Setting up alarm actions

Alarm Action - An action that the i-Vu® application performs to notify personnel of an alarm or to record information about the alarm. You can assign alarm actions to an alarm source, a category of alarm sources, alarm sources from a certain location, or a combination of these criteria.

To assign alarm actions to alarm sources:

Although you can assign an alarm action to an individual alarm source, you typically assign an action to multiple alarm sources at the area or equipment level. The alarm action applies to all instances of the alarm sources at the selected location and below. Click an action’s Edit button to make any changes.

To assign an alarm action to alarm sources:

  1. On the navigation tree, select the area or equipment, containing the alarm sources.
  2. Click Alarms > Actions tab and follow the 3 steps on the screen.

    NOTE  Use Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or both to select multiple items.

  3. Click Add.
  4. Set up the alarm action by editing the fields on the alarm action page. See the appropriate alarm action below for field descriptions.
  5. Click OK.

Click for details below

Alarm Popup

Send E-mail

Source graphics

Alarm Popup

The Alarm Popup alarm action pops up a message on any computer with a Windows operating system that is running the i-Vu® Alarm Notification Client application.
 

Field

Notes

To Operator
To Group

Select individual operators or operator groups who should receive alarm notification.

Generate alarm if delivery fails

Select this checkbox to generate a System Info alarm if the popup recipient is not currently running the Alarm Notification Client application.

Message text

Use punctuation, spaces, or returns after the entries to format the text.
To add live data to the text, select field codes from the Append Field Code list.

Append Field Code

Add field codes to the message text if desired.

Perform Action

By default, the i-Vu® application performs an alarm action when the alarm source generates an alarm and when it returns to normal. Under Perform Action, you can choose to run the alarm action only when the alarm source generates an alarm or when it returns to normal.

Using the Alarm Notification Client application

The Alarm Notification Client application must be running on each client computer (Windows only) that should receive popup notifications. Keep the application minimized to the right side of the Windows task bar. The window will pop up with a message when an alarm occurs.

NOTE  To use the i-Vu® Alarm Notification Client application across a firewall, you must open UDP port 47806.

Select an alarm message, then click Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms to open i-Vu® displaying the piece of equipment that generated the alarm. A grayed out alarm indicates that it was acknowledged in the i-Vu® interface.

If the Alarm Notification Client is set up to play a continuous alarm sound, you can silence an alarm by clicking Silence!, by pressing Ctrl+S, or by acknowledging the alarm in the i-Vu® interface.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms
 

Button

Notes

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

Opens the i-Vu® interface displaying the equipment that generated the alarm.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

Copies the selected alarm information to the clipboard.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

Removes the alarm information from the alarm popup list. Removing items from this list has no effect on the alarms list in the i-Vu® interface.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

View information about the server connection.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

On this tab...

You define...

 

Server Connection

The i-Vu® web server and port, and the i-Vu® operator name and password

 

Browse To

The i-Vu® page that you want to see first when browsing to the equipment

 

Notification Sounds
  • If you want to hear a sound when an alarm occurs
  • Which sound you want to hear for each type of alarm.
    NOTE  A Connection Failure occurs when the Alarm Notification Client loses communication with the i-Vu® application.
  • Whether you want the sound to continue until silenced

NOTE  If multiple types of alarms occur simultaneously, the application plays the sound of the most critical alarm (Connection Failure first, then Critical, then Normal).

To set up the i-Vu® application to support Alarm Popup clients

  1. Click Source graphics OEM \ Carrier, then select System Options > General tab, and then select Enable support for Alarm Notification Clients to connect to this server.
  2. Leave Restrict to IP Address field blank.
  3. Use the default port.
  4. Click Accept.

NOTE  If the Alarm Notification Client application is not on the local network and will access i-Vu® alarms through a NAT router, your Network Administrator must port forward the TCP port you defined in step 3 above.
 

To install the Alarm Notification Client application

Follow the steps below on each client computer that should receive alarm popups.

PREREQUISITE  You must enable Alarm Popup support in System Options > General tab. See above topic. Click Source graphics OEM \ Carrier, then select System Options > General tab, and then check Enable support for Alarm Notification Clients to connect to this server.

  1. Install software from your Tech Tools DVD.
  2. Click Alarm Popup Application.
  3. Click Run, then follow the on-screen instructions to install the Alarm Notification Client application. After you click Done, the application starts automatically.

    NOTE To locate your applicable IP address, look in the Management Tool.

  4. In the Settings dialog box, enter appropriate values. You can also click Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms to open this box. See the table above for a description of each setting.

    NOTE  You can lock the Settings so that a user cannot edit them. See To lock a client's Settings feature below.

  5. Click OK.
  6. Minimize the Alarm Notification Client window.
     

To lock a client's Settings feature

To prevent a user from editing the Settings Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms:

  1. Right-click Alarm Notification Client in the Windows Start menu.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. On the Shortcut tab, type -lockconfig at the end of the Target path.

Source graphics \ WebCTRL \ alarms

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Send E-mail

The Send E-mail alarm action sends a message to one or more e-mail accounts. The alarm action can also run a report and attach it to the e-mail as a PDF, HTML, or XLS file.
    

Field

Notes

To

Type the address(es) that you want to send the alarm to. To enter multiple addresses, type a space or press Enter after each address.

From

Enter a valid address if required by your mailserver.

Mail Host

The mailserver's address. This can be an IP address or a system name, such as mail.mycompany.com.

Mail Host Port

Change this field if using a port other than the default port 25.

Mail Host Security Options

Select the type of security the mailserver uses.

  • Cleartext – Uses the SMTP protocol to send as clear text over TCP/IP
  • Secure SSL – Uses SSL, a communication protocol that provides data encryption
  • Secure TLS – Uses TLS, but does not begin encryption until the i-Vu® application issues STARTTLS command

Specify Mail User For Mail Host Authentication

Select if your mailserver requires a username and password.

Send mail as MIME attachment

Select if your mailserver allows only MIME attachments.

Message Text

Use punctuation, spaces, or returns after the entries to format the text.
To add live data to the text, select field codes from the Append Field Code list.

Attach Report

Select to attach a report to the e-mail, then select the Report and the Format. The attached report will include the date and time. For example, Alarm Sources 2012 Jan 01 1230.

NOTE  The Report Name field shows a custom report only if it was created at the current system level.

Run as shows the name and login name of the operator creating the alarm action. The report will be run using the privileges and report options of this operator.

Source graphics TIP  You may want to create a new operator with limited privileges for this purpose.

Perform Action

By default, the i-Vu® application performs an alarm action when the alarm source generates an alarm and when it returns to normal. Under Perform Action, you can choose to run the alarm action:

  • Only when the alarm source generates an alarm or when it returns to normal.
  • After a specified amount of time if the alarm has not been acknowledged or has not returned to normal. Use this option for alarm escalation.
  • If the alarm occurs during the occupied hours defined for a schedule group or run if the alarm occurs during the unoccupied hours defined for a schedule group.
    EXAMPLE  To have one alarm action performed during work hours and a different alarm action performed after work hours:
    1. Create a schedule group, but do not assign members to it.
    2. Create a schedule for the group. Set the occupied hours to be the same as the work hours.
    3. Create the alarm action that is to be performed during work hours. Under Perform Action, select If schedule group <your new group> is Occupied.
    4. Create the alarm action that is to be performed after work hours. Under Perform Action, select If schedule group <your new group> is Unoccupied.

 

 
NOTE  You should not assign this alarm action to frequently-occurring alarms as this may cause problems on your network or the Internet.