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What is Alarm Module

The Alarm Module is a complete solution to manage real-time alarms, notification events and Audit-Trail information. It includes the following functionalities:

• Real-time Alarm States Processing 

• Agnostic storage on any Database provider

• Store and Forward when archiving to remote databases.

• Automated replication in hot-stand-by scenarios

• Organize and manage alarms hierarchically 

• Define System AuditTrail event and Track Operator actions

• Send Notifications by SMS or e-mails.

• Universal Time and Daylight Saving always considered for accurate time-stamp

• Timestamps precision up to 0.1 ms

• Dynamic Language localization of alarm messages

Key Concepts

AlarmGroup

Alarm groups allow you to configure common settings for a collection of alarms. For example, if the alarms in the groups require Acknowledgement.

Also, the query real-time informational automatically consolidating the alarm in the group. For example, the Total Active alarms in the group. <<<< please, review this information >>>>

AlarmArea

Adds more context information to the alarm, linking it to one Area in Tree structure.

The Hierarchical organization of the AlarmAreas allows to get information, filter or act, in all alarms of one area, or include its children alarms.

AlarmItem 

Any defined event that can create an alarm is an AlarmItem. For instance, if a Tag has the configuration to generate a HI alarm at 70, and a HiHi alarm at 90, we have two AlarmItems defined.

Each AlarmItem belongs to one AlarmGroup and one AlarmArea.

AuditTrail

Pre-defined AlarmGroup intended to track system events and Operations actions aiming to create records for auditing log.

AlarmHistorian

The alarm events can be logged using the database connection defined at Edit → Datasets → Dos → AlarmHistorian.

Alarm Module Settings

Some settings affects the behavior all alarm and the execution of Alarm Module.

Those fields are located above the header on Edit → Alarms → Groups table.

The Alarm Database

The alarm database stores the events from the AlarmGroups and Audit Trail.

By default, it is mapped to a SQLlite database with name <project name>.tAlarm , defined at Datasets → Dos → AlarmHistorian.

You can change the Alarm Database to use any other SQL connection, following this steps:

• Go to Datasets → Dos.
• Rename or delete the AlarmHistorian object.
• Create a new DB connection with name AlarmHistorian connected to desired Database.

Configuring AlarmGroups

There are 3 pre-defined AlarmGroups:

• Warning (Warning messages that do not require acknowledgment).
• Critical (Critical Messages that require acknowledgment).
• AuditTrail (System Events log).

To configure alarm groups, you can customize the existing groups or add new ones. 

• Go to Alarms → Groups.

• Add new rows or edit the table, setting the desired values to the fields.

Configuring AlarmItems

The definition of an AlarmItem has 3 mandatory fields: TagName, Condition and AlarmGroup. 

That means, the Tag value that will be evaluated, the alarm condition to be verified, and if there is an alarm, which AlarmGroup will guide the tag processing behavior.

To create or modify AlarmItems:

• Go to Alarms → Items.
• Add new rows or edit the datagrid fields.

The conditions options are described in the following table:

Notification Events 

In order to a apply custom action using .NET scripts, subscribe to notifications of alarms and events.

These notifications are typically used to send SMS or email warnings, execute custom calculations, add custom notification messages or audio alarms, text-to-speech audio alarms, and to perform any kind of action defined by custom programming.

To subscribe to alarm events, create a method in any Script Class of type Server, with the following prototype:

void Notification(AlarmEventInfo[] info)

Select the method in the Notification Method column on Alarms → Groups.

The name of the method can vary; The important is the expected parameters.

The AlarmEventInfo structure is defined in the namespace Alarm.

Acknowledging Alarms

There are several methods for acknowledging alarms:

• Using the alarm visualization object in the displays.

• Tag properties.

• Alarm group or the alarm item's runtime properties.

Acknowledge All Alarms

You can use the <Alarm.AckAll> property that acknowledges all active alarms.

Acknowledge a Single Alarm or the Highest Priority Alarm 

The <Alarm.PriorityItem.UnAck> property allows the acknowledgment of the highest priority alarm configured in the "Priority" column on Alarms → Items if there is a pending ack alarm. 

Acknowledge a Specific Alarm 

To acknowledge a specific alarm, use the <Alarm.Items.IDxx.Unack> property. To check the contents of the IDxx alarm columns, go to the alarm item and add the ID column (right-click in the table and select "ID").

Alarm Visualization

To visualize alarms and events, you can use the built-in object in your displays or reports.

The Alarm Namespace

The Alarm namespace has the properties of the alarm server.

The Alarm.Group object has the list of all defined groups and their properties.

The Alarm.Item object has all alarm items and their properties.

The tag properties are connected with the alarm module.

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