Alarms Overview

Alarm Events

Alarms are always configured in a tag. Each time a tag with a configured alarm receives an updated value, the configured alarm will automatically examine the new value. If the new value meets the criteria, as per the parameters defined by the alarm settings, a new alarm event will be generated.

Each alarm event includes several attributes that store metadata about the source tag at the time the alarm event was created. An alarm event offers a snapshot of several parameters when the alarm event became active. Tags can have multiple alarms configured within them, which means that multiple alarm events can be created from one single value change in a tag. 

The state of an alarm event is determined by two conditions:

Active Condition

Determines whether or not the alarm is active. All alarm events start with an Active condition before moving to a Cleared condition. Alarm events never transition from Cleared to Active. 

• Active: The alarm event is still active. This means that the value of the source tag still meets the conditions configured in the alarm.
• Cleared: The alarm event is no longer active. The value in the source tag no longer meets the alarm conditions.

Acknowledged Condition

Alarms have an acknowledgment functionality, which is simply a flag that can be marked on any alarm event. Usually, this acknowledged condition is used as a way for users to signal to other users that an alarm is being handled by someone.

• Unacknowledged (Unacked): The alarm event has not yet been flagged as acknowledged.
• Acknowledged (Acked): The alarm event has been flagged as acknowledged. 

Alarm Event States

A combination of the two conditions above gives us four possible states:

• Active & Acknowledged
• Active & Unacknowledged
• Cleared & Acknowledged
• Cleared & Unacknowledged

Alarm Notifications

Alarms can also generate notifications that are delivered to users, allowing N3uron to immediately communicate events and problems to users. The Notifier module controls how and when notifications are sent to users. The available channels for delivering alarm notifications are Email and SMS.