Understanding System Variables

%ProductName% provides user-defined system variables to help you test and track the status of network resources according to the needs of your organization. System variable names and values can be referenced wherever event data substitution is allowed.

For example: Assume you need to monitor a bottleneck on the network that can cause network congestion. You can create an event action plan that specifies an SNMP event that indicates network congestion and initiate the Set Event System Variable task when the event occurs. Assume you have specified:

If 10 seconds elapse before the %ProductName% server receives the event that triggers this action or before the %ProductName% server stops and restarts*, the NetStatus system variable is reset to "Normal."

Instead of using a specific event that signals that your NetStatus is normal, you have used a system variable that automatically resets to "Normal" when the events that cause this action to trigger are not received within the interval. If the %ProductName% server continues to receive the events before the interval expires, this action continues to trigger, signaling that the network is congested. If the timer interval expires, NetStatus is reset to "Normal."

* When the server is restarted, you cannot be certain that the state of the variable matches the state of the device this variable is related to.