The priority level that is controlled by this entry. These are ordered from most (emergency) to least (debug) critical. Each event with a CM or CMTS has a particular priority level associated with it (as defined by the vendor).

emergency(1) events indicate vendor-specific fatal hardware or software errors that prevent normal system operation.

alert(2) events indicate a serious failure that causes the reporting system to reboot but is not caused by hardware or software malfunctioning.

critical(3) events indicate a serious failure that requires attention and prevents the device from transmitting data but that could be recovered without rebooting the system.

error(4) and warning(5) events indicate that a failure occurred that could interrupt the normal data flow but that does not cause the device to re-register.

notice(6) and information(7) events indicate a milestone or checkpoint in normal operation that could be of particular importance for troubleshooting.

debug(8) events are reserved for vendor-specific events.

During normal operation, no event more critical than notice(6) should be generated. Events between warning and emergency should be generated at appropriate levels of problems (e.g., emergency when the box is about to crash).