Creating child elements in service templates

In the Child elements tab of a service template card, you can determine which elements or services will be included in the services generated by the service template. You can also include only certain parameters or specify conditions for the inclusion and exclusion of elements and services.

Note

A "child element" does not necessarily have to indicate an element. The term is also used to refer to a service, or to a set of parameters of an element.

To add a child element:

1. Click the Add child element button at the bottom of the Elements section.

2. In the Title column, specify the display name for the child element.

3. Click the Edit button to specify the settings for a child element.

4. In the Edit child element window, configure the child element:

   1. In the General section, you can optionally:

      • Select a parent group that was created in the Groups tab earlier.

      • Specify an alias for the element, if necessary by referring to other input data or child elements.

   2. In the Element selection method section, choose one of the following four options:

      • Select Fixed element, and select the element from the drop-down list.

      • Select Fixed service, and select the service from the drop-down list.

      • Select Templated element, and indicate a Protocol and Element name mask. Optionally, click Add alternative to add another protocol and element name mask. Several alternatives can be added. To remove one of the alternatives, click the x icon to the right of it.

      • Select Templated service, and specify a service name mask.

      Note

      For templated elements and services, you can also select several options at the top of the Templated element or Templated service section:

      • Allow element to be reused by multiple services or Allow services to be reused by multiple services: Determines whether the element or service can be reused. If this is not selected, you will only be able to generate a single new service that uses this child element or service.
      • This service child is optional: If you select this option, the new service will still be generated even if there is no match, but in that case the templated element or service will not be included.
      • Include all matching elements in generated service or Include all matching services in generated service: Select this option and specify a protocol name and/or name mask to include all elements or services matching the specified protocol name and/or name mask in the generated service.

   3. If you chose a fixed element or templated element, in the Included Parameters section, indicate what parameters should be included:

      • Select All parameters, or

      • Select Some parameters, and click Select parameters.

        In the Select parameters window, select the checkbox for any parameters you want to include.

        If you want to add a parameter based on placeholders, click Add masked parameter, and specify the parameter name mask. To do so:

        • In the Name mask box, use the drop-down list on the right to select the placeholders determining the parameter name. Four options are available: Use regular expression, Input data, Child element, or Custom element.

        • If at least one filter has been specified, optionally select Only search monitored parameters.

        • For a matrix or table parameter, optionally specify particular inputs/outputs or rows in the box underneath Included rows/inputs/outputs, with wildcards if necessary.

        Note

        • If you include a table parameter using placeholders, you can use wildcards to dynamically include only the table rows with a matching display key. If you do not want the set of rows to change dynamically, but only want to include the first match found when the service is generated, use the prefix "!1st!" before the wildcard. For example: !1st!*_BBC_*
        • From DataMiner 10.2.4/10.3.0 onwards, it is possible to reference a table row by primary key, using the prefix ^pk^ in the placeholder. For example: [element:1:param:1002:^pk^myPrimaryKey].

   4. In the Conditions section, two options can be selected:

      • To only include a child item based on certain conditions, select Dynamically include or Dynamically exclude and add a trigger with the Add trigger button.

      • To limit the influence of the child element on the service alarm severity, select While included, influence overall service alarm severity when, and add a trigger with the Add trigger button.

      Note

      • Like in a service, inclusion and exclusion can be triggered based on a parameter state, alarm state or element state, or on whether the element is part of the active connectivity chain. However, for the latter, connectivity must be configured on the DMA. See Conditionally including an element in a service.
      • For a matrix parameter, to create a condition where a matrix crosspoint is connected or disconnected, create a trigger on parameter value for the matrix parameter, in the trigger condition use == or <> respectively, and specify the input/output names in the text value, separated by a comma (e.g. "input A, output B").

   5. In the Advanced section, optionally set a maximum severity for elements that are included or not used.

      Note

      For more information on service item statuses such as "included" and "not used", see DATA.

   Note

   When specifying a templated element or service name mask, or a name mask for parameters, you can use a regular expression. To do so, select Use regular expression in the drop-down list on the right. Once you have done this, an extra item will appear in the drop-down list, Regular Expression Options, which allows you to indicate if casing can be ignored and if the regular expression is required to match the entire input.

To add a condition for all child elements:

• Click the Add condition button at the bottom of the Child Elements tab.

To remove a child element from the service template:

• Click the X in the Delete column for that child element.