Understanding Alarm

This section describes the mechanism for alarm output.

The FW outputs alarms through the information center. The information center is an information hub of system software modules on the FW. You can sort output system information in a refined manner to effectively filter information.

In addition to alarms, the information center can output logs and debugging information. This chapter focuses on alarms, for logs and debugging information, see Logs and Debugs.

Information Output

10 information channels are defined for the information center to control information output in different directions. These channels are independent of each other. You can configure alarm output rules as required to allow information of different levels to be output through different channels, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Alarm output schematic diagram

Table 1 shows the relationships between information channels and output directions.

**Table 1** Information channels and output directions
Channel ID	Default Channel Name	Output Direction	Description
0	console	console	The console can receive logs, alarms, and debugging information.
1	monitor	monitor	VTY terminals can receive logs, alarms, and debugging information, facilitating remote maintenance.
2	loghost	loghost	Log hosts can receive logs, alarms, and debugging information. Information is stored in files on the log hosts. You can view the files at any time.
3	trapbuffer	trapbuffer	The trap buffer can receive alarms.
4	logbuffer	logbuffer	The log buffer can receive logs.
5	snmpagent	snmpagent	The SNMP agent can receive alarms.
6	channel6	Not specified	This channel is reserved. You can specify the output direction.
7	channel7	Not specified	This channel is reserved. You can specify the output direction.
8	channel8	Not specified	This channel is reserved. You can specify the output direction.
9	channel9	logfile	Log files can receive logs, alarms, and debugging information. Information is stored in files on the storage medium of the device, such as the CF card or disk.

If multiple log hosts are configured, you can configure the device to output alarms through one or more channels to log hosts. For example, configure the device to output some alarms to log hosts through channel 2 (loghost) and the rest alarms to log hosts through channel 6. You can rename channel 6 to facilitate information channel management.

Information Format

Figure 2 shows the alarm format.

Figure 2 Format of an output alarm

Table 2 lists the description of every field in an alarm.

**Table 2** Alarm format description
Field	Meaning	Description
TimeStamp	Timestamp, indicating when the alarm is output	There are five timestamp formats: Boot: relative time. Date: system time. This timestamp format is used for alarms by default. Short-date: similar to the date format. The difference is that the short-date timestamp does not contain the year. Format-date: another system time. None: no timestamp in output alarms. The timestamp and host name are separated by a space.
HostName	Host name	It is the system name of a local host. The host name and module name are separated by a space.
ModuleName	Module name	Indicates the module where an alarm is generated.
Severity	Severity	Indicates the alarm severity, which can be: 1: Critical 2: Major 3: Minor 4: Warning 5: Indeterminate 6: Cleared
Brief	Brief description	Indicates the brief description of an alarm.
Description	Description	Indicates the description of an alarm.