-of-managers offering a single console for data from network managers like HP OpenView, NetIQ, and CA Unicenter TNG. It supports operation on Sun Solaris, Windows, IBM AIX, HP-UX, and multiple flavors of Linux platforms. Event handling is the main manage- ment function in Netcool/OMNIbus. Its interaction with other applications that facilitates smooth integration is made possible using probes and gateways. Probes connect to an event source and collect data from it for processing. The dif- ferent types of Netcool/OMNIbus probes are: Device probes: These probes connect to a device like router or switch and collect management data. Log file probes: The device to be monitored or target system writes event data to a log file. This log file on the target system is read by Netcool/OMNIbus probe to collect data. Database probes: A table in the database is used as the source to provide input. Whenever an event occurs this source table gets updated. API probes: These probes acquire data using APIs in the application from which data is collected. The application here is another telecom data management application for which Netcool/OMNIbus is acting as a manger-of-manager. CORBA probes: These probes use CORBA interfaces to collect data from a target system. The interfaces for communication are published by vendors in IDL files. Miscellaneous probes: In addition to the generic common probes discussed above, there are probes for specific application or to collect data using meth- ods other than the ones discussed. These are called miscellaneous probes and an e-mail probe to collect data from a mail server is an example of a miscel- laneous probe. While probes are used to collect data from a target, the gateway is used when Netcool/OMNIbus itself acts as the source for another application. For example a CRM (customer relationship management) application uses Helpdesk gateway to get alerts from this Tivoli product. Tivoli provisioning manager: Using this Tivoli product, provisioning can be completely automated using work flows. 