Filters

Filters constrain the rows returned by a data source by applying SQL correlation conditions to the field data in the data source. Filters can be applied to the following event displays in the Web GUI: the Active Event List (AEL), Lightweight Event List (LEL), the Event Viewer, Table View, and monitor boxes on an Event Dashboard. To create and edit filters, you use an HTML utility called the Filter Builder.

Filters can be created by Web GUI administrators who have the ncw_admin role, and by users who have the ncw_user role and the netcool_rw role.

Important: Select at least one data source for each filter. These data sources are used to determine which fields you can use in the SQL query. If you select multiple data sources, the Filter Builder permits only the fields that are common to all data sources. The data sources that are selected in the Filter Builder are not used to retrieve event data. You select the data sources for the event feed in the preferences for the widget, such as the Event Viewer or Event Dashboard.

When a filter is applied to an event list, only the alerts that meet the criteria are displayed. A view may be assigned to a filter. If you do not assign a view to a filter, a default view is assigned.

The following example shows a filter:

Node like '^[a-zA-Z].*' and Severity > 3

This statement matches all alerts where the node starts with an alphabetic character and the severity of this data is greater than minor, that is, major or critical events.

Filter categories

Filter categories control user access to filters, and are used for data migrated from IBM® Tivoli® Netcool®/Webtop.

Global filters: Global filters are accessible to all users. By default, a user who is not an administrator can create, copy, and edit global filters.; You can modify global filters and copy them to the user profiles of other users. You can also create new global filters and delete them.
User filters: User filters are specific to a particular user; only that user and the administrator can access this category of filter. In the Filter Builder, user filters are contained in a list called My Filters.; You can access the filters that all users have in their user profiles, and create filters in the profiles of users. In the Available Filters list, these filters are classified as username Filters.
Group filters: Group filters are accessible to all members of a user group. Group filters enable the creation of filters tailored to the needs of specific groups of user, such as network operators. In the Available filters list, these filters are classified as groupname Filters.
System filters: System filters are accessible to administrators only. An administrator can create, edit, and delete a system filter. In the AEL, only administrators can select system filters from the Filters list. However, if the AEL was launched with a system filter already applied, non-administrators can view and select this system filter from the Filters list. A Web GUI installation upgraded or migrated from Netcool/Webtop uses system filters to hold entity data migrated from Netcool/Webtop.

Note: User filters and group filters can not be selected for use in maps, only global filters and system filters are available for selection. Access to maps is assigned at the level of the entire map portlet at the time of the map creation.

Filter collections

Filter collections are logical groupings of filters. They are also used for migrated data from Netcool/Webtop. A Web GUI installation upgraded or migrated from Netcool/Webtop uses filter collections to hold the data migrated from entity groups.

Only global and system filters can be members of a filter collection. To edit a filter collection, your user must have the ncw_admin role. You use the Web GUI Administration Application Program Interface (WAAPI) client to create or delete filter collections.

Dependent filters

Dependent filters concatenate the SQL statements from multiple filters using the SQL OR operator. Dependent filters do not have their own SQL filter statements; they use only the statements from other filters.

Before you delete a filter, you must make sure that the filter is not used in any dependent filters. Otherwise, the dependent filter may produce incorrect event data.

Transient filters

Transient filters exist for the duration of your current session only.