A monitor is a member of a group when the value specified on its Monitor group parameter (MONGRP) matches the name of an existing group monitor (a monitor of event class *GROUP).
When a start is requested for a group monitor, by default, all monitors in the group with a status of INACTIVE or FAILED are started.
When a group monitor is active, all monitors in the group participate in the decision to run the group monitor's condition and event programs.
Monitors with a DISABLED status are not considered active. DISABLED monitors do not participate in requests to start all monitors in the group and do not participate in decisions for the group monitor. However, DISABLED monitors can still be started individually. Once started, their status changes and the monitors will then participate in the triggering decision for the group.
Monitors are considered active if their status is ACTIVE, SCHEDULED or, HELD. The transitional statuses of STARTING and ENDING are also considered active. FAILED/ACT is also considered active but, because its programs have experienced an error, the group monitor recognizes this as a failed monitor. Monitors with a status of INACTIVE can become active again if they are started individually.
Any state change of a monitor participating in a group causes the group monitor to check the statuses of its participants. The group monitor remains active and does not consider running its programs until after the status of the last active monitor changes to INACTIVE, FAILED, or FAILED/ACT. If the last monitor ends successfully (becomes INACTIVE) and the others are INACTIVE or DISABLED, the group monitor is ended (set to INACTIVE). If the last monitor fails (FAILED or FAILED/ACT), or if it ends successfully but one of the other monitors failed, the group monitor is triggered.
The event program for a group monitor associated with a switch definition should be customized to run the commands necessary to switch the hardware, devices, or IP addresses identified in the switch definition.
Figure 4.Group monitor processing
