An exemplary method for detecting one or more anomalies in a system includes building a temporal causality graph describing functional relationship among local components in normal period; applying the causality graph as a propagation template to predict a system status by iteratively applying current system event signatures; and detecting the one or more anomalies of the system by examining related patterns on the template causality graph that specifies normal system behaviors. The system can align event patterns on the causality graph to determine an anomaly score.