Causes that flow from one element to a related element through a relationship are determined as follows: for a given notification, find its element. Then use the relationship to find another element. The notifications associated with the second element are examined for matches to the specified target notifications.
An example of an “occurring on an element related to the notified element” causality relationship is shown in NCI causality relationship occurs on an element related to a notified element where an SNMPTrap.Down notification on a particular host causes an SNMPTrap.Unresponsive notification on a particular software service, and the relationship is HostsServices.
In this example, the SNMPTrap::DummyHost::Down notification causes the SNMPTrap::DummySoftware::Unresponsive notification. When the SNMPTrap.Down notification is created, VMware Smart Assurance NOTIF finds its element (the Host named test-host-1) and follows the HostsServices relationship. This finds the SoftwareService element named test-software-1, and any SNMP traps associated with this SoftwareService element that have SNMPTrap.Unresponsive notifications. In this way, the SNMPTrap::DummySoftware::Unresponsive notification is related to (caused by) the SNMPTrap::DummyHost::Down notification.
