[ZBX-5319] Column "Delay" calculated incorrectly in action configuration form if we use individual "Escalation period" for operations. Unclear strings. Created: 2012 Jul 13  Updated: 2017 May 30  Resolved: 2013 Dec 13

Status: Closed
Project: ZABBIX BUGS AND ISSUES
Component/s: Documentation (D), Frontend (F)
Affects Version/s: 1.8.14, 2.1.0
Fix Version/s: 1.8.16rc1, 2.0.3rc2, 2.1.0

Type: Incident report Priority: Blocker
Reporter: Oleksii Zagorskyi Assignee: Unassigned
Resolution: Fixed Votes: 0
Labels: delay, escalations, operations
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified

Attachments: PNG File escalation_no_override.png     PNG File incorrect_delay_18.png     PNG File incorrect_delay_20.png    
Issue Links:
Duplicate
is duplicated by ZBXNEXT-643 make single escalation operations for... Closed

 Description   

(1)
See attached screenshots.
Content of the "Delay" column is WRONG and misleads A LOT.
Only "Default escalation period" value is used for calculate displayed operations' delay.
There is a small exception - for operations with several steps and with the individual delay it is calculating as another puzzle - for one step the default period is used, for all rest steps in this operation - individual delay is used <- it's again WRONG and also misleads already second time.

Server is ok - it execute operations according to individual operation delays - just has been tested.
This problem related only to the frontend.

(2)
Let's consider only 2.0 version:
It's not possible to intuitively understand what next strings mean:
"Escalation period" <- on configuring, "Period (sec)" <- on view !
They are related to (or affect on ) current operation step(s) or previous or next ?

To fix these unclear strings I **strongly** suggest to chance them:
on Action tab:
"Default escalation period (minimum 60 seconds)" -> "Default operation step duration"
"(seconds)" -> "(minimum 60 seconds)"
on "Operations tab"
"Escalation period" -> "Step duration"
"Period (sec)" -> "Duration (sec)"

Also - documentation is not perfect in this area and has to be improved.
http://www.zabbix.com/documentation/2.0/manual/config/notifications/action/escalations

 Comments   
Comment by Oleksii Zagorskyi [ 2012 Jul 13 ]

As a proof, 1.8.14 server side (from attached screenshot):

In an alert for the

{ESC.HISTORY}

macro I see (6rd step):
...
Problem started: 2012.07.13 15:54:00 Age: 7m
1. 2012.07.13 15:54:05 sent ...
2. 2012.07.13 15:55:17 sent ...
4. 2012.07.13 15:58:08 sent ...
5. 2012.07.13 15:59:50 sent ...

(described in ZBX-5318, btw)

Comment by Alexey Fukalov [ 2012 Jul 16 ]

dev branch: svn://svn.zabbix.com/branches/dev/ZBX-5319

Comment by richlv [ 2012 Jul 16 ]

(3) let's finally document how this is supposed work, as apparently code is not documentation...

martins-v The total of changes resulting from this issue reflected in:

RESOLVED.

sasha great work! CLOSED

Comment by Oleksii Zagorskyi [ 2012 Jul 16 ]

(4) I got additional awesome idea.
Let's swap places of columns "Period (sec)" and "Delay".

Then it will look much "cleaner", try to imagine it.
Also optionally I'd suggest to change name of the column "Delay" to "Start in" or something similar.

<zalex> accepted, CLOSED

Comment by Alexander Vladishev [ 2012 Jul 16 ]

1.8 successfully tested!

<zalex> 1.8 GUI fix additionally confirmed.

Comment by Alexander Vladishev [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

2.0 is successfully tested!

Before merge, please review my changes in r28912.

Comment by Alexey Fukalov [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

Fixed in pre-1.8.15rc1 r28902, pre-2.0.2rc1 r28913, pre-2.1.0rc1 r28914

Comment by Oleksii Zagorskyi [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

2.0 successfully tested.

Guys, THANK YOU for all accepted suggestions !!!

Comment by richlv [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

hmm... reminder about (3)

also, i don't see anywhere a description of full changes for this issue - for example, was anything else done besides fixing the bug (as indicated in commit messages) ?

Comment by Alexander Vladishev [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

(5) Cannot save "Discovery" and "Auto registration" actions.
Warning. Incorrect value for field "Default operation step duration": must be between 60 and 999999.

<Vedmak> RESOLVED
<Sasha> CLOSED

Comment by richlv [ 2012 Jul 17 ]

(6) see escalation_no_override.png

looks like override isn't working properly. operation on steps 6-9 is supposed to override till step 9, thus making step 10 happen on minute 20 or so, and step 23 would be more in the future.

if that matters, operation 6-9 was initially added as 6-7, and after all other operations were added, extended to 6-9.

would be useful to re-test all override scenarios (multiple overrides with different intervals etc)

<Vedmak> for overlapping steps, minimum period is taken for calculations. You have default period 60 sec, so 300sec interval will be only for 6th and 7th steps.

<Sasha> Vedmak is right! Row #3 overrides steps 8 and 9 from row #2.

<richlv> errrr, that doesn't make sense. the custom period should override the default, and minimum rule should only kick in when we have two custom override periods...

<zalex> would be cool to have some answer here and close this sub-issue before the writing documentation changes.

<Sasha> I think current solution is better. Rich's solution is too confused.

<richlv> but that was what frontend did before these changes... was that also a bug ?
the logic to actually do it that way is there, though - the "default" is only used if it's not overridden by explicitly stating interval in the operation. this is consistent with steps where we do not have any operations - default interval is used there.
from user interface point of view, it also makes sense - 'Default' is prominent enough and it indicates that this operation does not override anything.

<zalex> heh, I agree with Rich.
When I created this issue I didn't know about any designed priorities of the "lower" values over the "higher" ones.
Now we have changed the GUY only and I suppose (Sasha has tested) it for 100% match how the zabbix server works in such cases.

To implement the "correct logic" ("higher custom" has a priority over "lower default") probably we need to fix also server side.
Am I right?
Do we agree to do that?

<martins-v>...so apparently with overlaping steps, the duraton of the one with the shorter period is taken as the step duration. So here 8-9 period overrides 6-9 period simply because 60 seconds is less than 300 (not because 60 sec is the default...ie it would be the same with 61-299 seconds.. BUT not with 301+ seconds, then the 300 would override being the shorter one). If this really is true (and remains so) it should be documented, of course.

martins-v Precedence of the shortest of overlapping durations documented:

RESOLVED.

sasha CLOSED

Comment by Alexander Vladishev [ 2012 Jul 18 ]

Successfully tested.

Comment by Alexey Fukalov [ 2012 Jul 18 ]

Fixed in pre-2.0.2rc1 r28966, pre-2.1.0rc1 r28967

Comment by Oleksii Zagorskyi [ 2012 Jul 18 ]

another reminder for (3)

REOPENED

Comment by Oleg Ivanivskyi [ 2013 May 27 ]

Met several times in the forum, as the phrase from the documentation "Default escalation period" is confusing users (should be "Default operation step duration"). They can't find this parameter in Zabbix 2.0.6 and configure escalation.

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