Control Alarm Redirection by Geographical Region

If your system uses ClearSCADA's Geographical Location features, you can configure alarms so that they redirect based on the region with which the alarms are associated. There are two means of restricting alarm redirection based on region. You can configure ClearSCADA to: 

• Only redirect alarms if the database item with which the alarms are associated is within a particular region
• Redirect alarms to Users, User Groups, or User Rosters that have responsibility for, and/or are located in, the same region as the database item with which the alarms are associated. (This means of restricting alarm redirection according to geographical criteria only applies to E-Mail and Pager redirection actions.)

You can also combine the above two means of controlling alarm redirection by geographical criteria.

Restrict Alarm Redirection to Alarms that are in a Particular Region

You can configure database items so that the alarms associated with those database items are only redirected if the database items are in a particular region. This means of restricting alarm redirections is useful for moveable assets, for which alarms only need redirecting when the database items are in a particular region (such as a remote site). It is also useful for controlling alarm redirection by region when there are a limited number of regions, for example by restricting alarm redirections by region on a Group and/or Root Group basis. By configuring multiple redirections, you can specify up to 15 regions per Group.

To enable alarm redirections to be restricted in this way:

• Database items for which alarms might need redirecting have to be assigned geographical coordinates. These can be static, dynamic, or inherited from a 'parent' item or group (see Use the Location Tab to Specify an Item's Geographic Coordinates in the ClearSCADA Guide to Geographical Location Support).
• Group items for which alarms need directing depending on region need their alarm redirection settings configured to redirect alarms only when those database items are in a specified region. You configure these settings on the Group's Redirection tab (see Configure Alarm Redirections for an Item or Group).

You can use any type of Redirection Action with this means of controlling alarm redirection to alarms that are in a particular region.

Redirect Alarms to Users According to Geographical Criteria

You can use an E-Mail Action or Pager Action to configure alarm redirection so that ClearSCADA only sends messages to Users, User Groups, or User Rosters that have responsibility for, and/or are located in, the same region as the database item with which the alarms are associated.

When such an alarm redirection is triggered, ClearSCADA compares the region of the database item to which the alarm relates with the regions or geographical locations of users that exist in the database. If it finds a match, ClearSCADA redirects the alarm to the user(s) that it has located in, or found to be responsible for, the same region as the alarm. (If ClearSCADA does not find a user in the same region as the alarm, you can configure it to redirect the alarm to the User, User Group, or User Roster that you select specifically for such a situation.)

To facilitate this:

• User accounts, User Groups, or User Rosters (if used) have to be assigned the regions within which they are responsible for alarms. (You can assign multiple regions to each user item.) For more information, see Assign Regions of Responsibility in the ClearSCADA Guide to Security.
• Database items for which alarms might need redirecting have to be assigned geographical coordinates. These can be static, dynamic, or inherited from a 'parent' item or group (see Use the Location Tab to Specify an Item's Geographic Coordinates in the ClearSCADA Guide to Geographical Location Support).
• The relevant redirection settings have to be configured for the database items for which alarms might need redirecting (see Configure Alarm Redirections for an Item or Group).
• If ClearSCADA is to compare a user's geographical location with the alarm's region (rather than just find a match with a region for which the user is responsible), the User accounts, User Groups, or User Rosters (if used) also have to be assigned geographical coordinates, as above.
• Properties on the E-Mail Action or Pager Action Forms have to be configured to specify whether ClearSCADA is to compare the redirected alarm's region with a user's actual geographical location, or with the region(s) for which each user has alarm responsibility (see Specify Whether to Redirect Alarms to Users According to Geographical Criteria). (Alternatively, you can configure the redirection action so that the user that triggers the redirection is asked to specify the region to which the alarm should be redirected. With this particular option, ClearSCADA redirects the alarm to those users that are responsible for the specified region without checking whether those users are actually in that region.)

As with other alarm redirections, you can also specify other criteria for ClearSCADA to use when determining whether and to whom to redirect an alarm (see Configure Alarm Redirections for an Item or Group). With E-Mail and Pager Actions, you can also use the Inhibit Action property on the Action Form to define whether to only redirect alarms to users that are not logged on to ViewX or WebX; this is useful for only redirecting alarms when workstations are not being manned.