Overview |
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Tasks |
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Included with |
Tivoli Problem Management |
Escalation |
In Tivoli Problem Management, escalation
is the process of increasing the awareness of an issue (a call or problem) as it continues
to remain open. For example, if a problem stays unresolved for too long, it should be
escalated to someone's attention. Note: Escalation also occurs in Tivoli Change Management, see Configuring TCM Escalation Rules and Understanding TCM Escalation Rule Types. When a help desk analyst opens a call or problem, Tivoli Problem Management automatically assigns the lowest escalation level to it. As an issue is escalated, its escalation level is incremented by one. Escalation levels are associated with periods of time called escalation intervals. You can configure the escalation levels and intervals and specify the users or groups of users to notify when a call or problem is not resolved within the indicated interval. Escalation Monitor scans the Tivoli Service Desk database periodically for issues that have been open for longer than their defined escalation interval. For each such issue it finds, it does the following:
Note: If you do not run Escalation Monitor, escalation does not occur. |
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Escalation types |
You can configure one or more of the following types of escalation: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Escalation by default |
You can set up default escalation rules that
specify the criteria for escalating issues not covered by an escalation rule. If you do
not set up any escalation rules or if you do not have an escalation rule that covers a
particular issue, Tivoli Problem Management uses the default escalation rules. The default escalation settings specify the minimum and maximum escalation levels to assign to issues, the user or group to notify upon escalation, the escalation interval, and the polling period for Escalation Monitor. The polling period is the interval at which Escalation Monitor scans the database looking for issues that have been open longer than their specified escalation interval. |
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Escalation by level |
Escalation rules are the criteria that
specify the users or groups of users to notify when Escalation Monitor locates an issue
that has been open for longer than the specified escalation interval. You can create
simple rules that are based only on escalation levels or you can create more specific
rules based on severity levels or conditional data. You can define rules for as many escalation levels as you want, from 1 to 99. Also, because open problems and calls are stored separately in the database, you can configure a different set of escalation rules for each. The following points apply to escalation rules:
Example: The following table illustrates three rules based only on escalation level.
TAWILLIAMS is the user ID for the supervisor, MGRS is a group of department managers, and EXECS is a group that consists of the senior management team. Escalation level 1 is for a problem that you opened. In this example, the following occurs:
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Escalation by severity |
You can add a severity level to an escalation
rule criteria if your business wants to escalate issues based on severity level. For
example, you might want more critical issues to escalate faster or to different users and
groups than less critical issues. Example: Suppose that you want to escalate all issues with a severity level of 1 more rapidly than the other issues; for instance, after 30 minutes at escalation level 1, 20 minutes at level 2, and after 10 minutes at level 3. By adding the following rules, you could configure Escalation Monitor to consider severity when escalating issues.
Notice that there are two rules for each escalation level. The first rule covers the specific case of severity level 1 issues. These rules have a value of 1 in the severity column. The second rule for each level leaves the severity column blank; severity level does not apply. You can add a rule for every severity level defined in Tivoli Problem Management, if you like. Make sure the rules that apply if no other rules apply (in this example, the blank severity level rules) follow the other rules for each escalation level in the sort order. Example: The following table illustrates an incorrect way to create escalation rules based on severity levels. In this example, Escalation Monitor executes the second rule for any issue with a severity level other than 1 and never executes the third rule.
Example: To execute the first rule for issues with a severity level of 1, then execute the third rule for issues with a severity level of 5, then execute the second rule for all other issues, use the following sort order when defining the rules.
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Escalation by condition |
You can configure rules that take factors other
than severity into consideration during escalation. You can use any of the data that is related to the issue as a condition of the escalation rule. For example, you might want to escalate problems more quickly if they involve critical systems or a high-priority organization or contact. Escalation conditions consist of clauses containing database field names and conditional data. These clauses can be connected by the words and and or. This gives you tremendous flexibility and power in configuring escalation rules. And, as you might expect, you can define rules that are based on both conditional data and severity levels. The clauses follow the same rules as those for defining an SQL query, see Performing an advanced search. Example: You can define escalation rules for different problem types. In the following table, problems involving networks escalate more quickly than problems involving communications. Network problems escalate after remaining open for 45 minutes. Communication problems escalate after one hour. All other problems escalate after 90 minutes.
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Escalations dialog box |
You use the Escalations dialog box to configure
escalation rules and escalation defaults for Tivoli Problem Management. The Escalations dialog box has two tabs:
To access the Escalations dialog box, do one of the following:
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Add Escalations dialog box |
You use the Add Escalation dialog box to create
new escalation rules for Tivoli Problem Management. To access the Add Escalation dialog box:
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Edit Escalations dialog box |
You use the Edit Escalations dialog box to make
changes to TPM escalation rules. To access the Edit Escalation dialog box:
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View Escalations dialog box |
You use the View Escalations dialog box to
review the information in a TPM escalation rules. To access the View Escalation dialog box:
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Notify upon Escalation dialog box |
You use the Notify upon Escalation dialog box to
select which users and groups are notified when an escalation rule is used. To access the Notify upon Escalation dialog box:
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Adding an escalation rule |
You can define escalation rules that control the
way calls and problems are escalated to the attention of your help desk analysts and
management team. To add an escalation rule, perform the following steps:
Note: The new escalation rule does not take effect until you stop and restart Escalation Monitor. See Stopping a monitor and Starting Escalation Monitor. |
Selecting whom to notify about an escalation |
You select which users and groups to notify when
an escalation rule causes an issue to escalate. To add a user or group to the Notifications list:
To remove a group or user from the Notifications list: You can change an escalation rule so that a user or group is no longer notified when the rule causes an issue to escalate. However, you cannot remove the only user or group in the Notifications list. At least one user or group must be notified when an issue is escalated.
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Editing an escalation rule |
You can make changes to an escalation rule at
any time. However, you must stop and restart Escalation Monitor for your changes to take
effect. See Stopping a monitor and Starting Escalation Monitor. To edit an escalation rule:
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Viewing an escalation rule |
You can make changes to escalation rules only if
you have the appropriate security rights. However, you can check the details of escalation
rules by viewing an escalation rule. You cannot make changes to escalations rules when
viewing an escalation rule. To view an escalation rule:
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Deleting an escalation rule |
You can delete any escalation rule that is no
longer needed. However, you must stop and restart Escalation Monitor in order to stop
using the escalation rule. See Stopping a monitor
and Starting Escalation Monitor. To delete an escalation rule:
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Configuring escalation defaults |
When Escalation Monitor finds a problem or call
for which no escalation rule applies, it escalates the issue based on the default
escalation rule. If you do not define any escalation rules, Tivoli Problem Management
always uses the default escalation rule. Regardless of rules, Tivoli Problem Management
always uses the default beginning and ending escalation levels and the escalation polling
period. To configure the escalation defaults, perform the following steps:
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