use strict;        # first.
use NetIQ::Nqext;

my $sev_fail = 10;
my $metastat = "/usr/sbin/metastat";
my $resmsg   = "";

{
    -e $metastat or last;

    # Assuming 0 also indicates failure:
    NetIQ::Nqext::ExecCmd("metastat|grep State:|grep -v Okay") or last;

    my $results = NetIQ::Nqext::ExecCmd("metastat");

    if ($do_event eq "y") {
        NetIQ::Nqext::CreateEvent(
            ...
        );
    }
}