Alarms, Audit and Notifications

About the Alarm Module

The Alarm Module is a crucial component for most projects, designed to monitor and manage alarm events within your projects. By leveraging the Alarm Module, you can create a comprehensive alarm management system tailored to your specific application requirements.

The documentation will guide you through the Alarm Module's functionalities, starting with an overview of the module's purpose and key concepts. It will then cover how the Alarm Module works, followed by sections on configuring and working with the module. Finally, the documentation will provide troubleshooting information and best practices to ensure optimal performance of your alarm management system.

By understanding and implementing the Alarm Module effectively, you can enhance your projects' responsiveness to critical events and ensure a high level of control and automation for your application.

Introduction to Alarm Module

The Alarm Module is a complete solution for managing real-time alarms, notification events, and Audit-Trail information. It is a powerful tool that enables users to monitor and control their processes in real-time, by providing alerts for critical events, and storing data for future analysis.

The Alarm Module can be used in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, energy, and transportation. It is an essential component of any modern control system, and is designed to help users achieve greater efficiency and productivity.

In summary, the Alarm Module is a powerful and versatile tool that enables users to monitor and control their processes in real-time, by providing alerts for critical events, and storing data for future analysis. It is an essential component of any modern control system, and can be used in a wide range of industries to improve efficiency and productivity.

Purpose and Key Concepts

The Alarm Module is designed to provide real-time monitoring and notification of events or conditions that require immediate attention. The key concepts in the Alarm Module include AlarmGroups, AlarmAreas, AlarmItems, and AuditTrail.

AlarmGroup

An AlarmGroup is a collection of AlarmItems that share common properties and characteristics. It is a way to group alarms together for easier management and organization. Each AlarmGroup can have its own configuration properties, such as AckRequired, AutoAckTime, and Sound, that apply to all of its AlarmItems.

AlarmArea

An AlarmArea is a hierarchical grouping of AlarmGroups that allows for a more organized and structured approach to managing alarms. An AlarmArea can have child AlarmAreas, allowing for a hierarchical structure of AlarmGroups and AlarmItems. This can be useful for large systems with many alarms, as it allows for a more intuitive and manageable way of organizing them.

AlarmItem

An AlarmItem is a tag or expression that is monitored by the Alarm Module. It contains information such as the tag name, the alarm condition (what triggers the alarm), and the associated AlarmGroup. Each AlarmItem can have its own configuration properties, such as Limit, Deadband, and Message, that define the alarm behavior and characteristics.

AuditTrail

The AuditTrail is a feature of the Alarm Module that logs all changes made to the AlarmGroups and AlarmItems, including creation, modification, and deletion events. It is a way to track and record the history of changes made to the alarm configuration, providing a clear audit trail of who made what changes and when. This is useful for troubleshooting, analysis, and compliance purposes.

For information on its configuration, go to the AuditTrail page.

How the Alarm Module Works

The Alarm Module monitors and evaluates tags in real-time to generate alarms when the monitored value reaches a defined limit or condition. The module evaluates the conditions of AlarmItems and compares their current value with the set limit to determine whether an alarm should be triggered or not. The module can evaluate conditions such as exceeding a limit, falling below a limit, or entering/exiting a range.

The AlarmGroups can be used to group similar alarms together and define their behavior, such as whether they require acknowledgment, their sound and color settings, and their notification settings. The AlarmAreas allow organizing the alarms into a hierarchical structure to reflect the plant's physical layout. The AuditTrail feature logs all alarm and acknowledgment events and allows for tracking changes made to the alarm configuration.

The AlarmHistorian feature allows the Alarm Module to save alarms and their state changes in a separate database, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval of alarms data. The Alarm Module can be configured to store alarms data on a target database of your choice.

When an alarm is triggered, it can be acknowledged by operators and maintenance personnel through the Alarm Visualization object, Tag properties, or Alarm Group or Alarm Item's runtime properties. The alarm visualization object allows for displaying active alarms and their state changes on displays, while the Tag properties allow for viewing and acknowledging alarms on the HMI/SCADA system.

The Alarm Module can be integrated with other modules such as the Historian Module to allow for storing alarms data alongside process data. Overall, the Alarm Module provides an efficient and comprehensive solution for monitoring and managing alarms in real-time.

Features Highlights

The Alarm Module has several features and functionalities that can help users manage real-time alarms and notifications efficiently. Here are some of the highlights of the Alarm Module:

Configurable Alarm Groups: The Alarm Module allows the creation of custom Alarm Groups with specific properties and configurations, enabling users to group alarms in a logical and organized manner.
Alarm Areas: The Alarm Module supports the creation of Alarm Areas, which can further organize alarms and provide users with an intuitive and hierarchical way to navigate them.
Flexible AlarmItem Configuration: The Alarm Module offers multiple configuration properties for Alarm Items, such as Limit, Deadband, Setpoint, and PriorityOrder, allowing users to customize their alarms to fit specific requirements.
Audit-Trail Logging: The Alarm Module logs events in the Audit-Trail, providing users with a record of all alarm and notification-related activities, including acknowledgement and clearing of alarms.
Alarm Historian: The Alarm Module supports data logging of alarms and notifications into a separate database, providing users with a historical record of alarm events for analysis and troubleshooting.
Notification Events: The Alarm Module supports custom .NET scripts for notification events, enabling users to create custom actions for alarm notifications.
Alarm Acknowledgement: The Alarm Module offers various methods for acknowledging alarms, including acknowledging all alarms, acknowledging a single alarm, or acknowledging the highest priority alarm.
Alarm Visualization: The Alarm Module provides built-in objects for displaying alarms and notifications on displays or reports, enabling users to visualize alarms in real-time.

The key features and functionalities of the Alarm Module include:

Real-time Alarm States Processing: The Alarm Module is designed to process alarms in real-time, ensuring that critical events are identified and responded to as quickly as possible.
Agnostic storage on any Database provider: The Alarm Module can store data on any database provider, making it flexible and easy to use.
Store and Forward when archiving to remote databases: The Alarm Module is capable of storing and forwarding data to remote databases, ensuring that data is always available for analysis.
Automated replication in hot-stand-by scenarios: The Alarm Module is designed to work in hot-stand-by scenarios, ensuring that data is always available and up-to-date.
Organize and manage alarms hierarchically: The Alarm Module allows users to organize and manage alarms hierarchically, providing greater flexibility and control over their processes.
Define System AuditTrail event and Track Operator actions: The Alarm Module allows users to define system audit-trail events and track operator actions, providing greater visibility and accountability.
Send Notifications by SMS or e-mails: The Alarm Module is capable of sending notifications by SMS or e-mails, ensuring that users are always aware of critical events.
Universal Time and Daylight Saving always considered for accurate time-stamp: The Alarm Module always considers universal time and daylight saving, ensuring that timestamps are accurate and reliable.
Timestamps precision up to 0.1 ms: The Alarm Module provides high precision timestamps up to 0.1 ms, ensuring that data is always accurate and reliable.
Dynamic Language localization of alarm messages: The Alarm Module allows users to localize alarm messages dynamically, ensuring that they are easy to understand and relevant to their audience.

Overall, the Alarm Module is a powerful tool that can help users monitor their systems effectively, quickly identify and respond to issues, and keep their operations running smoothly.

Monitoring Tags and Evaluating Conditions

The Alarm Module allows users to monitor tags and evaluate conditions in real-time. This allows users to receive notifications or take actions based on specific conditions, such as when a value exceeds a certain limit.

When monitoring tags, users can set up one or more conditions to evaluate. For example, a user might set up a condition to trigger an alarm if the value of a tag exceeds a certain threshold. The Alarm Module continuously monitors the tag and evaluates the condition, triggering an alarm if the condition is met.

Conditions can be based on a variety of factors, such as tag values, tag quality, or the state of other alarms. Users can also define complex conditions by combining multiple factors using logical operators.

In addition to monitoring tags, the Alarm Module allows users to evaluate conditions based on the state of other alarms. This enables users to create more complex alarm scenarios, such as triggering an alarm only if two or more conditions are met simultaneously.

Overall, the Alarm Module provides powerful tools for monitoring tags and evaluating conditions in real-time, enabling users to respond quickly and effectively to critical events.

Configuring the Alarm Module

The Alarm Module can be customized to meet specific requirements. This section will cover the various configuration options available in the Alarm Module.

Global Settings and Customization

The Alarm Module has several global settings that can be customized to suit specific needs. These settings are available in the Alarm Configuration window.

The following are some of the settings that can be customized:

Alarm Notification: This setting allows the user to specify how alarms are notified to users.
Sound: This setting allows the user to specify the sound that should be played when an alarm is raised.

For information on sound configuration, go to the AlarmGroup Sounds page.
Display: This setting allows the user to specify the display options for the alarms.
Audit-Trail: This setting allows the user to specify whether or not to log alarms and events.
Database: This setting allows the user to specify the database where alarm information is stored.
Security: This setting allows the user to specify the security settings for the Alarm Module.

In addition to the global settings, the Alarm Module can be customized further by creating Alarm Groups, Alarm Areas, and Alarm Items. These can be used to group and organize alarms based on specific criteria.

The next sections will cover how to create and manage Alarm Groups, Alarm Areas, and Alarm Items.

Creating and Managing Alarm Groups

Alarm Groups are a way to group together alarms that share common characteristics, such as the same priority, area, or notification method. In FactoryStudio, Alarm Groups are created and managed using the Alarm Journal's "Alarm Groups" tab.

To create a new Alarm Group, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm in the Designer.
Click on the "Alarm Groups" tab.
Click the "New Group" button.
Give the group a name, description, and choose the desired settings for that group, such as the priority level, notification method, etc.
Click "Save" to create the new group.

Once an Alarm Group has been created, it can be edited, disabled, or deleted. To edit an existing Alarm Group, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm in the Designer.
Click on the "Alarm Groups" tab.
Select the group you want to edit from the list of groups.
Click the "Edit" button.
Make the desired changes to the group settings.
Click "Save" to save the changes.

To disable an Alarm Group, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm in the Designer.
Click on the "Alarm Groups" tab.
Select the group you want to disable from the list of groups.
Click the "Disable" button.
Confirm that you want to disable the group.

To delete an Alarm Group, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm in the Designer.
Click on the "Alarm Groups" tab.
Select the group you want to delete from the list of groups.
Click the "Delete" button.
Confirm that you want to delete the group.

Note that deleting an Alarm Group will also delete all of the alarms associated with that group.

Using Pre-defined Groups

The Alarm Module provides pre-defined Alarm Groups that you can use to quickly configure alarms for common applications. These pre-defined groups have pre-configured properties that make it easier to create and configure alarms for specific purposes.

To use a pre-defined Alarm Group, you simply need to select it from the list of available groups and configure any additional properties as needed. The available pre-defined groups may vary depending on the version of the Alarm Module that you are using and the features that have been installed.

Some common Alarm Groups that may be available, include:

High Priority Alarms
This group is used to track critical alarms that require immediate attention. The alarms in this group will typically have a high priority and may be configured to generate notifications or take other actions automatically.
Medium Priority Alarms
This group is used to track alarms that are important, but not as critical as high priority alarms. The alarms in this group may have a lower priority than those in the high priority group, and may not require immediate attention.
Low Priority Alarms
This group is used to track alarms that are less critical than medium priority alarms. The alarms in this group may have a lower priority than those in the medium priority group and may not require immediate attention.
Equipment Alarms
This group is used to track alarms related to specific pieces of equipment or systems. The alarms in this group may be configured to generate notifications or take other actions specific to the equipment being monitored.
Production Alarms
This group is used to track alarms related to production processes or activities. The alarms in this group may be configured to generate notifications or take other actions related to the production process being monitored.

Using pre-defined Alarm Groups can save time and effort in configuring the Alarm Module, as the properties of the alarms in the group are already pre-configured. However, you can still customize these pre-defined groups or create new ones as needed to fit your specific requirements.

Defining and Organizing Alarms Areas Hierarchy

The Alarm Areas Hierarchy allows you to organize your alarms based on location, equipment, or process hierarchy. This enables you to easily identify and prioritize alarms and alerts based on their importance.

To define and organize alarms areas hierarchy, follow these steps:

In the Alarm Configuration window, select the Alarm Areas tab.
Click the Add button to create a new Alarm Area.
Enter a unique name and description for the Alarm Area.
Optionally, set the priority for the Alarm Area. The priority determines the order in which the Alarm Areas appear in the Alarm Group tree.
Repeat steps 2-4 to add additional Alarm Areas.
To create a hierarchy, drag and drop Alarm Areas onto each other to create parent-child relationships.
To edit an Alarm Area, select it in the Alarm Group tree and click the Edit button.
To delete an Alarm Area, select it in the Alarm Group tree and click the Delete button.

Organizing your alarms into an Alarm Areas Hierarchy can greatly simplify alarm management, allowing you to quickly identify the source of an alarm and take appropriate action. It also allows you to easily customize alarm priorities and notifications based on your specific needs.

Adding and Editing Alarm Items

The Alarm Item is the core object of the Alarm Module, which represents a condition that triggers an alarm event when a certain criterion is met. Here we will discuss how to add new alarm items or modify the existing ones.

To add a new alarm item, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm Items configuration page by selecting Alarms > Alarm Items in the Project Browser.
Click the Add New button at the bottom of the Alarm Items list.
Enter the required fields, which include Tag Name, Condition, and Alarm Group.
You can also configure optional fields such as Limit, Deadband, Setpoint, Setpoint Deadband, Group, Area, Priority, Message, and Priority Order.
Click OK to save the new Alarm Item.

To modify an existing Alarm Item, follow these steps:

Open the Alarm Items configuration page by selecting Alarms > Alarm Items in the Project Browser.
Select the Alarm Item you want to modify from the list.
Modify the fields as required.
Click OK to save the changes.

It is important to note that any changes made to the Alarm Items will take effect immediately, and the new or modified alarm items will be evaluated against the tag values in real-time.

Working with the Alarm Module

The Alarm Module is a powerful tool for monitoring and alerting on process conditions. Once you have set up your Alarm Groups, Alarm Areas, and Alarm Items, you can use the Alarm Module to monitor your process and respond to any abnormal conditions.

Runtime Execution

Once the alarm groups and items have been configured, the Alarm Module can be executed to start monitoring the specified tags and conditions. During runtime, the Alarm Module continuously evaluates the conditions of the alarm items and generates alarms when the conditions are met. The alarms are then added to the alarm database and can be visualized and acknowledged by the operators. The runtime behavior of the Alarm Module can be controlled through runtime attributes such as alarm logging level, acknowledge timeout, and alarm retention time.

Integration with Other Modules

The Alarm Module can be integrated with other FactoryStudio modules to enhance its functionality. For example, the Display module can be used to display alarms on a graphical screen, and the Reporting module can be used to generate reports that include alarms and their details. Additionally, the Scripting module can be used to handle alarm notifications, as well as to create custom alarms and modify the runtime behavior of the Alarm Module.

AlarmHistorian Database definition on Datasets

The AlarmHistorian database is where the Alarm Module stores all alarm events and audit trail information. The AlarmHistorian database can be defined using datasets in FactoryStudio, which allows for easy configuration and modification of the database properties. The datasets can define the database connection settings, the schema of the database tables, and the properties of the alarm events and audit trail entries.

Visualizing Alarms on Dislays

The Displays module can be used to create displays that visualize alarms in real-time. The alarms can be displayed in tables, custom graphics, objects and others with the ability to sort and filter based on various alarm properties. The displays can also include interactive components, such as acknowledging alarms and displaying alarm details, to allow operators to quickly respond to alarms.

Handling Notifications with Scripts

The Scripting module can be used to create custom scripts that handle alarm notifications. These scripts can define the behavior of the Notification Method property of the Alarm Groups, allowing for more customized notifications based on the type and severity of the alarm. The scripts can also define notification methods beyond the built-in options, such as sending emails or SMS messages.

For Email information, go to the Alarm Send Email page.

Advanced Features and Options

The Alarm Module also includes several advanced features and options to further customize its functionality. These include the ability to create custom alarm states, the ability to filter alarms based on specific conditions, the ability to configure alarms to only be active during certain time periods, and the ability to define custom properties for alarm events and audit trail entries. These advanced features provide additional flexibility and control over the Alarm Module's behavior.

Troubleshooting and Best Practices

Troubleshooting is an essential part of maintaining and optimizing any system, and the Alarm Module is no exception. As with any system, it is important to identify and resolve issues as quickly as possible to ensure that the Alarm Module is running smoothly and alarms are being properly monitored and acknowledged.

Common issues with the Alarm Module can include failure to acknowledge alarms, alarms not triggering when they should, and issues with the alarm visualization object. These issues can often be resolved by checking the alarm configuration, verifying the condition logic, and checking any relevant system settings. If the issue persists, it may be necessary to consult with technical support or review system logs to identify the root cause of the problem.

In addition to troubleshooting, there are also several best practices that can help to optimize the performance of the Alarm Module. These include regularly reviewing and updating alarm configurations, avoiding overloading the system with too many alarms, and using alarm areas and groups to organize and prioritize alarms. It is also important to regularly review and optimize system resources such as memory usage and CPU utilization to ensure that the system is running efficiently.

Other best practices for the Alarm Module include regularly backing up alarm configurations and data, maintaining proper documentation of alarm configurations and changes, and periodically reviewing and testing the alarm system to ensure that it is functioning as intended. By following these best practices and being proactive in identifying and resolving issues, the Alarm Module can continue to provide reliable and effective alarm monitoring for industrial automation applications.

Common Issues and Solutions

The Alarm Module may encounter some issues in its operation. Here are some common issues and their solutions:

Alarm not firing: Check the tag name, condition, and alarm item configuration. Ensure the tag is valid and the condition is met.
Alarm not acknowledged: Check the alarm acknowledgement configuration. Ensure that the alarm acknowledges property is set and the acknowledgement timeout is not expired.
Database connection error: Check the database connection string and ensure that the database is reachable.
Alarm flooding: Check the alarm configuration and ensure that the deadband settings are properly configured.
Notification not received: Check the notification configuration and ensure that the notification method is properly set.

Best Practices and Recommendations

To ensure the smooth operation of the Alarm Module, follow these best practices:

Use clear and descriptive names for alarm groups, areas, and items.
Configure alarms with proper priority and severity levels.
Use deadbands and delays to prevent alarm flooding.
Regularly check and maintain the alarm configuration.
Configure notifications and acknowledge alarms in a timely manner.

Alarm Module Runtime Attributes