Event Manager concepts

Event Manager enables events from systems outside of Service Desk or Asset Manager to create and progress Service Desk or Asset Manager processes. Event Manager can integrate with any third party application that can launch an application using a command line or URL with parameters when an event is required.

These can either be events that were triggered independently of Service Desk or Asset Manager, such as from your network monitoring tools, or events that were initially triggered by Service Desk or Asset Manager and then handled by another tool such as Ivanti Process Manager (LPM). These two types of event are described separately.

Network source events

You can configure Event Manager so that if it receives a System Down event for a known Configuration Item (CI) from a Network Management System, then it creates a new incident for that CI. If Event Manager subsequently receives a System Reboot event for the CI, then it could add a note to the incident. You could, if required, then configure Event Manager to resolve the incident if it receives a System Up event – although you might prefer an analyst to be notified of the System Up event to provide further investigation of what had happened.

If Network Management System gives...	then Event Manager...
System Down event for CI#1	Creates new incident for CI#1
System Reboot event for CI#1	Adds note to incident
System Up event for CI#1	Resolves incident

Event Manager maintains a list of active events so that it can identify and match updates to existing processes. Rules are put in place to manage the list of events to prevent the list filling with unwanted data. You can configure these "housekeeping" rules within the Event Manager component of Console.

Event Manager is highly configurable, so it is very important that you take great care when configuring both your external system and Event Manager to make sure you are getting the results you expect. Advice is given throughout on how to validate your system. For further information, see Troubleshooting.

Event Manager will not reopen processes. If a process for a CI is closed (at an End status) and Event Manager receives an event that tries to update that process, then that event is ignored - even if the action is available at the End status.
If Event Manager receives an event that creates a new process for the CI, then it creates a new process rather than re-opening an existing process.
You need to put in place mechanisms to identify CIs that repeatedly fail.

Event Manager provides two modes of operation: a synchronous "Send Event" that processes the event when it is received, and an asynchronous "Post Event" that is queued until the Event Service next polls. If you want the event to be processed immediately, use the slightly less efficient Send event; if the event does not need to be processed immediately, use the Post event. The method that is used is defined by which Event Manager command line executable you call from your third party application.

For more information about configuring Event Manager for network source events, see Configuring Event Manager.

Integration process source events

In addition to processing events that were initiated in external applications, you can also configure Event Manager to call an external application and then to listen for that application to reply that is has completed the requested tasks.

For example, you can create a process that has an action that asks LPM to deploy some software or create an Active Directory account. LPM handles this request, and then sends back information that Event Manager uses to identify the original process and the subsequent steps to take to complete the process.

This enables you to create automated Service Requests. Event Manager identifies which user requires which service, and handles any authorizations required. This information is then passed to LPM, which manages the request. When LPM has completed the request, it sends this information back so that the Service Request can be completed, and any links between users and services can be updated.

For more information about configuring Event Manager to provide request automation using integration process source events, see Automated round-trip request fulfillment.