Alarm manager system for distributed network management system

Claim 2

Apparatus for use with a distributed network management system having alarm generation agents which generate alarms indicating the status of devices in a network, an alarm log for receiving and storing the alarms and an alarm manager which displays the contents of the alarm log in a scrollable list wherein only a predetermined number of items on the list are displayed, the apparatus comprising: a user interface for receiving a command from a user of the alarm manager which command indicates whether the scrollable list should scroll in response to an alarm being received in the alarm log; and a scrolling function which is responsive to an alarm being received in the alarm log for adding the received alarm to the list and to the user command for controlling the scrollable list for switching between a first mode in which the list scrolls automatically in response to each received alarm so that the most recent alarm is always displayed and a second mode in which the list does not scroll automatically in response to each received alarm so that each received alarm can be manually scrolled into view and selected from the list, but a selected alarm remains displayed as alarms are received.

Claim 3

Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the alarm manager comprises a mechanism for sorting the alarm records in an ascending sort order and in a descending sort order and wherein the scrolling function comprises a mechanism for scrolling the scrollable display in a first direction when the sort order is ascending and in a second direction when the sort order is descending.

Claim 4

Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the user interface comprises a control in a dialog box.

Claim 5

Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the dialog box is displayed in response to a menu option.

Claim 6

Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the control is an option button.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 5 further comprising a configuration file for determining the initial state of the option button.

Claim 10

A method according to claim 7 wherein the alarm manager comprises a mechanism for sorting the alarm records in an ascending sort order and in a descending sort order and wherein step (b) comprises the step of: (b1) scrolling the scrollable display in a first direction when the sort order is ascending; and (b2) scrolling the scrollable display in a second direction when the sort order is descending.

Claim 11

A method according to claim 7 wherein step (a) comprises the step of: (a1) using a control in a dialog box to receive the user command.

Claim 12

A method according to claim 9 wherein step (a1) comprises the step of: (a1a) displaying the dialog box in response to a menu option.

Claim 13

A method according to claim 9 wherein step (a1) comprises the step of: (a1b) using an option button in a dialog box to receive the user command.

Claim 14

A method according to claim 11 wherein step (a) further comprises the step of: (a2) using a configuration file for determining the initial state of the option button.

Claim 15

A computer program product for use with a distributed network management system having alarm generation agents which generate alarms indicating the status of devices in a network, an alarm log for receiving and storing the alarms and an alarm manager which displays the contents of the alarm log in a scrollable list wherein only a predetermined number of items on the list are displayed, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, including: program code for receiving a command from a user of the alarm manager which command indicates whether the scrollable list should scroll in response to an alarm being received in the alarm log; and program code for controlling the scrollable list in response to an alarm being received in the alarm log to add the received alarm to the list and to the user command to switch between a first mode in which the list scrolls automatically in response to each received alarm so that the most recent alarm is always displayed and a second mode in which the list does not scroll automatically in response to each received alarm so that each received alarm can be manually scrolled into view and selected from the list, but a selected alarm remains displayed as alarms are received.

Claim 16

A computer program product for use with a distributed network management system having alarm generation agents which generate alarms indicating the status of devices in a network, an alarm log for receiving and storing the alarms and an alarm manager which displays the contents of the alarm log in a scrollable list wherein only a predetermined number of items on the list are displayed, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, including: program code for receiving a command from a user of the alarm manager which command indicates whether the scrollable list should scroll in response to an alarm being received in the alarm log; and program code for controlling the scrollable list in response to an alarm being received in the alarm log to add the received alarm to the list and to the user command to switch between a first mode in which the list scrolls automatically in response to each received alarm so that the most recent alarm is always displayed and a second mode in which the list does not scroll automatically in response to each received alarm so that each received alarm can be manually scrolled into view and selected from the list, but a selected alarm remains displayed as alarms are received.