.
SEE ALSO
Commands: evmchmgr(8), evmd(8), evmget(1), evminfo(1), evmlogger(8),
evmpost(1), evmreload(8), evmshow(1), evmsort(1), evmstart(8), evmstop(8),
evmwatch(1) sysman(8) sysman_menu(8) sysman_station(8)
Routines: EvmConnControl(3), EvmConnCreate(3), EvmConnSubscribe(3),
EvmConnWait(3), EvmEventCreate(3), EvmEventDump(3), EvmEventFormat(3),
EvmEventPost(3), EvmEventRead(3), EvmEventValidate(3), EvmFilterCreate(3),
EvmItemSet(3), EvmSrvStart(3), EvmStatusTextGet(3), EvmVarSet(3)
Files: evm.auth(4), evmchannel.conf(4), evmdaemon.conf(4),
evmfilterfile(4), evmlogger.conf(4), evmtemplate(4), kevm(7)
Misc: sys_attrs_kevm(5)
Event Callback: EvmCallback(5)
Event Connection: EvmConnection(5)
EVM Events: EvmEvent(5)
Event Filter: EvmFilter(5)
Programmer's Guide, System Administration
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Index for
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