The situation information is used to classify the condition being
reported by an event into a common set of situations. The Common Base Event
specification [CBE101] provides information on the set of situations defined
for the Common Base Event, along with the values and formats used to describe
these situations. The Common Base Event Developer’s Guide [CBEBASE] provides
general usage guidelines.
There are a few recommendations for situation
information for problem determination events, such as:
- Whenever possible, use the situation categorizations and qualifiers described
in the base Common Base Event specification. Avoid using your own situation
definitions as much as possible.
- Not all messages and logs can be classified using the situation definitions
supplied in the base Common Base Event specification. You can use the OtherSituation
categorization to provide your own situation information, but the recommended
course of action for problem determination events is to use the ReportSituation
categorization, with reportCategory=Log.
- Warning events can be confusing. A warning event (i.e. an event with
severity=warning) typically indicates a recoverable failure, but the situation
settings can be interpreted as unrecoverable failures (e.g. ConnectSituation,
successDisposition=UNSUCCESSFUL). The appropriate situation categorization
should always be used and the severity setting will indicate the severity
of the situation, i.e. whether the component recovered from the failure.
- The recommended setting for the reasoningScope value is EXTERNAL for all
message events.